Special Issue: 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees the Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2014 by Bookbird, Inc

52.2 (2014)

Special Issue: 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2014 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor.

Editor: Roxanne Harde, University of Alberta—Augustana Faculty (Canada)

Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: [email protected]

Bookbird’s editorial office is supported by the Augustana Faculty at the University of Alberta, Camrose, Alberta, Canada.

Editorial Review Board: Peter E. Cumming, York University (Canada); Debra Dudek, University of Wollongong (Australia); Libby Gruner, University of Richmond (USA); Helene Høyrup, Royal School of Library & Information Science (Denmark); Judith Inggs, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); Ingrid Johnston, University of Albert, Faculty of Education (Canada); Shelley King, Queen’s University (Canada); Helen Luu, Royal Military College (Canada); Michelle Martin, University of South Carolina (USA); Beatriz Alcubierre Moya, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Mexico); Lissa Paul, Brock University (Canada); Laura Robinson, Royal Military College (Canada); Bjorn Sundmark, Malmö University (Sweden); Margaret Zeegers, University of Ballarat (Australia);

Board of Bookbird, Inc. (an Indiana not-for-profit corporation): Valerie Coghlan (Ireland), President; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Junko Yokota (USA), Secretary; Hasmig Chahinian (France), Angela Lebedeva (Russia)

Advertising Manager: Ellis Vance ([email protected])

Production: Design and layout by Bill Benson, Texas, USA Printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature (ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, and distributed by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland, and at additional mailing offices.

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IBBY Executive Committee 2012-2014: Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia), President; Linda Pavonetti Vice President (USA); Hasmig Chahinian (France), Vice President; Marilar Aleixandre (Spain); Gülçin Alpöge (Turkey); Nadia El Kholy (Egypt); Kiyoko Matsuoka (Japan), Azucena Galindo (Mexico); Angela Lebedeva (Russia); Akoss Ofori-mensah (Ghana); Timotea Vrablova (Slovakia), Voting Members; María Jesús Gil (Spain), Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland), Executive Director; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Roxanne Harde (Canada), Bookbird Editor.

IBBY may be contacted at Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland, tel: +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected] .

Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the MLA International Bibliography. The Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2014 A Bookbird Special Issue Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees 2014 The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are presented every two years by IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important and lasting contribution to children’s literature. IBBY National Sections from 33 countries submitted the following 28 authors and 30 illustrators as candidates for the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Awards:

Author Nominees Illustrator Nominees Argentina: María Cristina Ramos Argentina: Isol Australia: Nadia Wheatley Australia: Ron Brooks Austria: Renate Welsh Austria: Linda Wolfsgruber Azerbaijan: Sevinj Nurugizi Belgium: Carll Cneut Belgium: Frank Andriat Brazil: Roger Mello Brazil: Joel Rufino dos Santos Canada: Philippe Béha Canada: Kenneth Oppel China: Liang Xiong China: Hongying Yang Croatia: Svjetlan Junaković Denmark: Lene Kaaberbøl Denmark: Charlotte Pardi Estonia: Aino Pervik Finland: Pekka Vuori Finland: Kirsi Kunnas France: François Place France: Jean-Claude Mourlevat Germany: Rotraut Susanne Berner Germany: Mirjam Pressler Greece: Daniela Stamatiadi Greece: Sophia Madouvalou Ireland: PJ Lynch Iran: Houshang Moradi Kermani Italy: Fabian Negrin Ireland: Eoin Colfer Japan: Ken Katayama Italy: Bianca Pitzorno Korea Republic of: Byoung-Ho Han Japan: Nahoko Uehashi Latvia: Reinis Pētersons Korea Republic of: Jin-Kyung Kim Netherlands: Marit Törnqvist Netherlands: Ted van Lieshout Norway: Øyvind Torseter Norway: Bjørn Sortland Portugal: Teresa Lima Portugal: António Torrado Russia: Igor Oleinikov Russia: Vladislav Krapivin Slovakia: Peter Uchnár Slovakia: Daniel Hevier Slovenia: Alenka Sottler Slovenia: Polonca Kovač Spain: Javier Zabala Turkey : Serpil Ural Sweden: Eva Lindström UK: Jacqueline Wilson Switzerland: Albertine USA: Jacqueline Woodson Turkey : Saadet Ceylan UK: John Burningham USA: Bryan Collier IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | i The Hans Christian Andersen Awards The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are the highest international awards given for children’s literature. The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) presents the awards biennially in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature.”

The awards are given in two categories: authors (presented since 1956), and illustrators (presented since 1966) and the nominees are judged using the following criteria as a guide: • The aesthetic and literary qualities of writing and illustrating • The ability to see things from a child’s point of view • The ability to stretch the child’s curiosity as well as the child’s literary and creative imagination • Cultural differences in literary aesthetics are taken into account and appreciated • Freshness and innovation are a great advantage • The complete works of the author or illustrator, to date, are taken into consideration

The National Sections of IBBY have the privilege of nominating one candidate for each award. The nominating section is responsible for presenting an informative dossier that reveals the breadth of the candidate's work and shows the impact of her/his contributions. In addition to a selection of representative books, the following documentation is used to appraise each candidate: • Biographical information on the candidate • A statement on the candidate's contribution to literature for young people • Selected appreciative essays, interviews or articles • A list of awards and other distinctions • Complete bibliography of the books for children by the candidate • List of translated editions, and their languages • Five of the most important titles by the candidate (even if out of print) • (Published) reviews of the books submitted to the Jury

The Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury selects the award recipients and comprises ten members who are nominated by the National Sections of IBBY and selected by the IBBY Executive Committee. The members of IBBY elect a Jury President at its biennial General Assembly: María Jesús Gil was elected the President of the 2012 and the 2014 Jury. She is currently the coordinator of Reading Programmes for Spain and Latin America at Foundation SM. She was an elected member of the IBBY Executive Committee (1996-2000) and Chair of the 32nd IBBY Congress in Santiago de Compostela in 2010. As Jury President she presides over the following members of the 2014 international Jury:

Anastasia Arkhipova—Illustrator, chair of the board of the Association of Moscow Book Illustrators and Designers, Moscow, Russia. Fanuel Hanan Díaz—Editor, author and researcher, Caracas, Venezuela. Sabine Fuchs—University lecturer in children’s literature, Graz, Austria. Sang-Wook Kim—Professor in children’s literature at the Chuncheon National University of Education, Seoul, Korea. Enrique Pérez Díaz—Author and publisher, Havana, Cuba. Deborah Soria—Book-seller and promoter of children’s literature, Rome, Italy. Susan M. Stan—Professor of children’s literature at the Central Michigan University, USA. Sahar Tarhandeh—Independent researcher in children’s literature, freelance graphic designer and art director, Tehran, Iran. Erik Titusson—Publisher and former Director of the ALMA, Stockholm, Sweden. Ayfer Gürdal Ünal—Writer, critic, and lecturer at the Bhosphorous University, Istanbul, Turkey.

The Jury President will guide the judging process and preside at the jury meeting 15-16 March 2014. The shortlist will be disseminated immediately following the Jury meeting and the winners will be announced at the IBBY Press Conference at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair on Monday, 24 March 2014. ii | bookbird IBBY.ORG Editorial

“Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.” Hans Christian Andersen Bookbird Editor Dear Bookbird Readers,

his issue of Bookbird brings to its readers some of the very best authors and illustrators of children’s literature from around the world. Thirty-three national sections of IBBY haveT nominated their best authors and/or illustrators of books for children for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. This award is given to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. Once the nomi- Roxanne Harde is an Associate Professor nations have been made, a distinguished, multilingual, interna- of English and a McCalla University Professor at the University of Alberta, tional jury of children’s literature specialists reads a selection of Augustana Faculty. She studies and books by each nominee and decides on the winners. Up until 2008, teaches American literature and culture. She has recently published Walking the Andersen Awards were supported by Nissan Motor Co. and the Line: Country Music Lyricists and since 2009, Nami Island Inc. has generously extended a long-term American Culture (Lexington 2013), and sponsorship of the awards. her essays have appeared in several journals, including International Research The Andersen Awards are some of the oldest awards for children’s in Children’s Literature, The Lion and literature. The Author’s Award has been issued since 1956 and the the Unicorn, Christianity and Literature, Legacy, Jeunesse, Critique, Feminist Illustrator’s Award was added 1966. Even today, most awards for Theology, and Mosaic, and several edited children’s literature are limited to a single country, language, year of collections, including Enterprising Youth publication and/or book. Truly international awards for children’s and To See the Wizard. © 2014 by Bookbird, Inc. editorial

authors and illustrators are still rare. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, founded in 2002, has been a welcome addition to the international recognition of the importance of authors and illustrators of children’s literature. The Andersen Awards offer a prestigious acknowledgement of an individual’s life work. Simply being nominated for the award is a huge merit, and also a way for the national IBBY sections to thank their authors and illustrators for the many hours of hard work they have spent producing these remarkable books (and often working with children and novice authors and/or illustrators). As editor of this issue, my task was to provide short introductions to each of the nominees and their work, which I have done with the help of colleagues and talented graduate students who are training in the field of children’s literature. Since June 2013, copies of the very best books by each of the nominees have been arriving for us to read and enjoy. Unlike the jurors, we do not have to make the agonizing deci- sion as to which nominees are most worthy of the prizes. Like the children for whom they are intended, we can enjoy the books without any sense that they compete with one another. All the authors and illustrators nominated for the prize are already winners. And by this I don’t just mean that they have won prizes in their respective countries, although most of them have. Like Hans Christian Andersen, these authors and illustrators have produced books that have touched the lives and hearts of children and adults alike. Andersen’s continuing, pervasive, and international influence was never clearer to me than when a high school exchange student from northern China needed to explain the extreme sensitivity of her skin. Casting about for an appropriate metaphor or cultural referent, she finally hit upon something we would understand as she declared, “I’m like the princess and the pea, only with soap instead of mattresses!” I feel certain that children from around the world, when searching for ways to understand and express their experiences and themselves, rely on these authors and illustrators who follow Andersen, who make their beat, in words and pictures, keep time with short steps. Publication of this issue was made possible in part through a gift from Nami Island Inc. in the Republic of Korea. IBBY gratefully acknowledges their support of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. iv | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Argentina María Cristina Ramos Argentina ★ Author “Contact with children always moves me toward writing. It is good to see the relationship that children have with books, a personal link. I talk about books that they like and they tell me about what resonates with them. This interaction makes me aware of the responsibility of the writer and the respect children deserve, always.” María Cristina Ramos

Born in San Rafael, Mendoza Province, in 1952 Award for Children’s Fantasy, sponsored by María Cristina Ramos moved to Neuquén, UNICEF, in 1997 for Un bosque en cada esquina Patagonia upon completing her education. She [A Forest at Each Corner]. Her books have made published her first book for children, a book of several honor lists, and have been translated poetry titled Un sol para tu sombrero [A Sun for into Chinese, Korean, English, and Portuguese, Your Hat] in 1988. As a Professor of Education and her work is studied at several universities in who has trained teachers for more than twenty Argentina, at the undergraduate and graduate years in the classroom and work- levels. Ramos continues to offer shops, Ramos also writes peda- Spanish-speaking children a gogical texts; her most recent is wide variety of books, including La casa del aire, literatura en la narrative and poetry aimed at escuela [The House of the Air, many age groups. Literature at the School]. Ramos has presided several times on the Roxanne Harde jury of the Patagonian Contest for Literature, Fine Arts and Photography, organized by the Foundation of Neuquén Provin- cial Bank, and she served for nearly a decade at the Provin- cial Department of Culture in Patagonia. In 2002, she founded the publishing house Editorial Ruedamares, and continues to direct its operations. With over fifty titles to date, Ramos’s books have been nominated for many awards, and she has won several of them, including the Antonior- robles Latin American Competition, organized by IBBY Mexico/A Leer for Coronas y galeras [Crowns and Top Hats], and the First National

Selected Bibliography • Azul la cordillera [Blue, the Mountain Chain]. Buenos Aires: Norma, 1995. Print. • La luna lleva un silencio [The Moon Carried a Silence]. Madrid: Anaya, 2005; Buenos Aires: Aique, 2009. Print. • Mientras duermen las piedras [Meanwhile the Stones Are Sleeping]. Buenos Aires: Edelvives, 2009. Print. • Ruedamares, Pirata de la mar bravía [Wheel-seas, Pirate of the Brave Sea]. Buenos Aires: Siete Vacas, 1997. Print. • El trasluz [Against the Light]. Buenos Aires: SM, 2013. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 1 Illustrator nominee: Argentina Isol Argentina ★ Illustrator “But the golden rule for me is not to let the book close by directing your eyes towards a single conclusion, never closing the metaphor in a symbol so as not to kill the life of the book, having respect for the reader as an equal in a conversation in which I’m simply putting forward my impressions, not as someone I’m teaching.” Isol

