Laureates of this year’s Golden Baobab Prizes: Xanele Puren, Mary Ononokpono and Portia Dery

The 2014 Golden Baobab Prizes for Literature and Illustration received nearly 300 submissions from writers and illustrators across Africa. The laureates were announced yesterday:

• Portia Dery, from Ghana wins the Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books with her story, Grandma’s List.

• Mary Ononokpono, from Nigeria, wins the Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Books for her story, Talulah the Time Traveler.

• Xanele Puren, from South Africa, wins the inaugural Golden Baobab Prize for Illustrators. The Golden Baobab Prize for Illustrators is the biggest and most prestigious prize committed to discovering, nurturing and celebrating talented African illustrators of children’s stories.

Deborah Ahenkorah, Executive Director of Golden Baobab;

– We are proud of the contribution we are making to the children’s literature and illustration world and are actively searching for exciting partnerships to expand our reach and impact across Africa. We are seeking major corporate partnerships by our next prize season to further propel our vision of making the heads of children across Africa beautiful places for them to live!

Palestinian author and storyteller receives prestigious Arabic literature award

Cover of Wonder Travels in Mysterious Lands by Sonia Nimr. The cover is made by Lubna Taha.

Sonia Nimr, Palestinian author and storyteller, was announced as this year’s recipient of the 2014 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, one of the most important and prestigious award for children’s literature in the Arab world, for her young adults book “Wonderful Trips in the Mysterious World”. The book “creates a world of fantasy with a touch of reality, where she brings back the dreams of travelling around the world, and challenges stereotypes through her heroine “Qamar”, where readers spend a long journey with her crossing dangerous oceans and deserts.”

It was published last year by the 2009 ALMA Laureate Tamer Institute for Community Education, who distributed to over 1200 public and school libraries inside Palestine. Discussion circles were organized around the book in at least 100 of the libraries. According to Tamer Institute, the book was very well received by the librarians:

One librarian adds “once received the book, I read it and was sure that young adults will love it and I was right. The book is now listed among the most read at my library, and for a while it was wondering among young adults before it finally returned back to the shelve”. Another librarian discussed the book with young adults and had to say “during the discussion, young adults related to the extent which imagination is introducing realistic social life within the book. They also related to the complex within the book, where Qamar the protagonist was sold as a slave and how she had to confront by starting her travel. They were amazed by her persistence to continue despite the everlasting hardships she had to face”.

Congratulations to both Sonia Nimr and Tamer Institute!

Stefan Casta received the Linné-plaque

Happy recipients of the Linné-plaque; Maj Fagerberg (illustrator) and Stefan Casta (author). Photo: Lena Dahlström.

Last Thursday author and jury member Stefan Casta received the Carl von Linné-plaque at Stockholm City Library for his book The Bumble-Bee´s Herbarium (our translation, Humlans Herbarium, illustrations by Maj Fagerberg), a non-fiction book for children.

The Linné-plaque is awarded annually by the Swedish Library Association to the best non-fiction book for children and young adults, and the award amounts to 25 000 SEK.

The book is actually a flora, a herbarium and a plant press, all in one. Here´s a video on you can use the book:

Another book by Stefan Casta, The House Where the Bumble-Bees live (our transl.) is the Swedish contribution to the IBBY Honour List. More about honour list here.

More about Stefan here (in Swedish).

“My aim is more children reading more”

On June 4, UK author Malorie Blackman was announced as the next Children’s Laureate. Malorie Blackman has written some 60 books for children and teenagers and has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, but started out as a computer programmer.

As a Children’s Laureate, she will work with reading promotion in the UK for a period of two years. She will be working to make reading ‘irresistible’ for teenagers, encouraging them to explore a range of literature genre and forms, from short stories to graphic novels. She will also be encouraging them to make their own creative responses to books, using a range of expressive mediums, to include music, art, film, drama, animation, poetry, and spoken word. With her technology background, she is passionate about the role that technology plays in making literature come alive for a generation of digitally-aware young people.

At the appointment Malorie Blackman said:

I am honoured to have been chosen as the eighth Children’s Laureate. A love of books has opened so many doors for me. Stories have inspired me and taught me to aspire. I’ve been a professional author for over 20 years, so I feel now is the time to give something back. I hope to instil in every child I meet my love and enthusiasm for reading and stories. And as I would never have become an author if it hadn’t been for my local library as a child, I intend to continue Julia Donaldson’s amazing, indefatigable work advocating for our nation’s public library service.

The Children’s Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children’s books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. More information about the award here.

New Award to Stimulate an Appetite for Reading

Hadia Tajik. Photo: Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org

Last week the Nordic Council announced the establishment of a brand new prize for children’s and young adult literature. The prize will be presented for the first time in 2013. “A Nordic prize with a number of other activities will give a focused and visible boost for children’s and young adult’s reading”, stated the Norwegian Minister of Culture, Hadia Tajik.

As seen in the final report from the Swedish Committee on Literature (September 2012), there is an urgent need for strong actions to improve young people’s reading ability and habits.

The Swedish Minister for Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, commented that the introduction of a Nordic prize can contribute to more readers of Nordic children’s and young adult literature, both within and outside the Nordic countries.

