International Children's Book Day 2025

For International Children's Book Day 2025 IBBY Australia have made a video to showcase the work of seven Australian organisations whose work matches the mission statements of IBBY:

Mission

• to promote international understanding through children's books
• to give children everywhere the opportunity to have access to books with high literary and artistic standards
• to encourage the publication and distribution of quality children's books, especially in developing countries
• to provide support and training for those involved with children and children's literature
• to stimulate research and scholarly works in the field of children's literature
• to protect and uphold the Rights of the Child according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Here is a link to the video

When you watch our video you can elect to view it with and without subtitles.

Thank you to all the organisations who participated in our video - learn more about each of them from these links:

• National Centre for Australian Children's Literature NCACL
• The Literature Centre Western Australia
• Book Links Queensland
• The Indigenous Literacy Foundation ILF
• The Australian Children's Laureate Foundation ACLF
• The Children's Book Council of Australia CBCA

International Children's Book Day 2025

In 2025, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is sponsored by IBBY-Netherlands and the poster is made by two Dutch creators of children’s books. The theme of the 2025 International Children's Book Day is The Freedom of Imagination.

It is just one week until International Children's Book Day. This year our IBBY Australia members will be sent a wonderful video celebrating eight organisations from around Australia associated with children and reading and children's literature. Organisations that reflect three of our goals:

·       to give children everywhere the opportunity to have access to books with high                 literary and artistic standards

·       to provide support and training for those involved with children and children's                 literature

·       to protect and uphold the Rights of the Child according to the UN Convention on             the Rights of the Child

If you have an art teacher in your school you might like to enter the internation competition for ICBD 2025.

Read more here

Here is the 2025 official poster and poem. And here are some lesson suggestions. This is the link to the three lessons or you can access this from the previous link.

The Language of Pictures
Rian Visser
Translation: Laura Watkinson 

Can you draw pictures
for the words,
for the things I say?

Then draw
part of the picture,
cold,
wind,
a lump in your throat
or tough luck,

draw a cough,
a sigh,
the scent of fresh bread,
time,
a moment,
the beginning or the end
of a plan,

draw the place wherever,
the place where never,
the place where soon
something is going to happen,

draw the pain of a push,
the taste of the sea.

There is so much
that I want to see,
like love,
one day,
and maybe for me.

Make pictures
for my poem,
and please feel free:
these words
belong to you
even though they came from me.

Poster Illustrator: Janneke Ipenburg (b. 1979) is a Dutch illustrator of children’s books. She has made two poetry collections with Rian Visser, including Het is een zachte dag vandaag (2024). As an author/illustrator, she created the picture book Voor altijd bij jou (2023), a story about being connected in spite of an immeasurable distance. In addition to her work as a children’s illustrator, Janneke has worked on a number of animation films, and she is currently working as a character designer on a large Chinese stop-motion animation. In 2023, Janneke was on the longlist of the World Illustration Awards.

You can see her books here.

Message author from the poster: Rian Visser (b. 1966) is a Dutch children’s book writer and poet. She writes funny and exciting books that are a perfect match for children’s interests. Together with the illustrator Janneke Ipenburg, she has created the poetry collections Alle wensen van de wereld (2021) and Het is een zachte dag vandaag (2024). In 2022, Rian Visser won a Zilveren Griffel and the Gouden Poëziemedaille (Gold Poetry Medal). Rian Visser is very active in education. She designs digital lessons about creative writing and reading promotion, which teachers can use for free. From 2024 to 2026, she has officially been appointed Dutch Children’s Laureate.

You can see more books here. 

International Children's Book Day IBBY

 

IBBY Japan created the poster for ICBD 2024. 

Here are photos of Eiko Kadono who wrote the poem below and Nana Furiya 

who designed the art for the poster.

Kadono says "to start reading a book is like opening a door to a different world. It doesn't close at the end of the story, another door is always waiting there to be opened. People will start to look at the world in a different way after reading a story, and it's the beginning in a sense. And I think that is the true pleasure of reading. I do hope everyone will start building their own new story from here and now".

Eiko Kadono won the Hans Christian Andersen award in 2018.  I previously talked about her book:

Kiki's Delivery Service

Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, 2 April, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books. Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster. 