Winner of the 2013 Astrid Lindgren Memorial the White Ravens list in 2004; and Tic Tac won Award, Isol (Marisol Misenta) has had a short the Golden Apple Award in Slovakia. Isol’s art career that has been both prolific and notable. has been exhibited in Chile, Argentina, Spain, Born in 1972 in Buenos Aires, Isol studied at Germany, Italy, Sweden, Japan, and Slovakia. the Escuela Nacional “Rogelio Yrurtia” and the From the strong strokes and woodblock tech- University of Buenos Aires. While she planned niques of her first books to the finer lines and to become an art teacher, she quickly began to subtler coloring of her current projects, Isol offers work full-time illustrating and writing books for a spare and unique vision of the world to chil- children, and her first book, dren. Her signature condensed Vida de perros [A Dog’s Life] color palette and color that was published in 1997. Since breaks out of the lines signal then, Isol devotes her time and the unexpected aspects of her talent to writing, illustrating, stories told in art and words. and designing books for chil- Isol also plays with perspec- dren, and to illustrating texts tive, building asymmetric rela- written by others, including tionships between children Paul Auster, Graciela Montes, and adults or children and the and Jorge Luján. Her work natural world. Her art encour- has been published in Mexico, ages children to look harder, to the United States, France, ask more questions, and to have Korea, Switzerland, Spain, fun with their books. and Argentina. In addition, she publishes illustrations in Roxanne Harde newspapers, writes and illustrates graphic novels and comics, leads workshops for illustrators, and sings professionally as a performer and recording artist. As well as winning the ALMA, Isol’s work has won numerous awards: Nocturno won awards in Venezuela, Argentina, and Mexico; El cuento de navidad de Auggie Wren [Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story] with text by Paul Auster made

Selected Publications • La Bella Griselda [Beautiful Griselda]. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2010. Print. • El Globo [The Balloon]. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2004. Print. • Nocturno [Nocturne]. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2011. Print. • Tener un patito es útil [It’s Useful to Have a Duck]. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007. Print. • Vida de perros [Dog’s Life]. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1998. Print

2 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Australia Nadia Wheatley Australia ★ Author

Nadia Wheatley, born in 1949, grew up in Sydney, Papunya School Book of Country and History in Australia, where she began her writing career. She 2002, and the 2008 Speech Pathology Book of the began an English degree at Sydney University Year Award for Going Bush. Her books have also in 1988, but switched to a major in History and been translated into French, German, and Korean, graduated in 1976. She went on to earn an MA allowing her works to transcend geographical Honours degree from Macquarie University. Her boundaries just as they do cultural ones. first children’s book, Five Times Dizzy, published in Wheatley’s texts often focus on the marginal- 1982, was loosely based on her experiences living ized and silenced voices of history, and she works in Greece and later Newtown, and its success to retell historical narratives from the perspec- launched her career in children’s books. Since then, tive of poor or dispossessed children. History she has collaborated with many and social conscience fuels her illustrators, creating profound work, and she is deeply devoted works of fiction and non-fiction to representing multicultural for young readers. She collabo- voices in her storybooks. Books rates, often through workshops, such as The Papunya School Book with Indigenous, multicultural, of Country and History and Play- and disabled communities in ground engage with Indigenous order to produce literature that is experience in Australia, and, as accessible to individuals from all Margaret Dunkle notes in her walks of life. For over thirty years, review in Viewpoint 9.3, func- Wheatley has dedicated herself to literature for tion as “a blueprint for […] a culturally sensitive, young people, and her passion for history, culture, racially reconciled Australia” (32). Wheatley’s work and inclusivity permeates her literary oeuvre. takes on difficult and oftentimes emotional subject Wheatley’s work has earned various awards matter, but the grace, sensitivity, and inventive- in a number of categories, ranging from personal ness of her writing allows her to deal with these achievement awards to international children’s issues in a manner relatable to children. Her works book awards. In 1988, My Place won the Children’s are tremendously important, and her passion for Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for historical, inclusive, and genuinely exciting litera- Young Readers award, along with the Inaugural ture continues to inspire and educate her readers. Eve Pownall Award for Non-Fiction. Wheatley also won the NSW Premier’s History Award for Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Australians All: A History of Growing Up from the Ice Age to the Apology. Illus. Ken Searle. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013. Print. • The House that Was Eureka. New York: Viking, 1985. Print. • Luke’s Way of Looking. 1999. Illus. Matt Ottley. Sydney: Walker, 2012. Print. • My Place. 1987. Illus. Donna Rawlins. Sydney: Walker, 2008. Print. • Papunya School Book of Country and History. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 3 Illustrator nominee: Australia Ron Brooks Australia ★ Illustrator

“I began to think of the picture-book form as almost some kind of theatre, a theatre in which the reader sits, quietly absorbed, while there before them … a whole world opens up.” Ron Brooks

Ron Brooks has been creating resonant illustrative and its interconnectedness with textual mood works for the past forty years, and he has asserted allow him to express the deepest emotional himself as one of the most influential Australian responses to the narratives he illustrates. His art illustrators. Born in Pambula, NSW, Australia deals with a wide variety of themes, ranging from in 1948, Brooks has always been in touch with betrayal, grief, and regret to friendship, freedom, his artistic side, spending his childhood drawing and identity, and while he often expresses serious the nature in which he was immersed. Practicing and difficult aspects of human life, he does so techniques in book illustration, painting, print- with artistic grace and absorbing images. Brooks making, and sculpture, he currently lives in the has a signature style—colorful, textured back- Huon Valley in Tasmania, and he grounds with thick brushstrokes is open about his difficult path to and prominent line work—but artistic success. Brooks majored his passion for expressing the in Illustration at the Swinburne deep emotional undertones of Institute of Technology and the text makes each of his works Royal Melbourne Institute from unique. 1964 to 1969, and soon after Brooks’s first literary award began freelancing in publishing was the Children’s Book Council and advertising. He published his of Australia’s Picture Book of first children’s picturebook, The the Year Award for The Bunyip of Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek (text by Jenny Wagner) Berkeley’s Creek in 1974, and many more followed. in 1973, which launched his career in illustration, He was on the Honors List of the Guardian winning a number of awards and having been Award for Children’s Literature in 1978 for John translated into several languages. Brown and Rose and the Midnight Cat, and won Brooks has a knack for delving deep into chil- the IBBY Brazilian Section Best Translation for dren’s narratives and bringing to life unwritten Children Award in 2006 for Fox. His picture- stories embedded in the texts. He is masterful in books have been translated into many languages, his ability to distinguish the themes and tones including Chinese, Serbian, Mongolian, Hebrew, of the stories he illustrates, and brings these and German, and his works continue to influence emotional responses to life through captivating young readers in Australia and beyond. and expressive imagery. Brooks’s work seems to leap from the page, and his firm grasp of color Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • The Coat. Text Julie Hunt. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2012. Print. • The Dream. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011. Print. • Fox. 2000. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2010. Print. • Old Pig. 1995. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2009. Print. • On the Day You Were Born. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013. Print.

4 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Austria Renate Welsh Austria ★ Author

Renate Welsh often describes her childhood the Scales: Austrians in the Resistance Move- as being an unhappy one—the early deaths ment] are drawn from true experiences of survi- of her mother and grandfather, along with vors and their families, and Welsh narrates their living through WWII, left her struggling with stories with sincerity and attention to detail. Given emotional damage. Early on, she began working her difficult childhood, Welsh is able to express through her traumatic experiences by writing, emotional struggle in situations of conflict and and by the time she entered high school she was crisis, and her narratives often feature child char- well on her way to a successful acters searching for identity in the career as an author. Welsh began a midst of traumatic experience. Her post-secondary degree in English in young readers are able to connect 1955, but left her studies after her with the characters in her novels marriage in 1956 and began working and in turn can learn suitable coping for the British Council in Vienna. strategies. For Welsh, childhood She wrote her first book, Der Enkel takes on the form of a “hurdle race” des Löwenjägers [The Lion Hunter’s toward the future, and, in turn, her Grandson], during a hospital stay characters often take on the greatest in 1968, and after its success Welsh hurdle of them all—that of truly began working full-time as a writer. finding themselves. Over the past 42 years, she has Welsh’s stories not only influence published over fifty books, and has Austrian children’s search for iden- managed to do so while also contrib- tity, but also those of children around uting to many literary projects and collectives. the world. Over the years her books have been Through her writing, Welsh works to offer translated into a number of languages, including voices to those who cannot be heard on their Spanish, Danish, French, and Afrikaans, and have own—her stories often take on drug addiction, accumulated several awards. Welsh’s contributions immigrants, and marginalized groups. Her ability to young people are not limited to her literature, as to transform realistic experiences into literary she runs workshops for disabled young people, and narrative is masterful, and she relates to her young she continues to impact her young readers through readers through real-life conflict and emotional realistic yet sensitive representations of marginal- strife. Books such as Johana and In die Waagschale ized individuals and groups. geworfen. Österreicher im Widerstand [Thrown into Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Besuch aus der Vergangenheit [Visit from the Past]. Wien: Obelisk, 1999. Print. • Dieda oder das fremde Kind [That Girl or the Strange Child]. Wien: Obelisk, 2002. Print. • Dr. Chickensoup. St. Pölten: Residenz, 2011. Print. • Johanna. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2002. Print. • Sonst bist du dran [Or Else It’ll Be You]. Würzburg: Arena, 2011. Print.

IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 5 Illustrator nominee: Austria Linda Wolfsgruber Austria ★ Illustrator

“I have a particular desire to put something new into each book.” Linda Wolfsgruber

Linda Wolfsgruber was born in the town of assembled on several levels of transparent paper. Bruneck, Italy in 1961. After completing her Her illustrations in Der Elefant und Schmetter- formal education in art, typesetting, and graphic ling [The Elephant and the Butterfly] likewise design (both in Italy and Germany), she began highlight multi-level illustrations that draw from work as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. many modes of presentation. As well, Zwei x Her focus on international work and school proj- Zwirn [Two Times Thread] traces the journey ects is important both to her art and to fostering of a spool of thread throughout the pages of a love of art in others. She encour- the illustrated book, the path ages children to participate in her of which Wolfsgruber controls own creative process at the schools through both narration and illus- and cultural institutions she visits tration. Over the course of her as a way to encourage their own career, she has made the transition creativity. Wolfsgruber also spent from a picaresque style to illustra- an extended time in Tehran, where tions infused with ambiguity and she worked with female artists, movement. students, and children. She also Wolfsgruber’s books have been worked on a project where she translated into 17 languages. She illustrated African stories with the has been awarded many honors, aid of Austrian children, and the including seven Austrian Chil- results were presented at exhibits dren’s and Juvenile Book Awards, in Austria and Switzerland. three Children’s and Juvenile Book Wolfsgruber uses mixed media Awards of the City of Vienna for methods, which allow her work to transcend Illustration, and the Josef Binder Award for Illus- boundaries and realize the limitless possibili- tration. She has also participated in international ties of illustration. She uses methods of drawing, exhibits. She currently lives in Vienna, where painting, spraying paint on paper, physically she designs covers for books and CDs, provides cutting out and gluing images on paper, crafting illustrations for newspapers and magazines, and miniatures, and connecting the methods of continues her career as an illustrator of children’s painting and drawing together. For example, Wie books. war das am Anfang [How Was It in the Begin- ning] queries visual spaces, as illustrations are Taylor Kraayenbrink Selected Publications • Daisy ist ein Gänseblüchen [Daisy Is a Flower]. Vienna: Jungbrunnen, 2009. Print. • Der Elefant und her Schmetterling [The Elephant and the Butterfly]. Text E.E. Cummings. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg Verlag, 2013. Print. • Das Meer ist riesengrob [The Ocean Is as Big as the Sea]. Text Inge Fasan. Weitra: Bibliothek der Provinz, 2007. Print. • Das Nacht-ABC [The Night ABC]. Düsseldorf: Sauerländer, 2006. Print. • Zwei x Zwirn [Two Times Thread]. Linda Wolfsgruber. Düsseldorf: Sauerländer, 2005. Print. 6 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Azerbaijan Sevinj Nurugizi Azerbaijan ★ Author

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1964, Sevinj Nuruguzi also makes connections with young readers in has earned her identity as one of the most promi- her everyday life, spending time discussing books nent children’s authors in Azerbaijan. Her writing in children’s libraries and actively participating career began relatively late in her adulthood, her in children’s book festivals. Children’s libraries first book, Çərpələng [Kite], being published in all over the country feature Nuruguzi’s poetry, 2002, and since then she has published close to picturebooks, and children’s novels, and two of fifty children’s texts in Azerbaijani. A member her plays, Revenge and Dolls, have been staged by of both the Azerbaijani Journalists’ Union and the State Drama Theatre of Agdam and the State the Azerbaijani Writer’s Union, Nuruguzi takes Puppet Theater of Salyan. She also tells stories on her writing career seriously, and she her radio program, “Chokhibilmish,” works to ground her young readers which is a well-loved program among in Azerbaijani experience through Azerbaijani children. Nuruguzi is the magic realism of her stories. passionate about developing posi- She garners trust in her readers by tive worldviews in her child readers, paying close attention to detail and and she does so by creating magical reflecting their interests and everyday narratives embedded in the everyday lives respectfully and accurately. experiences of Azerbaijani children. Nuruguzi is dedicated to the role Over the course of her prolific twelve- of literature in childhood develop- year career, Nuruguzi has earned ment, and her work provides relatable several awards and distinctions. In yet whimsical stories approachable to 2002, the year she began publishing readers at various stages of develop- children’s literature, she won the ment. She is masterful in her ability Laureate of Tofig Mahmudov Prize to create relatable protagonists, and her young for the Azerbaijani Writers’ Union Best Work For readers can easily relate to the heroes in her stories. Children, and she has recently won the Associa- Often implementing themes of friendship, loyalty, tion of New Writers and Artists’ National Prize and the magic of childhood, Nuruguzi develops on Culture for Bapbalaca əlifba [Tiny Alphabet]. deep and meaningful relationships with her child Her works have also been translated into Russian readers and manages to spread positive messages and English. without an air of didacticism. Not only does she relate to children through her literature, but she Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Aghja and Juppulu. Trans. Tomiris Babanly. Baku: Təhsil, 2009. Print. • Aysu and the Moon. Baku: Təhsil, 2009. Print. • Bapbalaca əlifba [Tiny Alphabet]. Baku: Aspoliqraf, 2010. Print. • Ciya ilə iki gün [Two Days with Jiya]. Baku: Oskar, 2007. Print. • Xortumlu dağ [The Mountain with a Trunk]. Baku: Aspoliqraf, 2010. Print.

IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 7 author nominee: Belgium Frank Andriat Belgium ★ Author

Throughout the course of his near thirty-year career, way to speak to all of his readers, and teens are Frank Andriat has written over twenty young adult able to identify themselves in his characters. He is novels that have made their way into the hearts of able to chip away at stereotypes attributed to his young people across Belgium and France. Born characters, leaving behind only bare human nature, in Ixelles, a district in Brussels, in 1958, Andriat and he tackles issues of homophobia and racism studied philology at the Free University of Brus- with insight and sensitivity. Andriat does not sels and began writing in his early adulthood. He censor his characters; his primary purpose for his founded a magazine, Cyclope, with his peers in novels is to mirror real life, and that means incor- 1973. Since 1978, Andriat has dedicated himself porating the language of various social classes and to writing novels, short stories, and groups. Choosing not to remove essays for adults and teens, and, the reader from realistic situations, as a secondary school teacher at he has earned trust from young Athénée communal Fernand Blum people across the social spectrum in Schaerbeek, he is particularly in Belgium, and he is appreciated invested in the lives of young people. for his ability to give voice to young Since publishing his first teen novel, people who are typically silenced. Le Journal de Jamilla [ Jamilla’s Andriat’s work has been nomi- Diary] in 1986, Andriat has been nated and awarded with various beloved among young Belgian and French and Belgian literary awards, French readers, and he continues to nominations for the Prix Farniente delve into the issues faced by young (Belgium) and the Prix des incor- people all over the world. ruptibles (France) in 2004. His Andriat works to give voice novel Aurore Barbare [Barbarian to marginalized groups and individuals, and his Darwin] is showcased in the White Ravens Collec- texts connect to young readers by dealing with the tion at the International Youth Library in Munich, deepest and most difficult issues they face on a and won the Paul Hurtmans Prize in 2012. His daily basis. His novels make connections between books have sold tens of thousands of copies, and he individuals of differing backgrounds, lifestyles, continues to help struggling youth in France and cultures, and social positions. Through open- Belgium find their voices through sympathetic and minded narration and literary events that mirror accessible literary characters. the everyday lives of adolescents, Andriat finds a Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Je voudrais que tu… [I Would Like It if You…]. Paris: Grasset-Jeunesse, 2011. Print. • Journal de Jamila [Jamila’s Diary]. 1986. Namur: Mijade, 2008. Print. • Rose afghane [Afghan Rose]. Namur: Mijade, 2012. Print. • Tabou [Taboo]. 2003. Namur: Mijade, 2008. Print • Depuis ta mort [Since Your Death]. Paris: Grasset-Jeunesse, 2004. Print.

8 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Belgium Carll Cneut Belgium ★ Illustrator

“I can’t help fiddling with my pictures, day in, day out, almost like a man possessed.” Carll Cneut

Born in 1969 and the eldest of three children, boundaries of children’s book illustrations. Often Carll Cneut grew up in a small village on the incorporating cut-out images from other print Belgian-French border. From an early age, it media in his illustrations, Cneut says that he likes was clear that his life would be dedicated to art, to “show that those characters have a life before and Cneut studied graphic design at the Saint- the book.” He is also passionate about color, and Lucas Arts School in Gent. After a successful before beginning his illustrations he chooses academic career at Saint-Lucas, he went on to a palette that complements and enhances the work as an art director at a public agency, and the mood and theme of the story. While he adapts publication of his first illus- color to suit the story he is trative success, Varkentjes illustrating, he manages to van Marsepein [Piglets of project consistent elements Marzipan] (1996), marked of mystery and darkness the beginning of his career in through his images, and children’s book illustrations. draws readers into the Collaborating with Flemish depths of visual literary author Geert De Kockere, experience. Cneut went on to illustrate Over the course of his six more picturebooks, and career, Cneut has earned by 2000 he was illustrating an impressive number of full time. Currently, he awards, including a Gouden teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Uil, the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, two Boeken- and he contributes frequently to many children’s pauw awards, three Boekenpluims, and a Zilveren and adult magazines. He was also a member of Penseel. His picturebooks have also been trans- the International Jury for Illustrators Exhibition lated into thirty languages, thereby influencing at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2011. children from all over the world. Rather than focusing on publishing a large amount of books in short periods of time, Cneut Samantha Christensen focuses primarily on the quality of his work, often taking painstaking measures in order to ensure absolute perfection. His artistic style pushes the

Selected Bibliography • De blauwe vogel [The Blue Bird]. Ed. Maurice Maeterlinck and Do van Ranst. Wielsbeke: De Eenhoorn, 2011. Print. • Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants. Text Sam Swope. New York: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2004. Print. • Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal [The Secret of the Nightingale’s Throat]. Text Edward van Vendel. Wielsbeke: De Eenhoorn, 2008. Print. • Ten Moonstruck Piglets. Text Lindsay Lee Johnson. New York: Clarion, 2011. Print. • Varkentjes van Marsepein [Piglets of Marzipan]. Text Geert De Kockere. Wielsbeke: De Eenhoorn, 1996. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 9 author nominee: Brazil Joel Rufino dos Santos Brazil ★ Author

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1941, Joel Rufino dos to evoke meaning. Rufino is passionate about Santos boasts an exciting and eventful career. As informing his child readers of the political, social, a young man, he was inspired by the Bible, comic and historical backgrounds of Brazilian culture, books, and his grandmother, who was a popular and does so in a way that is both approachable storyteller. Reading was an immensely important and exciting. He does not target one particular age activity in his household, and given the fact that group—Rufino masterfully writes texts for each he was born during World War II stage of youth, and is able to make to an outspoken socialist father, connections with young people political literature was a topic from differing cultural and histor- of much discussion. His father’s ical backgrounds. He takes on deli- political leanings, along with cate issues such as racism, arranged his family’s connection to litera- marriage, political strife, and labor ture, impacted his later interest in exploitation with sensitivity and history and sociology, and during expertise. the political upheaval in Brazil in As both an essayist and a chil- the early sixties, he took courses in dren’s writer, Rufino has earned History at the Faculdade Nacional many awards and distinctions. de Filosofia. During his time as Most recently, he won the Jabuti a student, Rufino co-authored a Best Book of the Year Award for O volume of Brazilian historiography, barbeiro e o judeu da prestação contra o and was exiled to Bolivia and Chile until 1965 for sargento da motocicleta [The Barber and the Peddler his political views. Upon returning he earned his Jewish Man Against the Sergeant on the Motor- PhD in Communication and Culture. cycle]. He also won the Orígenes Lessa’s Best A professor and researcher of history, Rufino Book for Young People Award in 2000, and was often immerses his readers in rich historical narra- on the IBBY Honor List in 1981. He writes novels, tive, incorporating Brazilian folklore and cultural short stories, and magazine articles for children, narratives, especially those originating in Africa. which have been translated into various languages, He adapts these stories to suit the child reader including English, French, Japanese, and Arabic. with grace and attention to detail, and uses humor Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • O caçador de lobisomem [The Werewolf’s Hunter]. 1976. Illus. Rogéro Borges. São Paulo: Global, 2009. Print. • Uma estranha aventura em Talalai [A Strange Adventure on Talalai]. 1977. Illus. Jonatas Tobias. São Paulo: Global, 2012. Print. O grande pecadode Lampião e sua terrível peleja par entrar no Céu [The Great Sin of Lampião and His Terrible Fight to Get into Heaven]. Illus. Jô Oliviera. Belo Horizonte: Dimensão, 2005. Print. • El sabor de África: Historias de aquí y de allà [A Taste of Africa: Tales]. 1998. Illus. Cláudia Scatamacchia. São Paulo: Global, 2013. Print • Quando eu voltei, tive uma surpresa [When I Came Back I Had a Surprise]. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2000. Print. 10 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Brazil Roger Mello Brazil ★ Illustrator

“Illustration is the possibility of investigating narrative elements that pass through the graphic experience.” Roger Mello

Born in Brasília in 1965, Roger Mello has built nature surrounding them through his images. He an influential career as an illustrator, writer, and is passionate about storytelling, and he does not playwright. Over the course of his two-decade underestimate the developing understandings of career, he has illustrated over a hundred titles— children. He avoids heavy didactic or moralizing twenty-two of which he also wrote—and his overtones, and instead encourages his readers to unique style and adroit sense of color continues draw their own conclusion based on the images to push the boundaries of children’s book illus- and narrative at hand. tration. He pursued an education in Mello has won a number of design, and earned a degree in ESDI/ national and international awards UERJ Industrial Design and Digital for both his writing and illustrations, Programming from the Higher including three Brazilian section of School for Industrial Design at Rio IBBY’s Luís Jardim Awards, nine de Janeiro State University. Growing Concours Best Illustration Awards, up with a passion for drawing and and the Best Children’s Book 2002 literature, Mello dedicated his life to International Award for Meninos do exploring the history and culture of mangue. He has also been a part of Brazil through children’s illustrated numerous international children’s stories, and rather than relying on book fairs, and from November written narrative to tell the story, he invites his 2011 to February 2012 his work was exhibited young readers to fill the gaps with imagination. in the Internationala Jugendbibliothek at the Mello’s striking use of color and intricate design Blutenburg castle in Munich, Germany. This captivates his viewers and leaves them thinking same collection is currently on display as part about his images long after viewing them. It is of the Internationala Jugendbibliothek Itinerant impossible to glance briefly at Mello’s art; each Exhibitions project until December 2014. Mello’s viewing of his intricate and colorful works brings illustrations continue to inspire his young readers, to the surface different viewing experiences, and providing them with familiar and approachable he has a knack for drawing his readers/viewers images while encouraging imagination to fill in into his images. The textures, vibrant colors, and the narrative gaps, and he works to capture the depth of his illustrations provide a stimulating mysteries of childhood through rich, vibrant and engaging experience, and Mello is able to imagery. draw connections between his narratives and the Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Carvoeirinhos. São Paulo: Companhia das Letrinhas, 2009. Print. • Jardins [Gardens]. Text Roseana Murray. Rio de Janeiro: Manati, 2001. Print. • João por um fio [John by a Thread]. São Paulo: Companhia das Letrinhas, 2005. Print. • Meninos do mangue [Boys’ Mangrove]. São Paulo: Companhia das Letrinhas, 2011. Print. • Zubair e os labarintos [Zubair and the Mazes]. São Paulo: Companhia das Letrinhas, 2007. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 11 author nominee: Canada Kenneth Oppel Canada ★ Author

“A good book should first and foremost entertain and give pleasure, but a great book also makes its reader consider (or reconsider) difficult issues.” Kenneth Oppel

The beginning of Kenneth Oppel’s career as an au- followed him closely. In Canada, Oppel has won thor of children’s literature was auspicious indeed. the Governor General’s Award, the Canadian Li- At the age of fourteen, he finished his first com- brary Association’s Award, and the Vicky Metcalfe plete story, and a family friend who was acquainted Award for Children’s Literature. Oppel pleases his with Roald Dahl sent him the manuscript. Dahl many fans by releasing quality novels at a steady liked what he read so much that he helped get the rate. In 28 years of writing he has published 27 manuscript published through his own agent. The books, and his 28th is on its way to the presses. result was Colin’s Fantastic Video As a busy family man with Adventure, which was published three children and a prolific writ- when Opel was only seventeen ing career, Oppel has been a very years old. Opel’s career has never focused author, whose criteria in faltered since this first success. self-assessment is that the result Oppel’s success is no accident. of his labor is a good story that His writings for children and people enjoy. He has publicly young adults fall in the realm of balked at the notion of writing fantasy literature, especially ste- an ideologically charged work for ampunk. All of his novels are care- children. Oppel works in writing fully researched and methodically to support his family, and to that outlined before they are written. extent he works to write litera- Although Oppel values his orga- ture that is both thoughtful and nized approach, he acknowledges enjoyable. Many of his novels that much of his most engaging demonstrate an engagement with writing ends up being a calculated issues of ethical human relation to deviation from these outlines: “[I]nevitably, as you technological developments in the world. Recent write, you take all sorts of detours, and those are novels in the Frankenstein series have been wildly often the most inspired and original parts of the successful examples of Oppel’s visceral and incisive book.” engagement with contemporary issues. Oppel’s oeuvre has developed with every publication since his first in 1985, his breakout as an Taylor Kraayenbrink acclaimed author came in 1997 with Silverwing. Since then critics and readers in general have

Selected Bibliography • Colin’s Fantastic Video Adventure. Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1985. Print. • Half Brother. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010. Print. • Silverwing. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1997. Print. • Such Wicked Intent. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2012. Print. • This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.