There are many awards for children’s and young adult literature around the world, both national and international. Below some examples:

Hans Christian Andersen Award (IBBY)

Ovid Prize

The Paris Literary Prize

Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis 

The Staatsprijs voor kinder- en jeugdliteratuur

The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books award

The Guardian Children’s Literature Prize

The Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers

IBBY’s ASAHI Reading Promotion Award

IFLA’s Cuust van Wesemael Award

Grand Prix des Jeunes Lecteurs

National Book Award for Children’s Literature

Jabuti Award

Caldecott Medals

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

 

Fascinating recipients of children’s lit awards announced recently

Frank Cottrell Boyce. Photo: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian.

Last week British author Frank Cottrell Boyce was announced as winner of the Guardian children’s fiction prize with his novel The Unforgotten Coat. The story, written by Cottrell Boyce for charity purpose, is about two refugee brothers from Mongolia who are determined to fit in with their Liverpool schoolmates, but bring so much of Mongolia to Bootle that their new friend and guide, Julie, is hard-pressed to know truth from fantasy. Suddenly the brothers are forced to return to their homeland. The Guardian’s children’s books editor Julia Eccleshare:
– It absolutely captures the feel of being a child of that age. It’s not a big blockbusting novel with obvious themes of dystopia and apocalypse – instead it’s a hear-warming, imaginative, funny story with a very serious message at it´s heart.”

Here’s a clip where Frank Cottrell Boyce actually reads for youngsters on a Liverpool train (!).

Furthermore, author, poet and editor Naomi Shihab Nye has been announced as winner of the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature for 2012. Naomi Shihab Nye is the sixth recipient of this $25,000 award (among the previous recipient’s author Katherine Paterson, who received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2006), which is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today.

Naomi Shihab Nye has received numerous awards, such as from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Charity Randall Prize from the International Poetry Form, and four Pushcart Prizes. She has edited eight anthologies of poems for young readers, and her works include 10 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, Habibi, You and Yours and A Maze Me: Poems for Girls.

At the announcement, the executive director of World Literature Today, R.C. Davis-Undiano, claimed that:
– With her powerful vision and high-quality poetry, fiction, and young-adult literature, Ms. Nye may be one of the most complete and accomplished writers in the world.

Now we’re looking forward to the announcement of the recipient of publishing house Rabén & Sjogren’s Astrid Lindgren prize in November…

Strong emotions at yesterday’s August gala

Journalist Kristofer Lundström was compere at the award ceremony.

Yesterday’s August gala gave us strong emotions in the laureates’ acceptance speeches. Jessica Schiefauer won the category for best Swedish children’s book of the year, with her book Pojkarna (The boys, our transl., Bonnier Carlsen).

Among the other award winners were Tomas Bannerhed with Korparna (Weyler Publishing House) in the category for the best Swedish book of fiction of the year, and Elisabeth Åsbrink with Och I Wienerwald står träden kvar (Natur&Kultur Publishing House) in the category for the best Swedish book of non-fiction of the year.

The August Prize for junior writers (ages 16 to 20) (“Lilla Augustpriset”) was given to Cathrine Bengtsson for her book Kärlekssvetten.

The August Prize is the largest literary award in Sweden and founded by the Swedish Publishers’ Association. The award ceremony took traditionally place at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Nöstlinger received the Corine Prize

Last week the 2003 ALMA recipient, Austrian author Christine Nöstlinger, was awarded the Corine International Book Award for her life’s work. The prize is awarded for outstanding works of fiction and poetry as well as for excellent non-fiction books, and is given for lifelong achievement in writing. The award was presented to the winners during a glamorous gala in Munich on November 17^th, and will be broadcast by 3sat on November 22^nd. It has received much attention in the media.

Christine Nöstlinger, who celebrated her 75th birthday on October 13th, is one of Austria’s most important authors of children’s fiction. Nöstlinger and Maurice Sendak were the first recipients of the ALMA, back in 2003.

Christine Nöstlinger receives the 2003 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria. Photo: Stefan Tell.

Tonight, another important Award Ceremony is coming up – the Swedish August Prize Gala. We´ll be back with the details later on…

And winner of the Astrid Lindgren prize is….

… Jan Lööf!

A happy Jan Lööf directly after the announcement at Rabén & Sjögren.

Today author Jan Lööf was announced as winner of the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Prize. Jan Lööf, born 1940, is also one of Sweden’s foremost artists and illustrators, and has inspired a whole generation of cartoonists with his now classical series Felix (1967-1973) and Ville (1975-1976).

The Astrid Lindgren Prize is awarded every year, on Astrid Lindgren’s birthday November 14, for meritorious authorship within the realm of Swedish literature for children and youth. The award amount is 50 000 SEK (approx. 5200 EUR)

Female dominance among August nominees for best children’s book

Illustration by Maria Nilsson Thore from Lotta Olsson’s “Konstiga djur”.

The nominees for this year’s August Prize have just been announced. These are the candidates in the category for best Swedish children’s book 2011:

Viveka Sjögren, “I den tysta minuten mellan”
Jessica Schiefauer, “Pojkarna”
Sara Lundberg, “Vita streck och Öjvind”
Lotta Olsson, “Konstiga djur”
Mats Strandberg och Sara Bergmark Elfgren, “Cirkeln”
Maria Nilsson Thore, “Petras prick”

The prize winners will be announced on November 21^st.

The August statuette by artist Mikael Fare.