ICBD Poem for 2024

Stories travel, riding on wings,
Longing to hear the joyful beat of your heart.
I’m a traveling story. I fly anywhere.
On wings of wind, or wings of waves, or sometimes on tiny wings of sand. Of course, I also ride the wings of migratory birds. And even those of jet planes.
I sit beside you. Opening the pages, I tell you a story, the one you want to hear.
Would you like a strange and wondrous story?
Or how about a sad one, a scary one, or a funny one?
If you don’t feel like listening right now, that’s fine too. But I know someday you will. When you do, just call out, “Traveling story, come. Sit beside me!”
And I’ll fly right there.
 
I have so many stories to share.
How about a story of a little island tired of being alone who learned to swim and set off to find a friend?
Or the tale of a mysterious night when two moons appeared.
Or the one about Santa Claus getting lost.
 
Oh, I can hear your heart. It’s beating faster.
Flitter-flutter, thumpity-thump, pitter-patter, bumpety-bump.
The traveling story has jumped inside and set your heart racing.
You’ll become one yourself next, spreading your wings to fly.
And so, another traveling story is born.

IBBY Australia will use ICBD in 2024 to celebrate the 30th Anniversary our own award - The Ena Noël Award.

In 1994, founding president of IBBY Australia, Ena Noël OAM (1910–2003), established her own biennial prize – the Ena Noël Award – to encourage young, emerging writers and illustrators for young people. The name not only honours Ena Noël’s contributions but makes it apparent that she wished to use her reputation to champion support for emerging Australian creators. The award is a silver medallion designed by the first winner of the award, the esteemed artist, Arone Raymond Meeks (1957–2021).

Here is the 2024 short list. In 2024 there will be two awards - one for writing and one for illustration.

The 2024 winners are:

Writing - joint winners Meg Gatland-Veness and Holden Sheppard.

Illustration - Sher Rill Ng

We were sent this book when I was a CBCA judge. Here are my comments:

How wonderful to have a dual language text (English and Mandarin) submitted for our judging. The refection image on the cover is a brilliant way to show the boy and his reality versus his dream/desire. The end papers are minimal and interesting and, in some ways, bracket the book’s timeline. The title page hat rack image is intriguing. Sher Rill Ng captures every emotion of this little boy in such a powerful way especially on the pages where Xiao Xin looks directly at the reader. The glossy pages soak up the deep blues and greens, moving between light and dark shades, while little Xiao Xin stands out defiantly in his red puffer jacket. Dressing him in this large puffer jacket adds to the themes of over protection – cushioning him in case of a fall, cocooning him so he stays small. Red is also a lucky and auspicious colour in Chinese culture. The illustrations add so much more to this story – such as the unspoken mud shapes portraying his family as shadow-demons haunting Xiao Xin with their own worries. Why are the family so overprotective? We are given fragments, tiny glimpses into Xiao Xin’s family’s past and their journey as refugees. We can see into Xiao Xin’s imagination and his dream to be a brave warrior. Repeating the shadow on the final page gives this book both a sense of completion and hope for the future.

International Children's Book Day 2023

 

I am a book, read me.

by Vagelis Iliopoulos

 

I am a book.

You are a book.

We are all books.

 

My soul is the story I tell.

Every book tells its own story.

 

We can look quite different –

some big, some small,

some colourful, some black and white,

some with a few pages, some with many.

 

We may say similar or completely different things,

but that’s our beauty.

It would be boring to be all the same.

 

Each of us is unique.

And each of us has the right to be respected,

to be read without prejudice,

to be given space in your library.

 

You may have opinions about me.

You may choose to question or comment on what you read.

You can put me back in the library

or hold me close and travel with me a long way.  

Today the 2nd of April is International Children's Book Day. The date matches the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen and IBBY (International Board on Books for the Young) also have a huge international award named in his honour - the Hans Christian Andersen Award.  Australia have won this twice in 1986 - Patricia Wrightson and Robert Ingpen. Check out IBBY Australia's web page.  Our 2023 nominees are Matt Ottley and Gary Crew. From 2020-2022 our former president Dr Robin Morrow was a member of the international jury for this award. There are eighty IBBY National sections.

What is IBBY

The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.