12 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Canada Philippe Béha Canada ★ Illustrator

Philippe Béha is a dedicated advocate for the are oddly and invitingly cubist. benefits of Canadian bilingualism. Born in 1950 Béha’s success as a Canadian illustrator/author in Casablanca, Morocco, Béha immigrated with is widely and publicly noted. His work was the his parents to France when he was three. Béha centerpiece of the Toronto Dominion Bank’s attended university in France: the prestigious book giveaway program in 2012, when every first école des Beaux-arts de Strasbourg (Strasbourg grade child in Canada received his book I’ve Lost Fine Arts School). Philippe has lived in Canada My Cat. Béha’s work is also beloved in Mexico, since 1976, when he came to work as a graphic Korea, and the USA. artist for Radio-Quebec. As a children’s illustrator and Béha has published over 170 author, Béha strongly believes children’s books, flourishing as in the power of literature as an an English and French language interactive and exciting tool in author and illustrator. He often the holistic development of chil- publishes books as both the dren. Commenting on his nomi- author and illustrator, and his nation as a 2012 TD Canadian stories are beloved internation- Children’s Literature Award ally. However, Béha has been finalist, Béha noted the impor- especially noted for his distinc- tance of meaningful reading and tive illustration talent. The writing in a child’s life: “these Montreal Gazette has described are two activities that contribute his work this way: “Whether to children’s feelings of happi- you’re looking at one of the cartoonish, round- ness and freedom.” Béha certainly does his part nosed characters in his preschool picture books in using his talent to the best of his ability, and or the more detailed, mixed-media, sophisticated he also shares his talent with other aspiring art gracing his posters, magazine work or books artists whenever possible, teaching illustration for older readers, there’s no mistaking a Béha as an adjunct professor at UQAM (Université du illustration.” Béha deftly succeeds in maintaining Québec a Montréal) since 1991. Béha has been variety in his style; however, there is certainly a recognized for his achievements in community as notable Béha touch to all of his work. Although a member of the Royal Academy of Canada. Béha has mastered the art of soft edges and warm, appealing colors, his most notable illustrations Taylor Kraayenbrink

Selected Bibliography • Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook. Text Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple. Vancouver: Tradewind, 2006. Print. • J’ai perdu mon chat [I Lost My Cat]. Montreal: Imagine, 2008. Print. • The King Has Goat Ears. Text Katarina Jovanovic. Vancouver: Tradewind, 2008. Print. • Mon ami Henri [My Friend Henry]. Toronto: Scholastic, 2012. Print. • Le Monde de Théo [The World of Theo]. Text Louis Émond. Montreal: Hurtubise, 2011. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 13 author nominee: China Hongying Yang China ★ Author

“I didn’t have the slightest desire to become famous. Therefore, when I was writing, all I was concerned with was nothing but the kids.” Hongying Yang

As one of the most popular and beloved children’s writes from the perspective of a struggling teen. authors in China, Hongying Yang has impacted She is passionate about fostering a love for reading millions of children not only in China, but also all in children: with every book she writes she simulta- over the world. Yang was born in Chengdu, the neously encourages children to choose reading over capital of Sichuan Province in 1962, and she has television, computer games, and the Internet. Her followed a complex and interesting career path. She Mo’s Mischief series has helped millions of children began her adult life as an elementary school teacher, on their path through childhood, and the character then moved on to become a children’s book editor, of Mo has become one of the most recognizable until finally following her passion for children’s book children’s characters in twenty-first-century China. writing. She published her first Her ability to tap into the purity book, Seeds in a Lifejacket, a scien- and innocence of childhood allows tific fairytale, when she was nine- her to relate to her readers on a teen years old, and in the six years personal level. she was teaching primary school Yang has earned numerous she wrote over a hundred fairytales awards for her work, including the for her students. The stories for her 2011 Publication Project Award students were later published in a for The Green Dog’s Village, the 2010 collection called Hongying Yang’s Second Government Award for Science Fairy Tales Series, and her The Black Afternoon, and the 2007 quest to create approachable litera- Best Children’s Literature Award ture for children and young teens for Mo’s Mischief. Her stories have continued throughout her own also been translated into French, daughter’s childhood. German, English, and Korean, As her daughter transitioned from childhood into and therefore have influenced children interna- adolescence, Yang decided to relate to her through tionally as well as domestically. As she states in an literature, and wrote Girl’s Diary, a novel that went interview with Dr. Li Hong, “Writing is the only on to be considered the “growth guidebook for source of love and happiness to me. Even if I hadn’t adolescent girls today” in China. Taking the time achieved fame, I would keep writing for children. to relate to not only her daughter, but all the young Otherwise, my life would become meaningless.” people in her life, Yang writes with an adept sense of understanding in her YA novels, and flawlessly Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • The Diaries of Smiling Cat: The Blue Rabbit-Ear Grass. Jinan: Tomorrow, 2006. Print. • Girl’s Diary. Beijing: Writers’ Press, 2000. Print. • Mo’s Mischief: Four Troublemakers. 2003. London: Harper Collins, 2008. Print. • Picnic Surprise. Bath: Parragon, 2012. Print. • Why I Love Zai-Zai the Poodle: A Collection of Essays. Wuhan: Hubei Juvenile, 2012. Print. 14 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: China Liang Xiong China ★ Illustrator

“The eyes of children need exposure to beauty in the world, but this does not mean they cannot accept the concept of darkness.” Liang Xiong

Liang Xiong was born in Jiaxing, Zheijiang in history, he also believes that children should not 1975, and developed an artistic passion at the age be sheltered from darkness and death. Opening a of ten. With no formal training, Xiong taught child’s mind to these difficult issues, he suggests, himself Chinese ink painting and practiced in provides deeper experiences with kindness, truth, his own studio throughout his childhood. After and love, and provides the child reader with a finishing high school, he worked as a laborer, better sense of his or her own future. While his designer, and foreign trade businessperson, but illustrations do project an eerie, dark impression, he continued with his art throughout his early his subtle use of color and creative imagination career. Xiong began his first captivates his child readers and serious illustration project, illus- draws them into the depths of trations for The Complete Collec- the stories. tion of Lu Xun, in 1992, and the Since 2005, Xiong has won a project is still underway. In 2000, number of literary awards for his he began contributing regularly children’s book illustrations. He to various literary magazines, won the China Times Best Chil- and by 2001 he began seriously dren’s Book of the Year Award drawing again. for The Little Stone Lion in 2005, While Xiong’s drawings typi- China’s Most Beautiful Book of cally emphasize darkness and the Year Award for Lotus Back in lines, he also has a deep under- 2008, and he recently made the standing of color and blending. list for the 10 Best Books by the His picturebooks are overflowing Beijing News Weekly Magazine with stunning detail and rich, engaging imagery. for The Monster of Monsoon. He was also invited Just as he focuses detailed attention on his char- to illustrate a bicentennial edition of Hans Chris- acters, he also illustrates setting in vivid, pains- tian Andersen’s fairytales by the Hans Christian taking detail. Xiong is an innovative thinker—he Andersen Fund in Denmark in 2005. resists traditional, overly-infantile children’s book themes, and trusts his young readers to draw their Samantha Christensen own conclusions from his illustrations. While he acknowledges that traditional, moralistic children’s texts have benefited children throughout

Selected Bibliography • The Little Stone Lion. Alhambra, CA: Heryin, 2005. Print. • The Monster of Monsoon. Beijing: SDX, 2010. Print. • Story of the Year. Beijing: Tomorrow Publishing, 2007. Print. • The Tea Time on the Moon. Beijing: SDX, 2012. Print. • The Toy Rabbit Story. Alhambra, CA: Heryin, 2007. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 15 Illustrator nominee: Croatia Svjetlan Junaković Croatia ★ Illustrator

Svjetlan Junaković was born in Zagreb, Croatia in and illustration. 1961. Although drawing came first for Junaković— Junaković’s emphasis on play is evident in those he made his own cartoon films with a 8mm camera books that fold over, open up, and come to life. and drew strip cartoons as a child—his artistic As well, he has received much popular and crit- interests were mainly based in sculpture, which ical success. Animagicals (2001) was listed on the he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera Amazon.com Top 10 (editor’s choice) after publica- in Milan. It was not until he studied in the Cite tion. His picture book My Way was adapted into an Internationale des Arts in Paris that he reignited animated film that was nominated for and awarded his interest in illustration, and he immediately many prizes. The Great Book of Animal Portraits became much more serious about (2006) reinterprets famous Renais- this artistic mode. In addition to sance, Baroque, and Neoclassical having published over 300 illus- works of art, exchanging animal trated books, Junaković mentors subjects for the people that made young artists through his teaching them famous. These books and in Austria, Italy, and Spain. others have been translated into Junaković is a truly multi- many languages. skilled artist, delving into the art His works are so sophisticated of painting, sculpture, and illus- that both children and adults enjoy trating. However, it is his experi- them. He engages with a wide ence with drawing that is at the range of formats, as he navigates core of his artistic work, where easily between book form, scenog- he breathes life, humor, and wit into the stories he raphy and puppet design, international exhibitions, tells through text and image. His distinctive artistic magazines, and sculptures. He has won awards as style imbues other authors’ plots and characters diverse as multiple Grigor Vitez Prizes, the Fran with pictorial life, while enhancing the narration Levstik Award, the Prix Chronos de Litterature, and story for young readers. Junaković does not and the Milan Čečuk Award. He has two daughters impose limitations on his illustrations, nor does he and continues his artistic life focused on crafting subscribe to trends or mainstream patterns of chil- stories for children and young people. dren’s books. Instead, his distinct style and narrative voice characterize a forward momentum of writing Amy Bright

Selected Bibliography • Das Grosse Buch der klassichen Tierporträts [Big Book of Portraits]. München: Verlag Antje Kunstmann GmbH, 2011. Print. • Ljubav spašava živote [Love Saves Lives]. Zagreb: Algoritam, 2007. Print. • Moh put [My Way]. Zagreb: Algoritam, 2007. Print. • Nikola Tesla, Snovi koji sun am donijeli stuju [Nicola Tesla, Dreams that Brought Us Electricity]. Zagreb: Kigen d.o.o., 2006. Print. • Pequeño gran mundo [Little Big World]. Mexico City: Direccion General de Publicaciones, Conaculta, 2011. Print.

16 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Denmark Lene Kaaberbøl Denmark ★ Author “When writing for children and young people, the story is the heart of the matter. … Above all, the narrative, the story, has to be just right, and if it isn’t then all those fine themes will be of no account.” Lene Kaaberbøl

Lene Kaaberbøl was born in 1960 in Copenhagen, books demonstrate how difficult it is to survive Denmark. She began writing as soon as she was when leaders use propaganda and brute force to able to hold a pencil. Her parents encouraged her, control people. While some of her characters have and Kaaberbøl wrote many poems and stories, magical powers, others do not. Nevertheless, all of which were printed in children’s magazines. She them experience the struggles of growing up and won her first monetary prize when she was just finding their identities. As they encounter threats, seven years old. By fifteen, she had published her they learn the importance of being brave and using first two children’s novels, Den their strengths responsibly. One of første bog om Tina og hestene [The the most crucial messages young First Book about Tina and the readers can take away is that Horses] and Den anden bog om good and evil are not absolutes, Tina og hestene [The Second Book and this is articulated by Clara in about Tina and the Horses]. As Kaaberbøl’s Wildwich series who she grew older, she was inspired says, “Evil is not one big thing. by J.R.R. Tolkien and switched to It’s a hundred small ones. It is not fantasy writing. either-or. It’s both-and.” Kaaberbøl engaged in a variety Kaaberbøl’s books have of occupations to support her been translated into over thirty writing. After completing a degree languages, and she has won many in English and Drama from literary honors, including the Aarhus University in 1985, she Disney Novel of the Year Award, worked as a high school teacher, The Nordic Association of School copy writer, publishing editor, and Librarianship Children’s Book eventually became the owner of Phabel & Plott Prize, and she made the UK’s IBBY Honour Publishing. In 2002, she decided to become a full- List on two occasions. A feature film based on time writer. The Shamer Chronicles is presently under develop- What makes Kaaberbøl’s storytelling so ment. Currently, she lives in Sark, UK, where she successful is her ability to speak to the moment we continues to write for young adults between the live in without underestimating her young readers. ages of ten and fourteen. In The Shamer Chronicles, children have to engage in war and decide on the ethics of killing. Her Ayantika Mukherjee

Selected Publications • Salamanderens hjerte [The Salamander’s Heart]. W.I.T.C.H Adventure Series. London: Tempo, 2002. Print. • Skammerens datter [The Shamer’s Daughter]. Shamer Series. London: Hodder, 2002. Print. • Skyggeporten [Shadowgate]. Denmark: Phabel, 2006. Print. • Sølvhesten [Silverhorse]. Katriona Series. Denmark: Klematis, 1992. Print. • Vildheks 1: Ildprøven [Wildwitch 1: The Ordeal]. Wildwitch Series. Denmark: Alvilda, 2010. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 17 Illustrator nominee: Denmark Charlotte Pardi Denmark ★ Illustrator

