Auckland Andersen Award

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN AWARD CEREMONY Speech IBBY President Wally De Doncker IBBY CONGRESS AUCKLAND Saturday 20 August 7 pm Dear friends It has been sixty years since the first Hans Christian Andersen Award was awarded to a writer of literature for young people. It was presented to the English author Eleanor Farjeon for her novel 'The Little Bookroom' during the IBBY Congress in Stockholm in 1956. Ten years later, the Hans Christian Andersen Illustrator Award was introduced. During the IBBY Congress in Ljubljana in 1966 the first award for illustration was given to the Swiss illustrator Alois Carigiet. Today, we have reached the two milestones of 60 and 50 years of the Hans Christian Andersen Award – a history of which IBBY is very proud. The golden jubilee of the Illustrator Award is being celebrated by a marvellous exhibition of original works of all the 25 winners in Taipei. The exciting news is that the exhibition will start a world tour from September onwards. At the beginning of October 1953, in the small hall of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Jella Lepman led the group of twelve people who were elected in Munich the year before to undertake the preparatory work for the establishment of IBBY, made two important decisions. The first decision was the immediate founding of IBBY in Zurich. The second decision came to fruition three years later with the establishment of the Hans Christian Andersen Award that, according to Jella Lepman, should forever be connected to the existence of IBBY. The history of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards is long and interesting. The first medal was actually awarded to Jella Lepman for her undeniably valuable services to IBBY. Without her, we would not be here. Without her, there would be no International Youth Library, no IBBY, no Andersen Award, no Bookbird … Without her, it would have taken much longer to introduce children's and youth literature as a course at university … And I could go on. However, I think I have made my point: Jella Lepman had truly earned the honour of receiving the first medal. Astrid Lindgren received her Award at the IBBY Congress in 1958 in Florence. Even then the Award was seen to be so important that the President of Italy flew by helicopter to present her medal at the ceremony. For the 1960 Award, Jella Lepman apparently had not found the time to organise the jury meeting. However, she had discussed her proposal to award the medal to German author Erich Kästner for his novel 'Als ich ein kleiner Junge war' in writing with her colleagues. These first three Awards were all awarded for single novels. It was not until 1962 that the rules were adjusted and the Award was to be be presented to an author who was judged to have made a lasting contribution to literature for young people and that it was to be given for his or her complete works. Four years later this regulation was also applied to illustrators. At the beginning of the sixties, the Andersen jury convened at the house of the Swiss publishing couple Bettina and Martin Hürlimann on the banks of Lake Zurich. For three days, the jury deliberated for nine hours a day. Whenever the weather permitted the members of the jury dipped into the lake to cool down. Jury president José Miguel de Azaola wrote that he looked back on those jury meetings with a sense of nostalgia. Apart from the warm hospitality of the Hürlimanns, he enjoyed the intellectual discussions between the most important international experts in children's literature at that time. In June 1968, the jury had planned to convene in Paris, but because of the aftermath of the civil unrest across France during May that year, public life in France had been paralyzed for weeks. This also had an impact on the Andersen jury. At the last moment, the jury had to migrate to the holiday home of the Hürlimanns. The Japanese member of the jury was unable to attend because of strikes and this meant that the decision had to be made by a jury composed of an even number of members. They could not reach a consensus. As a result, two authors were selected as laureates: the Spanish poet José María Sánchez-Silva and the German James Krüss. That year the Czech artist Jiri Trnka was the laureate in the category illustration. In 1970, the jury convened in Paris at the UNESCO-building and selected the first non- European winner. At the 12th IBBY Congress in Bologna the US illustrator Maurice Sendak the Italian author Gianni Rodari were presented with their medals by Jury President Jury President José-Miguel de Azaola. IBBY believes that every child everywhere in the world must have access to books and the opportunity to become a reader in the fullest sense. IBBY sees this as a fundamental right and the doorway to empowerment for every child. Here lies the necessity for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. We must present a front against the increasing commercialization of children’s and youth literature. We want to cherish young people by giving them quality literature and illustrations because only the best is good enough for children. Dear Cao Wenxuan and Rotraut Susanne Berner, you are our newest laureates for this ideal of high quality literature. You are now part of the history of IBBY and the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. Congratulations! Wally De Doncker, 22 July 2016 .

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