Mission

• to promote international understanding through children's books
• to give children everywhere the opportunity to have access to books with high literary and artistic standards
• to encourage the publication and distribution of quality children's books, especially in developing countries
• to provide support and training for those involved with children and children's literature
• to stimulate research and scholarly works in the field of children's literature
• to protect and uphold the Rights of the Child according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

IBBY is an non-profit organisation that was founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1953. Today, it is composed of 80 National Sections all over the world. It represents countries with well-developed book publishing and literacy programmes, and other countries with only a few dedicated professionals who are doing pioneer work in children's book publishing and promotion.

IBBY also support important projects:

IBBY Children in Crisis Fund

Silent Books for refugee children who arrived on the island of Lampedusa

IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award

IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award

Honour Books list with exemplary titles from around the world

IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities

Sustainable Development Goals Book Club

Books for Africa from Africa

Bookbird IBBY Journal

Join IBBY Australia and help us continue to promote these important international programs and also to promote our Australian Authors and Illustrators through the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the various IBBY book lists.

Read more about Hans Christian Andersen

International Children's Book Day IBBY Australia 2nd April Video

Meet some Hans Christian Andersen Nominees and Winners 

IBBY Australia have prepared a very special video as our way to celebrate International Children's Book Day.

Fourteen of our Hans Christian Andersen Award nominees and winners are featured in this one hour program of interviews.  

This video will be sent for FREE to all IBBY Australia Members on 2nd April. 

Click the red link below:

This is an excellent resource that could be used in all school libraries

Join IBBY Australia today

Meet Margaret Wild; Nadia Wheatley; Bronwyn Bancroft; Jackie French; 

Libby Gleeson; Ursula Dubosarsrky and David Metzenthen.

Meet Ann James; Tohby Riddle; Robert Ingpen; Ron Brooks; 

Bob Graham; Jeannie Baker and Shaun Tan

We asked our presenters three questions:

1. What is the significance of your HCA Award nomination to you personally?

2. If you could read or share one book from your body of work in person with the HCAA judges which book would you choose and why?

3. Your books have been translated into other languages; what has been your response to this; and what feedback have you received from overseas readers? 

Check in with my blog over the coming days and I will highlight each of the authors and illustrators who are featured in our video. 

Here is the 2022 ICBD Poster designed by IBBY Canada with art by Julie Flett.

Stories are wings that help you soar every day

Reading is freedom. Reading is breath.

Reading lets you see our world in a new way and it invites you 

into worlds you never want to leave.

Reading allows your spirit to dream.

They say books are friends for life and I agree.

The perfect universe of you only grows when you read.

Stories are wings that help you soar every day so find the books that speak 

to your spirit, to your heart, to your mind.

Stories are medicine. They heal. They comfort. They inspire. They teach.

Bless the storytellers and the readers and listeners. Bless books. 

They are medicine for a better, brighter world.

Mahsi cho. Thank you very much.

Here is a list of all of our IBBY Australia Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees and Winners:

1978 Ivan Southall (writing)

1976 Ivan Southall (writing)

1984 Patricia Wrightson (writing) WINNER

1986 Robert Ingpen (illustration) WINNER

2008 Jackie French (writing) and Shaun Tan (illustration)

2012 Christobel Mattingley (writing) and Bob Graham (illustration)

2014 Nadia Wheatley (writing) and Ron Brooks (illustration) 

2016 Ursula Dubosarsky (writing) and Bronwyn Bancroft (illustration)

2018 David Metzenthen (writing) and Jeannie Baker (illustration)

2020 Libby Gleeson (writing) and Ann James (illustration)

2022 Margaret Wild (writing) and Tohby Riddle (illustration)

International Children's Book Day, IBBY 2020

Hunger for Words

International Children's Book day is celebrated on 2nd April which is the Birthday of Hans Christian Andersen.  Every year IBBY invite one of their sections to prepare a poster and an ICBD message.  This year these come from Slovenia. You can see fifty IBBY people from around the world reading the message in a range of different languages.  Our Australian Children's Laureate Ursula Dubosarsky read the message which was written by Peter Svetina translated by Jernej Zupanic on behalf of IBBY Australia.

Here is a link the full message in English.

The IBBY ICBD poster was sent to the sections in the form of a cube.