Charlotte Pardi admits that finishing a picture romantically beautiful, and instead Pardi’s boys book leaves her feeling sad, as she becomes incred- and girls have freckles, big noses, and messy hair. ibly attached to the characters and their stories. She connects to her readers by offering them a Born in Spentrup in 1971, Pardi grew up with a realistic representation of everyday life, while passion for drawing—a passion she continues to put still playing with shapes and colors. Primarily to good use today. Her mother was a kindergarten using watercolors and pencil, Pardi’s unique style teacher, and she encouraged Pardi to express her strikes a balance between the bold and the tradi- creativity through artistic means. Pardi’s primary tional, creating calm spaces and relatable settings. interest lies in people—particularly children— While she does have a unique and recognizable and she fills her artistic literary style—thick lines and meticulous universes with expressive, viva- color—she does experiment with cious children. She is truly in love other artistic techniques, such as with her career as a children’s book her collage pieces in Farsdreng illustrator, and when faced with the [Daddy’s Boy]. Her style relates to question of her future, she admits children at each level of develop- that she cannot see herself on any ment, and grounds her readers in other career path, noting “the kids everyday Danish experience. would win out in the end.” Pardi’s illustrations have won Pardi pays close attention to the a number of awards and places in emotional responses of the charac- exhibits. Her work was on display ters she brings to life, making sure at the Bologna Book Fair in 2003 to express their feelings and reac- and the Itabashi Art Museum in tions in every situation. She works to evoke a deep Tokyo in 2010. In both 2000 and 2002 she placed connection between the characters and her child on the Honour List for the Danish Ministry of readers, and does so by relating to them on the level Culture award, and in 2002 she won the Carlsens of everyday life. She draws and paints her char- Fortællefantorden Award. Her books have also acters realistically—while the lines are intention- been translated into Russian, Japanese, German, ally wild and contorted, the color remains within and Swedish. them, as she works to portray the world through a child’s eyes. Her characters are not meant to be Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Farmanden [Daddy’s Boy]. Text Tina Schmidt. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2004. Print. • Frøken Ignora [Miss Ignorance]. Text Katrine Marie Guldager. Copenhagen: Carlsen, 2010. Print. • Græd blot hjerte [Cry Heart Cry]. Text Glen Ringtved. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2001. Print. • Hvad siger sneugleungen Ulla? [What Does Tula the Baby Snowy Owl Say?]. Text Mette Moestrup. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2009. Print. • Ridder Oskar og Kong Vinter [Sir Oscar and King Winter]. Text Ida-Marie Rendtorff. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2009. Print. 18 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Estonia Aino Pervik Estonia ★ Author

“Children’s literature on its highest level is undoubtedly art.” Aino Pervik

Throughout the course of her career, Aino Pervik the text. Keeping Estonian culture and everyday has delighted child readers over three generations, experience in mind, Pervik also takes on folklore and has become the most appreciated children’s and mythical motifs, putting a modern spin on author in Estonia. Born in Rakvere, Estonia in the traditional stories and incorporating them 1932, Pervik attended high school in Tallinn and into relatable children’s tales. Nature is an impor- earned a degree in Finno-Urgric Philology from tant theme in Pervik’s work, and books such as Tartu State University in 1955. From there she Kunksmoor [Old Mother Kunks] (1973) discuss moved to Tallinn, where she spent some time the importance of nature throughout Estonian editing children’s books at the cultural history. Her ability to Estonian State Publishing House, strike a balance between tragedy and she later worked as an editor and comedy, and history and of children’s programming at the modernity allow her to capti- Estonian Television studio. She vate her readers, as she has over has been writing full-time since the course of her near fifty-year 1967, after publishing her first career. children’s book, Kersti sõber Miina Since beginning her career, [Kersti’s Friend Miina], in 1961. Pervik has earned many awards Pervik is considered the bravest and literary distinctions, along children’s writer in contemporary with having her books translated Estonia, as she takes on difficult into English, German, Russian, themes of immigration, cultural Japanese, Finnish, and a number conflict, corruption, and the loss of other languages. While much of cultural identity. Her young readers are exposed of her artistic expression is embedded in Estonian to cultural issues throughout Estonia’s history, yet language, Pervik has been able to influence chil- Pervik’s sensitivity to and understanding of children from various backgrounds all over the world. dren’s literary expectations mean that each of her In 2004, she won the Nukits Young Readers’ stories offer comfort and solace toward the end. Choice Award for her Paula series, and Paula õpib While her stories do present a definite ethical emakeelt [Paula Learns Her Mother Tongue] was dimension, she resists forthright didacticism nominated for the IBBY Honour List. and encourages her young readers to read critically and understand the moral issues implicit in Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Arabella, The Pirate’s Daughter. 1982. Illus. Edgar Valter. Trans. Külli Jacobson. Tallinn: Tänapäev, 2011. Print. • Kersti sõber Miina [Kersti’s Friend Miina]. Tallinn: Kirjastus Tirtiamm, 1961. Print. • Kunksmoor [Old Mother Kunks]. 1973. Illus. Edgar Valter. Tallinn: Tammerraamat, 2012. Print. • Paula aabits [Paula’s Book of ABCs]. Illus. Piret Raud. Tallinn: Kirjastus Tiritamm, 2007. Print. • Paula õpib emakeelt [Paula Learns Her Mother Tongue]. Illus. Piret Raud. Tallinn: Kirjastus Tiritamm, 2009. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 19 author nominee: Finland Kirsi Kunnas Finland ★ Author

Kirsi Kunnas is a figure who looms large on the and the gleefully carnivalesque. However, the reader scene of Finnish children’s literature. Kunnas has must not forget that Kunnas’s work is often still sub- been a major agent in the development of this field tly inclined towards public responsibility, and always for nearly sixty years. Finnish people recognize her maintains an ethical allegiance to social and political work as comprising “poems and stories that unite reform. Kunnas can provide a poem that comments generations.” In fact, Finnish commentators refer to on the universal sense of human loneliness, and in Kunnas as “the mother of modern Finnish children’s the next poem she might obliquely criticize the ex- lyric poetry.” cesses of commercialism on television. Kunnas first emerged as a lead- No matter what the topic of a ing children’s author in 1954 with Kunnas poem may be, both poem the publication of her translation of and topic are likely to be easily recog- The Tall Book of Mother Goose after nized in Finnish culture. Her work is writing several poetry collections for central to the nation’s national litera- adults. She published her own collec- ture, and, like many Hans Christian tion of children’s poetry in 1956 with Andersen Award Nominees, Kirsi The Tumpkin’s Wonder Tree. Kunnas’s Kunnas is no stranger to official pub- poetry in this collection was multi- lic recognition of her contributions layered, addressed to a double audi- to children’s literature. Kunnas first ence of children and adults. In fact, received recognition for her work in since her earliest publications, Kun- the early stages of her career. She has nas has distinguished herself as an been honored with the Finnish State author able to address both children and adults in the Award for Literature four times. She was a recipient same text, and she has, as a rule, provided incisive of the Tirlittan Prize in 1993 for her life’s work in and deliberate social commentary in all her work. literature, and she received the Finnish State Award Her publications could in many cases be classified as for contribution to Children’s Culture in 1996. reform literature. Finnish children’s literature critics recognize Kun- Taylor Kraayenbrink nas’s vast corpus of poetry as liberating the national tradition from “boring didacticism,” instead gestur- ing towards rich polysemity, allusive intertextuality,

Selected Bibliography • Aikamme lukukirja: 2–5 [Reading Book]. Helsinki: WSOY, 1969-72. Print. • Kis kis kissanpennut [Kis Kis Kittens]. Helsinki: Weilin + Göös, 1968. Print. • Lintuystävämme—Tietoa linnuista. 1–6. [Our Friend the Bird: Information About Birds] Illus. Kyllikki Röman. Hel- sinki: WSOY, 1969. Print. • Tapahtui Tiitiäisen maassa [It Happened in Tumpkin Land]. Helsinki: WSOY, 2004. Print. • Tiitiäisen satupuu [The Tumpkin’s Wonder Tree]. Helsinki: WSOY, 1956. Print.

20 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Finland Pekka Vuori Finland ★ Illustrator

Over the course of his career, Pekka Vuori has and small, and Vuori consistently obscures the enamored his young readers with illustrations conventional boundaries between reality and of both his own writing and those of collabora- fantasy. Vuori uses various techniques in his illus- tive literary projects. Born in 1935, Vuori was trations, including watercolor, screen print, and accepted into Helsinki’s Institute of Applied gouache, and his images, with heavy line work Arts when he was seventeen-years old, and soon and layers of rich, vibrant colors, draw his young began publishing illustrations in magazines, readers deep into the stories. He encourages his newspapers, and numerous books for both chil- readers to engage critically with his illustrations, dren and adults. His art has often relying not only on the words to tell been used as a means of introducing a story, but creating a relationship Finnish culture to foreigners, as between the visual and the literary. he is able to capture the beauty of As one of the most important Finland’s geography and customs illustrators in Finnish children’s while maintaining a playful, whim- literature over the course of four sical style. Vuori pushes the bound- generations of readers, Vuori has aries of illustration in his work, earned a number of awards, and and is passionate about surprising his art has been on display in many his young readers and encouraging exhibits in Finland and Japan. His them to see situations from many first award was the 1969 Church perspectives. of Finland Film Award, and since With a knack for capturing in then he has been awarded various detail the beauty of nature, espe- distinctions, his latest being cially that of winter, Vuori’s humor the 2012 Order of the Lion of and lightheartedness shine through in his work. Finland—Pro Finlandia Medal. He currently Along with collaborating with various authors, resides in an old area of Helsinki, where the roar Vuori also illustrates his own texts, and his illus- of the lion at the nearby Korkeassari Zoo often trations bring to life figures from Finnish folk- awakes him. tales and myths. His art, much like that in Into, Samantha Christensen parrakas vauva [Into, the Bearded Baby], plays with distinctions between old and young, large

Selected Bibliography • Into, parrakas vauva [Into, the Bearded Baby]. Text Kaarina Helakisa. Helsinki: Otava, 1985. Print. • Jättiläiset [The Giant]. Ed. Marja Härkönen. Helsinki: SKS, 1981. Print. • Kadonneet alushameet [The Lost Underskirts]. Helsinki: Otava, 1987. Print. • Käpälämäki: Suomen kansan satuja [The Pawn Hill: Finnish Folk Tales]. Helsinki: Kirjasieppo, 1977. Print. • Korvatunturi. Tarinoita joulupukin valtakunnasta [Korvatunturi: Tales from the Land of Santa Claus]. Helsinki: Otava, 1999. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 21 author nominee: France Jean-Claude Mourlevat France ★ Author

“I have the impression that, in fiction, I am getting as close as possible to the truth in people.” Jean-Claude Mourlevat

Jean-Claude Mourlevat was born in 1952 in me. To play, because I hate to bore my readers and Ambert, France, and was raised in a large family myself.” Some of his works carry a light-hearted, in the country. He was educated in Strasbourg, often humourous tone, but beneath even his most Toulouse, and Paris in France, and studied in light-hearted work, Mourlevat is a serious author Germany at Stuttgart. After his education he whose work addresses weighty themes of aban- taught German for some time, and then became a donment, solitude and violence. However, he does theatre actor. Mourlevat eventually directed plays not seek to leave his characters in unhappy places by famous playwrights such as Brecht and Shake- in his novels, and critics note the humanist drive speare. Critics have recognized the behind all of Mourlevat’s novels. influence of Mourlevat’s time as an Mourlevat crafts his humanist actor and director in his writing, stories by drawing on an extensive as he has a special gift for creating knowledge of myths and folktales, richly layered and engaging reinterpreting them as he weaves dialogue. them into his own narratives. Mourlevat did not enter the field Mourlevat’s prose also reveals a of children’s literature until later in musical ear, and his books are his life, publishing his first novel, full of rhythmic language. His La Balafre, in 1998. This book was works can be classified largely as quite successful, and it prompted young adult fiction, but he rejects Mourlevat to devote himself full the contemporary attraction in time to writing for children. Since this field to explicit depictions of then, his writing success has taken violence and sexuality. However, him all over the world in support of this refusal to consistently engage his publications. with contemporary trends is not Mourlevat is a distinctive author on the at all due to prudish morality. Instead, Mourlevat French scene of children’s literature. He has an attributes it to his “literary references,” tradition- affinity for telling adventure stories, into which he ally classic works of literature. blends magic, science fiction, fantasy, and fable. Explaining his genre-bending practice, Mourlevat Taylor Kraayenbrink attributes it to “the desire to go further, to change genre, to explore worlds that were unknown to

Selected Bibliography • La Balafre [The Scar]. Paris: Pocket Jeunesse, 1998. Print. • Le Chagrin du roi mort [The Dead King’s Chagrin]. Paris: Gallimard Jeunesse, 2009. Print. • La Combat d’Hiver. [Winter Song]. Illus. Christian Heinrich. Paris: Gallimard Jeunesse, 2006. Print. • L’Enfant Ocean [The Pull of the Ocean]. Paris: Pocket Junior, 1999. Print. • Terrienne [Terrestrial Girl]. Paris: Gallimard Jeunesse, 2011. Print.

22 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: France François Place France ★ Illustrator

“What great fun it is to take the reader into a fictive world and then take him so far into this world that it seems real.” François Place

François Place, born in Ezanville France in 1957, fantasy lands. His imagination is also a large part began his career as an illustrator for advertising of his success, because in actuality, he has not trav- companies after studying at École Entienne, a elled widely. Since he was a child, Place has been school of art and design. After a dubious begin- a prolific reader, engaging in books, maps, atlases, ning, Place began illustrating children’s books, and engravings from all periods. His genre lies including the novels of La Comtesse de Segur in somewhere between fiction and documentary, a 1983. Place’s real talent, however, became apparent cross between historical/geographical realities after he took the leap from illustrating non-fiction and imaginary worlds, through which he hopes books for other authors in 1986 to writing and to inspire readers of all ages. Place constructs illustrating his own orig- characters who rise from inal stories, falling some- obscurity to become the where between fiction and unsung hero, though not non-fiction, in 1992. before they are helped by a Place’s stories are as wise teacher of some kind, unusual as his ascent into and in doing so, writes of illustrative success. His human complexity along first triumph, Les derniers with the fragility and géants, relates the fictional originality of different story of an English explor- worlds. These imaginative er’s journey and experi- landscapes are presented ence with a peaceful clan of giants, though the to the reader through various artistic forms, from text hovers closely over non-fiction as it chronicles pencil to brush, wash drawing and tinted ink to the impact of Western society on other cultures. watercolor. His technique is varied as well, as His next success, L’Atlas des géographes d’Orbae, Place tends to draw artistic insight from context of published between 1996 and 2000, is a three- the story, which can range from meticulous detail volume masterpiece that mimics books of Atlases to sprawling illustration. In whichever way Place in describing 26 imaginary countries based on the represents a narrative, he is always successful. He letters in the alphabet. is the holder of a number of awards, and made the Place has been named the “bedroom traveller” IBBY Honor List of France as an author in 1994. and “the architect of the imagination” because most of his stories include mysterious travel to far-away Tia Lalani

Selected Bibliography • L’Atlas des géographes d’Orbae [Atlas of Geographers Orbae]. Belgium: Casterman, 1996. Print. • Les derniers géants [The Last Giants]. Belgium: Casterman, 2012. Print. • La fille des batailles [Daughter Battles]. Belgium: Casterman, 2007. Print. • Le roi des trois orients [King of the Three Orients]. France: Rue du Monde, 2006. Print. • Le secret d’orbae [The Secret Orbae]. Belgium: Casterman, 2012. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 23 author nominee: Germany Mirjam Pressler Germany ★ Author

Mirjam Pressler was born in Darmstadt, Germa- books new life as they become available to interna- ny in 1940. Pressler is of Jewish descent, and was tional audiences. Pressler translated a revised edi- raised by foster parents who were old enough to be tion of Anne Frank’s diary, which led to her writ- her grandparents; this and her experiences in an ing Ich sehne mich so…Die Lebensgeschichte der Anne orphanage influenced her childhood. She attended Frank, a biography of Anne Frank. Her focus on the Frankfurt Academy and Fine Arts in Munich the Holocaust and Jewish childhoods continued before living in a kibbutz in Israel. She worked a se- when she edited a collection of letters circulated ries of various jobs to support her family before ex- among members of the Frank family and friends, periencing the success of her first published novel, making the lives of these individuals accessible to Bitterschokolade [Bitter Chocolate], readers. An ambassador of children’s written at the age of forty. literature, Pressler’s work as a trans- Pressler’s books for children and lator brings international attention to adolescents have been translated into books for young people. numerous languages, such as Italian, Pressler is the recipient of numer- Chinese, Japanese, French, English, ous awards including the Friedrich- and Spanish, making them avail- Bödecker Prize (1998), the German able to readers internationally. Her Book Award (2004), the Bavarian books tell a wide range of stories that Order of Merit (2006), the German are important to young people, and Children’s Literature Special Award span both historical and contempo- (2010), and the Buber Rosenzweig rary contexts. For example, Pressler’s Medal (2013). Her books are anti- first published work, Bitterschokolade, authoritarian and place emphasis on describes Eva, an overweight teenager navigating children and young people overcoming the prob- the difficult experiences that come with construct- lems central to their lives. Many already hold a clas- ing a stable sense of identity. Ein Buch für Hanna [A sic status, and as such, will continue to be read by Book for Hanna] is set during the summer of 1939, children over the world well into the future. Pressler while Golem, stiller Bruder [Golem, Silent Brother] has three daughters and continues to work as a free- is set in 1600. lance writer and translator just outside of Munich. Still, Pressler’s fiction is only one facet of her writing life. Her translations of books from He- Amy Bright brew, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, and English give Selected Publications • Ein Buch für Hanna [A Book for Hanna]. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg, 2011. Print. • Golem stiller Bruder [Golem, Silent Brother]. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg, 2007. Print. • Ich sehne mich so…Die Lebensgeschichte der Anne Frank [I Long So…The Life History of Anne Frank]. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg, 1992. Print. • Malka Mai. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg, 2001. Print. • Novemberkatzen [November Cats]. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg, 1982. Print. 24 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Germany Rotraut Susanne Berner Germany ★ Illustrator

Rotraut Susanne Berner was born in Stuttgart, flast screen printing—and while she does assert Germany in 1948, and studied graphic design at herself as somewhat of an artistic chameleon, she the Munich University of Applied Sciences in her maintains a recognizable style that shines through young adulthood. Since beginning her career as a in her work. Her passion for wordless picture books freelance graphic designer and illustrator in 1977, means that she pays close attention to detail, incor- Berner has become one of the most celebrated and porating as much narrative features in her crafted respected children’s illustrators in Germany. She images as possible. Her art primarily tells a story, has illustrated over eighty children’s books, some and grounds her young readers in a world of wonder of which she has written herself, and that is not too removed from their has designed close to eight hundred own everyday lives. book covers. Her main interest Since the beginning of her career, lies in wordless picture books, Berner’s artwork has gained much and she accommodates her very interest in the way of awards and young readers by telling captivating distinctions. She earned her first and intricate stories through rich, award, the Celestino-Piatti Prize detailed illustrations. for book graphic design, in 1983, Berner’s style has become a and since then has been nominated benchmark among German illustra- for many awards. She is active in the tors, making her a common name in children’s illustration community, art and illustration circles, and she and co-founded the Illustratoren has set new standards for illustra- Treffpunkt [Illustrator’s Meeting] at tion and design. Her use of various the Frankfurt Bookfair in the 1990s. shapes and color allows her to strike a balance She remains dedicated to children’s book illustra- between realism and fantasy, solemnity and light- tion, and continues to inspire her young readers heartedness. Berner has a flair for incorporating with her meticulous and enchanting picture books. multiple perspectives into her work, and creates a visual realm where fish fly, houses float, and size Samantha Christensen does not matter. Her technique varies between many artistic forms—pen and ink, heavy brushstrokes, thick line work in contrast with rich colour,

Selected Bibliography • Als der Tod zu uns kam [When Death Came to Us]. Text Jürg Schubiger. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer, 2011. Print. • Dunkel war´s, der Mond schien helle [It was Dark Outside, the Moon was Bright]. Ed. Edmund Jacoby. Hildesheim: Ger- stenberg, 1999. Print. • Frühlings-Wimmelbuch [Spring Wimmel Book]. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 2004. Print. • Karlchen-Geschichten [Stories of Little Charly]. Munich: Hanser, 2003. Print. • Die Prinzessin kommt um vier [The Princess Arrives at Four]. Text Wolfdietrich Schnurre. Berlin: Aufbau, 2000. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 25 author nominee: Greece Sophia Madouvalou Greece ★ Author

Early on, Sophia Madouvalou learned that the young readers to approach the issues that come up two most important things in life are humor and in her books with critical thought and reasoning, imagination, and keeping these important quali- and intends for them to take away lessons that ties in mind has helped shape her prolific career they can put to good use in their everyday lives. in children’s literature. Born in Athens in 1949, Rather than blindly accepting conventional Madouvalou dedicated herself to developmental understandings of morality, Madouvalou encour- psychology and education, all the while recog- ages her young readers to develop their own moral nizing the significance of creative expression in compasses. She is passionate about Greek culture, early childhood development. Over the course often weaving traditional folklore and mythology of her three-decade career, she has into her texts, and her interest in the published over seventy children’s surreal harmonizes perfectly with titles and has become influential in the traditional language of folktales. children’s prose, poetry, and educa- Madouvalou is not only beloved tional programming in Greece. She among child readers, but she is also is passionate about bringing chil- immensely popular in academic dren closer to literature, and often circles, as her works have been runs workshops and presentations studied in children’s literature disci- in schools all across Greece and the plines at both undergraduate and Hellenic European countries. graduate levels. She has earned a Madouvalou’s literature is targeted number of awards and distinctions at children in pre-school and early primary educa- for her books. In 2005, she received the Greek tion levels, but some of her poetry is popular Children’s Book Circle Commendation for The among adolescents and young adults. Her books Hare’s Egg, and was shortlisted for the 2013 Anag- tackle pertinent issues such as ecology, racism, and nostes Prize for The Prince Who Turned into a Castle. identity, and sensitively approach everyday child- Extracts of her work have also been featured in hood struggles. Her work teaches lessons of self- the Hellenic Ministry of Education’s anthology respect, love, and friendship, but her approachable for primary school, and she has influenced chil- and humorous style allows her to spread awareness dren from all over the world through her many about these issues without relying on heavy didac- translations. ticism and moral critique. Madouvalou trusts her Samantha Christensen Selected Bibliography • Alla ta matia maimous ki alla tis koukouvagias [Monkeys and Owls Don’t See Things Alike]. Illus. Eleni Tsampra. Athens: Patakis, 2008. Print. • Fafagos, o Fafoutis mirmigofagos [Mumbly the Toothless Anteater, or The Elusive Fairy Tale]. Illus. Despina Karapanou. Athens: Patakis, 2007. Print. • I foresies tou feggariou. [The Moon’s New Dresses]. Illus. Andreas Karabelas. Athens: Kedros, 2005. Print. • O Riko Kokoriko [Riko Kokoriko]. Illus. Teti Solou. Athens: Militos, 2003. Print. • To archontopoulo pou egine pirgos [The Prince Who Turned into a Castle]. Illus. Vasso Psaraki. Athens: Patakis, 2012. Print. 26 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Greece Daniela Stamatiadi Greece ★ Illustrator

Daniela Stamatiadi was born in 1972 in Athens, of this style in action is The Promise (written by Greece. She studied her craft at the Athens Anna Conomos). In other illustrations, Stama- School of Fine Art. Stamatiadi has been a chil- tiadi’s minimalism takes over. She is a master of dren’s book illustrator for over a decade, and has minimal colour and powerful but spare detail. In successfully been the illustrator of over seventy these illustrations she uses a sketch-like approach; publications. She has published books with all oftentimes, most of the illustrations look like major presses in Greece, and she teaches illustra- mere pencil sketches. This sketch is then set off tion at various private colleges in Greece. Stama- by a distinctive and pronounced detail (made tiadi has been the recipient pronounced by its singularity). of several prestigious awards, For example, a pencilled wolf including the 2010 Greek might have a red tongue, or IBBY illustration award for a black and white sketched her book Von Kourabies versus child could have a red dimple. Count Melomakoronis. Besides being a very effective Stamatiadi’s illustrations method of illustration in that are fitting for a wide variety of it is distinctive, this mini- subjects. She illustrates many malism is also quite refined, stories; the subject matter and it sets Stamatiadi apart could be children who don’t as a children’s book illustrator like their fish dinners, or it could be a nature whose work has great value as art for adults as poem. Stamatiadi’s style as an illustrator defies well. As the popular Greek children’s author, neat definitions, and this is why she is able to suit Maria Angelidou, has noted, Stamatiadi’s work her work to so many books. She is by all accounts has value “for all those who rejoice to hear and an incredibly versatile artist. Her style ranges see beauty.” from being almost photographic in some books to Taylor Kraayenbrink deliberately stripped down, strikingly primitive, in other books. Her more elaborate and realistic paintings come through as portraits. In these, Stamatiadi uses a variety of colours and shadings to achieve a vibrancy and warmth that is innocent and inviting to the reader. A wonderful example

Selected Bibliography • The Little Empty Christmas Book. Text Kyriakos Haritos. Athens: Metaixmio, 2010. Print. • Milena and the Horrible Fish. Text Soti Triantafyllou. Athens: Patakis, 2011. Print. • The Most Beautiful Thing in the World. Text Anna Damianidi. Athens: Potamos, 2012. Print. • The Promise. Text Anna Conomos. Athens: Potamos, 2012. Print. • Von Courabies Versus Count Melomakaronis. Text Helen Svoronou. Athens: Metaixmio, 2010. Print.

IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 27 author nominee: Iran Houshang Moradi Kermani Iran ★ Author

For the past four decades, Houshang Moradi Ker- IBBY. His deeply humanistic style attracts young mani has dedicated his life to creating meaningful readers from many generations—as he has been and influential literature for children and young publishing children’s texts for over forty years— people in Iran. Born in the village of Sirch in 1944, and while Iran has faced many political struggles Kermani was raised by his grandparents after that have created divisions among generations, losing his mother as an infant. With his grand- Kermani’s work is able to bridge these gaps and mother a traditional doctor and his grandfather transcend political and cultural boundaries. His a village elder and storyteller, Kermani was im- works shed light on issues of poverty, nature, mersed in storytelling and written narrative from cultural traditions, and marginalized groups, as an early age. His uncle, a teacher, he embeds his young reader in the ensured he was surrounded by clas- depths of human experience. sic Iranian literature throughout his Just as Kermani transcends po- childhood and adolescence, which litical and ideological boundar- functioned for Kermani as an an- ies through his focus on human tidote to the oppressive education nature, so too does he transcend system in rural Iran. After second- geographic and cultural boundar- ary school, Kermani attended the ies. His books have been trans- Dramatic Arts College in Tehran, lated into more than twenty lan- and later received his BA in English guages, including English, Span- Language, after which he launched ish, French, German, Arabic, and his literary career. Russian, and these translated works Kermani’s passion for dramatic include his autobiography, Shoma ke arts and literature gained him access garibeh nistid [All Between Us/Be- into literary circles, and by the 1970s he had creat- lieve It or Not]. Since 1981, Kermani has earned a ed nationally-adored fictional characters and had number of literary awards, including many Chil- begun writing stories about child carpet weavers dren’s Book Council of Iran’s Best Book of the in Iran. His first book on the subject, published in Year Awards, Switzerland’s Blue Cobra Award in 1980, Bachehaye Qalibafkhaneh [The Children of 1994, and the Ministry and Culture and Guid- the Carpet Weaving Factory], caught the atten- ance’s National Book Prize in 2006. tion of the Children’s Book Council, along with Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Bechehaye Qalibafkhaneh [Carpet-Weaving Factory Children]. 1980. Trans. Chris Lear and Soheila Sahabi. Tehran: Mo’in, 2000. Print. • Chakmeh [The Boot]. Tehran: Sahab, 1984-87. Print. • Na Tar va na Khoshk [Neither Dry nor Wet]. Tehran: Mo’in, 2003. Print. • Nakhl [The Date Palm]. Tehran: Sahab, 1982. Print. • Qesseha-ye Majid [The Stories of Majid]. Tehran: Sahab, 1983-87. Print. 28 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Ireland Eoin Colfer Ireland ★ Author

Born in 1965 in Wexford on the Southeast coast numerous awards, including the WH Smith of Ireland, Eoin Colfer first began to write while People’s Choice Award, the Irish World Litera- he was in primary school. His mother was a ture Award, and the British Book Awards Chil- drama teacher and his father a primary school dren’s Book of the Year. teacher, historian, and artist, so it is perhaps Artemis Fowl, perhaps Colfer’s most famous not surprising that he grew up with a love for book—and character, for that matter—has played the arts. He was inspired by the Viking history an enormous role in his launch into literary super- learned about in his early education, and his early stardom. It is currently being developed into a film writing derives from this child- by Miramax, and the gripping hood passion. Colfer earned his plot and fast-paced nature of the Bachelor of Education Degree in novel meshes well with the film Dublin, and after he graduated industry. The engaging content he returned to Wexford to be an of his novels is delivered through elementary school teacher. From clever humor and compelling wit, 1992 to 1996, Colfer and his wife and Colfer’s approachable writing worked in various places across style makes his novels enjoyable the globe—Saudi Arabia, Italy, in every aspect of reading. He and Tunisia. It was in Tunisia often deals with difficult topics where he was inspired to write like death, morality, poverty, and his first novel, Benny and Omar, cultural differences in a way that which was published in 1998 and is not overbearing, but accessible. won the White Raven Award. A Eoin Colfer’s ability to captivate year later, Colfer wrote a sequel, his readers while incorporating Benny and Babe, which was the important social and cultural first of three of his books that have been short- issues into his texts makes him as one of the listed for the 2000 Bisto Book of the Year Award. most influential authors in his field, and one of These accomplishments launched Colfer’s career Ireland’s bestselling children’s authors. as a critically acclaimed author. Publishing dozens of books in many languages Samantha Christensen and countries all over the world, Colfer has won

Selected Bibliography • Airman. London: Puffin, 2008. Print. • Artemis Fowl. London: Puffin, 2001. Print. • Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel. Text Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin. Illus. Givanni Rigano and Paolo Lamanna. London: Puffin, 2007. Print. • The Legend of Spud Murphy. London: Puffin, 2004. Print. • The Wish List. Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2000. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 29 Illustrator nominee: Ireland P. J. Lynch Ireland ★ Illustrator

Born in Belfast Ireland in 1962, the youngest of attempts a story, and often uses photographs or five children, P. J. Lynch has noted that “burying real life models on which to base his characters. [himself] in books, and the little worlds they Although Lynch does not have a large body of created on a page, was a good way of escaping work, his meticulous attention to detail inspires for a while from the horrors that were happening the reader to go beyond the surface in each and around [him] in the real world.” Lynch pursued every one of his illustrations. The work itself is his own personal form of escape and studied also quite varied, as Lynch’s images can quickly under Raymond Briggs at Brighton College of go from endearing to grotesque, and he demon- Art. Studying in Brighton lead directly to Lynch’s strates skill in portraying an epic landscape on first publication, the illustrations one page while conveying the for a collection of tales from intimacy of a domestic scene on England and Wales titled A Bag the next. of Moonshine, which won him the Lynch has illustrated stories Mother Goose award in 1986, from some of the greats, including and he has won several awards Edith Nesbit, William Butler since. Yeats and Oscar Wilde. He has Lynch’s impressive use of also created posters for Opera light and contrast creates his Ireland and the Abbey Theatre, characteristic serious style. as well as a Christmas stamp Instead of simply describing the collection for the Irish post, and text at hand, Lynch works hard in 2006, completed two large- to point the reader towards his scale oil murals depicting scenes or her own observations about atmosphere and from Gulliver’s Travels at the Cavan County emotion, using warm colors or cool colors where Library. Lynch’s ability to branch out of the appropriate. Lynch’s original illustrations only conventional mold of a children’s book illustrator made use of ink and watercolor, though he has is a testament to his diverse skill, and although now includes oils, and uses computer graphics Lynch professes to draw not only for children but when he begins a project. The way Lynch goes also for all ages, he has had great success in the about his illustrations proves just as interesting field of children’s literature. as the finished product. He takes his time in researching image and text before he even Tia Lalani

Selected Bibliography • A Christmas Carol. Text Charles Dickens. UK: Walker, 2006. Print. • The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. Text Susan Wojciechowski. UK: Walker, 1994. Print. • Mysterious Traveller. Text Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham. UK: Walker, 2013. Print. • The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Text Hans Christian Andersen. UK: Andersen, 1993. Print. • When Jessie Came Across the Sea. Text Amy Hest. UK: Walker, 1996. Print. 30 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Italy Bianca Pitzorno Italy ★ Author

Bianca Pitzorno was born in Sassari in 1942, has broken numerous taboos of children’s litera- but lives and works in Milan. After a degree in ture, such in her masterpiece L’Incredibile Storia Classical Literature with an MA in Cinema and di Lavinia [The Incredible Story of Lavinia], Television, in 1970 Pitzorno started a seven-year where the author deals with death and excre- collaboration with the Italian state-owned broad- ment. The tale that recounts the misfortunes of caster RAI as head of the production of cultural a hungry, cold little match girl who faces death, programmes for the young audience. is reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, Pitzorno is considered to have created a new but Pizorno parodies the original tale by giving season of literature for children Lavinia a magic ring that trans- and young readers in Italy. The forms objects into excrements. author, a left-wing feminist, is Rather complex allusions to much beloved by young girls, literary works, history, art, and especially because her books international classical literary usually focus on female charac- works are one of her hallmarks. ters with complex personalities. She responds to criticisms that Pitzorno has written more the complex allusions to clas- than 40 books, in which she sical literary works in many deals with many controversial of texts are only accessible to and complex issues, ranging middle-class, well-educated from diversity and childhood, readers by claiming that young to a multitude of environmental, readers should be challenged to social and political problems read works they find difficult. (for instance, pollution, political For instance, one of her latest corruption, social class, and race). creations, La Bambinaia Fran- Although her works range over such a wide cese [The French Governess], contains references variety, her plots have always remained imagina- to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. However, it is tive, stylish, and amusing. The fact that some of Ascolta il Mio Cuore [Listen to My Heart] that is her books are illustrated by the great illustrator widely regarded as one of her best creations. It is Quentin Blake. a moving realistic novel that takes place in Italy Pitzorno, who strongly believes that children’s after World War II. authors should not tone down their writings, Melissa Garavini

Selected Bibliography • Ascolta Il Mio Cuore [Listen to My Heart]. Illus. Quentin Blake. Milan: Mondadori, 1991. Print. • l grande raduno dei cow boy [The Largest Gathering of Cowboys]. Rome: Edizioni Svizzere della Gioventù, 1970. Print. • La Bambinaia Francese [The French Governess]. Milan: Mondadori, 2004. Print. • L’Incredible Storia di Lavinia [Lavinia’s Extraordinary History]. Illus. Quentin Blake. Milan: Mondadori, 2005. Print. • Polissena del Porcello [Polisenna and her Pig]. Illus. Quentin Blake. Milan: Mondadori, 1993. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 31 Illustrator nominee: Italy Fabian Negrin Italy ★ Illustrator

Fabian Negrin was born in Cordoba, Argen- oeuvre, and in so doing get a sense of his broad tina in 1963, and is now an Italian citizen. After and ever-evolving style. His apt sense of color and finishing high school, he moved to Mexico city to insight into the world of children make his books study illustration, painting, and graphic design at both beautiful and relatable to his young readers. Universidad Autonoma Metropolotana, during His perspective tends to begin at the bottom—he which time he began publishing illustrations and mimics the perspective of children and works to working on graphic design projects in promi- present his images as they would be seen through nent Mexican newspapers. He later completed a child’s eyes. a Master’s degree in Engraving Employing his education in at Academia de Bellas Artes San graphic design, Negrin often uses Carlos before eventually moving technological advances in art to Milan. Aside from illustrating to create unique and innovative children’s books, Negrin contrib- illustrations. In his self-authored utes illustrations to a number of picturebook On va au parc [Let’s Go Italian magazines and newspapers, to the Park], Negrin engages a form and is a successful graphic designer, of digital printmaking—he uses creating advertisement campaigns stencils and paint to form images, for various European companies. then scans them and manipulates Experimenting with various the colors with a computer program. styles and techniques, Negri is His innovative style has earned him constantly growing as an artist. a number of awards, including the The multiplicity of his illustrative styles means 2010 BolognaRagazzi Award for Non-Fiction and that his art is always changing, and it is impos- the John Burroughs Young Reader’s Award for sible to categorize his works in any particular Children’s Nature Writing for his picturebook The genre. His complex and innovative approaches Riverbank, along with the C:J: Picturebook Award create an interesting relationship between text and in Seoul for his illustrations in L’ombra e il bagliore image, and he works to deconstruct stereotype and [The Shadow and the Flash] in 2011. His picture- normativity by representing childhood through books have been translated into many languages, otherness. In order to get a sense of Negrin’s including French, English, Spanish, and Korean. artistic range, one must engage with his entire Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Bestie [Beast]. Rome: Gallucci Editore, 2012. Print. • In bocca al lupo [In the Wolf’s Mouth]. Rome: Orecchio Acerbo, 2003. Print. • Frida et Diego au Pays des Squelettes [Frida and Diego: A Mexican Halloween]. Paris: Seuil Jeunesse, 2011. Print. • Mille giorni e una notte [A Thousand Days and One Night]. Rome: Orrecchio Acerbo, 2008. Print. • Principessa Pel di Topo e alter 41 fiabe da scorpire [Princess Mouse Skin and 41 Unknown Fairytales by the Brother’s Grimm].Rome: Donzelli Editore, 2012. 32 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Japan Nahoko Uehashi Japan ★ Author

Born in Tokyo in 1962, Nahoko Uehashi series has also been translated into French, attended Rikkyo University where she earned a Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese. Her doctorate in anthropology; her dissertation was newest fantasy series, beginning with Kemono on Australian Aborigines. Today, aside from no soja [The Beast Player] is being translated being a prominent author of juvenile literature, into English, German, Korean, Thai, French, Uehashi is a professor of ethnology at Kawamura Taiwanese, and Swedish. The same series has Gakuen Women’s University. also been adapted into a manga Her first novel, a fantasy titled in 2008 and an anime in 2009. Seirei no ki [The Sacred Tree], was As a writer of fantasy, published in 1989. She earned the Uehashi offers her young readers JAWC New Talent Award for new worlds born of her seem- her second novel, Tsuki no mori ingly boundless imagination; ni, kami yo nemure [O God, Sleep these worlds, however, provide Ye in the Forest of the Moon], in children relevant ways to think 1991. Uehashi is most famous for about their own world as Uehashi her Guardian series, which has constructs protagonists who fight sold nearly two million copies in for survival, or explore the dual- Japan. Beginning in 1996 with isms of their own psyches, or Seirei no moribito [Guardian of consider all aspects of their inter- the Sacred Spirit]—which won personal relationships. the Noma Children’s Literature Award and the Sankei Children’s Roxanne Harde Culture and Publishing Award—the series has been adapted into an anime television series, a manga, and a radio drama. In 2008, Scholastic Press published Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit in English, and it was awarded the Mildred L. Batchelder Award. Its sequel, Moribito II: Guardian of the Dark, came out in the summer of 2009, and the fifth book in the series made the IBBY Honor List in 2004. The Guardian

Selected Bibliography • Kemono no soja [The Beast Player]. Tokyo: Kodansha, 2006. Print. • Koteki no Kanata [Beyond the Werefox Flute]. Tokyo: Rironsha, 2003. Print. • Moribito: Seirei no moribito [Morbito: Guardian of the Spirit]. Tokyo: Kaisei-Sha, 1996. Print. • Tonari no aborijini [Our Neighbor Aborigines]. Tokyo: Chikumashobo, 2010. Print. • Tsuki no mori ni Kami yo nemure [O God, Sleep Ye in the Forest of the Moon]. Tokyo: Kaisei-Sha, 1991. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 33 Illustrator nominee: Japan Ken Katayama Japan ★ Illustrator

One of Japan’s leading artists, Ken Katayama has or the scent of grass. His characters, especially had a long and prolific career as an illustrator of the children, have strong features and dynamic picture books. Born in Tokyo in 1940, Katayama actions, and his work is popular, in part, because graduated from the Department of Commer- it speaks to children’s natural “wildness.” Kata- cial Design at the Musashino Art University yama works in many genres for children: books and then worked for an advertising company. for infants, younger, and older children; science He published his first picture books, and poetry. In his fifty book, Matti no tori [A Match years as a working artist, he has Bird] in 1966 but could not collaborated with notable poets work full-time as an artist until and authors of children’s stories, 1979. Since then, Katayama has and he has broadened his artistic published dozens of titles, and milieu by incorporating new his books have been translated media and studying new styles into Korean, Taiwanese, English, in order to enhance the themes and French. His books have won and subjects of the books he several awards, including the 24th illustrates. Kodansha Culture Prize for Chil- dren’s Picture Books Publication Roxanne Harde for Tange kun [Tange the Cat] in 1993, the 45th Shogakukan Award for Illustrations for Denden daiko Inochi [A Toy Drum] in 1996, the 3rd Japan Picture Book Award (Winner’s Prize) for Karada tte iina [The Human Body Is a Wonder] in 1997, and the 4th Japan Picture Book Award (Grand Prize) for Kitsune nyoubou [Fox Wife] in 1998. Reviewers attribute much of Katayama’s popularity to his use of color and the strength of his brushstrokes. His paintings are said to awaken all the senses as they envelope viewers with scenes that suggest sunshine, wind, rain,

Selected Publications • Dondon dondon [Onward—Stomp, Stomp, Stomp]. Osaka: Bunken Shuppan, 2003. Print. • Mori no tegami [Letters to Friends in the Grove]. Text Reiko Katayama. Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 2006. • Mukashi mukashi [Once Upon a Time]. Text Shuntaro Tanikawa. Tokyo: East Press, 2010. Print. • Oyasuminasai Kokko-san [Good Night, Kokko]. Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 1998. Print. • Tange-kun [Tange, My Dear Cat]. Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 1992. Print.

34 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Korea Jin-Kyung Kim Korea ★ Author

Jin-Kyung Kim’s career as a writer has been an crucial cultural texts. Primarily writing stories incredibly interesting one. Born in 1953 in South in multiple volumes, Kim keeps his readers in Chungcheong Province, Kim developed a passion suspense, and his Hanbul Dokkaebi and Cat for literature and writing early on, and overcame School series are beloved stories in the realm many political hurdles in the name of educa- of Korean children’s literature. He relates to his tion, literature, and authorship. He attended the readers by mirroring reality, immersing the child College of Education for Korean Language at in a fantasy realm while incorporating sharp Seoul National University, and began teaching critiques of the real world. Kim’s works of fantasy Korean at various schools until 1985. After are innovative and deeply influential in the genre founding People’s Education in of Korean children’s literature, and 1985, a journal criticizing Korea’s his popular series have paved the school system and its detriment to way for modern writers of chil- children and adolescents, Kim was dren’s fantasy in Korea. indicted and imprisoned for four- Kim’s unique and trailblazing teen months for violating National style has not only earned him a Security Law. Upon being released devoted young readership, but also from prison in 1986, he formed the a number of awards and distinc- Council for Democratic Education tions. Aside from his awards for and Practice for others indicted for poetry in 1974 and 2000, Kim was their articles in People’s Education, awarded the 2004 Korean Chil- while at the same time managing dren’s Book Award for War of the to consistently publish volumes of Mirrors, which was adapted for the poetry. Turning to children’s liter- Cat School series, and the 2006 ature later in his career, Kim speaks out against Prix des Incorruptibles in France for the Cat censorship and corruption to readers whose School series. His books have been translated visions are still developing—children. into Chinese, French, Polish, Japanese, Viet- Kim began writing children’s books in 1997, namese, and Thai, allowing his works to influ- and was quickly regarded as a pioneer of “Korean ence children from around the world and expose fantasy.” He incorporates into his fantasy texts them to Korean culture and folktales. a sense of Korean and East Asian cultures, often drawing upon traditional folktales and Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Goemul Gildeurigi [Taming Monsters]. Seoul: Biroyongso, 2009. Print. • Geoul Oseul Ibeun Aideul [The Children in Clothes of Mirror]. Seoul: Munhakdongne, 2010. Print. • Geurimja Jeonjaeng [Shadow Wars]. Seoul: Munhakdongne, 2011. Print. • Goyangi Hakgyo [Cat School]. Seoul: Munhakdongne, 2001. Print. • Urideural Areumdaun Nara [When the Sun Shines at Night]. Seoul: Munhakdongne, 2009. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 35 Illustrator nominee: Korea Byong-Ho Han Korea ★ Illustrator

Byong-Ho Han began illustrating children’s books advocate environmentalism. Not only does Han at a time when the market for children’s illustra- offer a contemporary spin on his traditionally tion in Korea was booming, and he continues to Korean artistic style in his illustrations, he also lead the way in the field. Born in Seoul in 1962, connects with readers on a personal level, char- Han graduated from the College of Fine Arts at acterizing the everyday life of a child in unique Chugye University for the Arts in 1988 and began ways. His illustrated books offer freedom—escape working as an illustrator at a Korean stationary from tedious everyday life—and encourage his company. After completing a course on children’s readers to search for deeper meaning in their own book making through the Association of Korean lives. Books such as I Want to Be a Bird (2004) Publishing Illustrators, Han dedicated his life and Salmon (2007) encourage deep connections to to illustrating children’s books, nature, just as they challenge the publishing his first book in reader to transcend the bound- 1992. He often uses illustration aries of everyday urban lifestyle. to explore Korean culture, and Han’s works have been trans- while he does partake in Korean lated into French, Italian, Japa- traditional artistic styles, he also nese, Chinese, and Thai, and he incorporates Western techniques, has earned a number of awards allowing him to expand his audi- and other distinctions. In 1997, ence while still connecting with he won his first award—the young Korean readers. Sixth Children’s Culture Grand Early on, Han began incorporating various Prize for Illustration for The Dokkaebi Club—and artistic styles into his illustrations, such as water- in 2005 he received the Golden Apple at the Bien- color, gouache, etching, and lithograph. He mixes nial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB) for I Want to both Asian and Western styles, creating a unique Be a Bird. Most recently, he’s won the 2012 Excel- aesthetic experience for Korean children. Having lent Children’s Book Award by Junior Hankuk for grown up on the outskirts of Seoul before its The Day Baby Otter Came, and has attended many urbanization, Han is able to express the beauty international children’s book fairs. Han continues of nature and the importance of its preservation. to inspire his young readers through the magic of Living both before and after the industrialization illustration as he progresses in his artistic passion. of Korea, he recognizes the rapid depletion of the natural environment and uses his artistic style to Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Dokkaebiwa Beombeokjansu [Dokkaebi and the Rice Cake Peddler]. Text Lee Sang-gyo. Seoul: Kookminbooks, 2009. Print. • Saega Doego Sipeo [I Want to Be a Bird]. 2004. Seoul: Sigong Junior, 2009. Print. • Sane Gaja [An Afternoon with Dad]. Text Sang-Kwon Lee. Seoul: Borim, 2003. Print. • Sudari Odeon Nal [The Day Baby Otter Came]. Text Kim Yong-ann. Seoul: Sigong Junior, 2012. Print. • Yeoneo [Salmon]. Text Ahn Do-hyeon. Seoul: Munhak, 2007. Print. 36 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Latvia Reinis Pētersons Latvia ★ Illustrator

Through his unique illustrative style and the Pētersons’s illustrative technique is not limited to animated worlds he creates, Reinis Pētersons the medium of picturebooks—he is a successful has asserted himself as one of the most talented and innovative animator, creating short animated young illustrators in the field of children’s litera- videos narrating children’s stories. His attention ture. Born in 1981, Pētersons boasts an impres- to detail and commitment to artistic expression sive education in the arts: he attended the Janis allow him to immerse his readers/viewers in Rosentāls Rīga Secondary School of Art, studied Latvian cultural experience, yet his interest in the photography at Andrejs Grants’ workshop, and mind of the child reader allows him to relate to graduated with a certificate in visual communi- children on many levels. cations from the Latvian Academy While Pētersons career in of Arts. His first children’s illus- illustration is in some ways still trated book was published in 2007 only beginning, the fact that he (A True Story of Chingo Baba, Big boasts such an impressive list of Snail, and the Sorrow of the Ruler of awards and distinctions asserts the Sea), and since then he’s illustrated numerous children’s books him as one of the most promi- and animated stories. nent illustrators to come from Pētersons is not a typical or Latvia. In 2009, he won the traditional illustrator—his inno- Pastariņš Prize for Achievement vative and somewhat eccentric in Children’s Book Illustrations, artistic style pushes the limits of and in 2012 he won the National the genre. He is attentive to char- Zelta ābele [Golden Apple Tree] acter detail, and captures real-life emotion and Book Art Competition Artist of the Year expression through expressive—and frequently Award for Mufa. While this is his first Hans grotesque—representation. While Pētersons Christian Andersen Award nomination, he conveys a recognizable and cohesive style among has been nominated for a number of other his illustrative works, he is no stranger to artistic experimentation. In each project he takes on, he prestigious awards, including the Interna- works to suit his style and color palette to the tional Baltic Sea Redion Jānis Baltvilks Prize text at hand, and thus creates a cohesive and in Children’s Literature and Book Art. exciting relationship between text and image. Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Lāča Bruņa medības. Text Juris Zvirgzdiņš. Rīga: Liels un Mazs, 2009. Print. • Līze Analīze: Un citi slimnīcas skaitāmpanti. Text Inese Zandere. Rīga: Liels un Mazs, 2012. Print. • Mēnesim Robs. Rīga: Liels un Mazs, 2008. Print. • Mufa. Text Juris Zvirgzdiņš. Rīga: Liels un Mazs, 2011. Print. • Ne krietnais Alfrēds. Text Māris Rungulis. Rīga: Liels un Mazs, 2012. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 37 author nominee: Netherlands Ted van Lieshout Netherlands ★ Author

Born in Eindhoven in 1955, Ted van Lieshout also beloved among Dutch young readers, often comes from a family of twelve children, and dealing with difficult and realistic issues. His from a young age he knew he wanted to pursue YA novel, Gebr. [Bros.], relates the tragic death a career in writing. After finishing secondary of a brother, as the protagonist attempts to move school, he began studying at the Art Academy past his death while honoring his memory. As of Amsterdam, and began designing book covers both a writer and an illustrator, van Lieshout and submitting illustrations to newspapers understands the complex relationship between shortly after graduating. He illustrated De Blauw text and image in children’s picture books, and Geruite Kiel, a Dutch children’s weekly, and it was he uses both literary and visual narrative to tell while illustrating important Dutch his stories. While much of van poetry that he decided to begin Lieshout’s poetry and prose deals publishing his own poems. Since with difficult issues, offering his in 1984, van Lieshout has regu- young readers a means by which larly published volumes of poetry, to deal with their own traumatic and he has become one of the most experiences, he also shows his celebrated children’s poets in the lighthearted side by writing songs Netherlands. for the Dutch version of Sesame Van Lieshout’s poems often Street and radio plays for young deal with conflicting feelings, and children. his writing has been heavily influ- Van Lieshout’s unique contri- enced by the deaths of his father bution to Dutch children’s litera- and brother. He experiments with ture has not gone unnoticed. In minimalism and word play, and 2009, van Lieshout won the Theo often treads into the waters of the taboo—his Thijssen Prize, the most prestigious Dutch chil- volume of poetry entitled Zeer kleine liefde [Very dren’s literature award, which is awarded to Little Love] includes poetry, letters, and photos authors and illustrators every three years. He was of a fictional twelve-year-old boy involved in a also the first recipient of the Charlotte Köhler sexual relationship with an adult man. Not only Stipendium in 1989 for his work as a promising is van Lieshout an established children’s poet, young author. but his prose storybooks for young children are Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Gebr. [Bros]. 1996. Amsterdam: Gottmer, 2011. Print. • Ik ben een held [I’m a Hero]. 2000. Illus. Sylvia Weve. Amsterdam: Gottmer, 2011. Print. • Ik en de koningin [The Queen and I]. Amsterdam: Gottmer, 2006. Print. • Van Ansjovis tot Zwijntje [From Anchovies to Piglets]. Illus. Sieb Posthuma. Amsterdam: Leopold, 2009. Print. • Wij Zijn Bijzonder: Misschien zijn wij een wonder [We Are Special: Perhaps We Are a Miracle]. Amsterdam: Leopold, 2012. Print. 38 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Netherlands Marit Törnqvist Netherlands ★ Illustrator

“Light has undoubtedly been very important to me—I am always looking for ways to emphasize the atmosphere by using contrasts and colored light. A realistic image in an unrealistic light results in poetry.” © Kim Forchhammer Marit Törnqvist

Marit Törnqvist was born in Sweden in 1964 All of her work weaves a sense of nostalgia for to a Dutch mother and a Swedish father. When seemingly simpler times with a darker thread of she was five years old, her family moved to the ambivalence. Netherlands. She studied illustration at the Törnqvist is known for her selectivity when Gerrit Rietveld Acadamie in Amsterdam. Since taking on new projects. She has remained delib- 1988, Törnqvist has worked as an illustrator of erately aloof from the mainstream illustrating children’s literature. In 2006, she received the industry, arguing that taking on too many proj- Gouden Penseel (Golden Pencil Award) for her ects at once can result in less empathetic art— unsettling illustrations accompa- illustrative work that is less in nying Toon Tellegen’s disquieting tune with the work of the author. fairy tale Pikkuhenki. Although It can take Törnqvist two to this is the most prestigious award three years to complete illustra- that Tornqvist has won, she is tions for one book, as she takes also well known and appreciated accepted commissions very seri- for illustrations that offer a sense ously. Törnqvist is reserved about of familiarity and consolation. her own work, and often ends Her style might be described best up discarding numerous draw- as post-impressionistic. ings and sketches before she When Törnqvist was twenty- completes one that she is satis- three, she began a long and fied with. Besides working on fruitful working relationship texts for other authors, Törnqvist with the prestigious children’s also both writes and illustrates author Astrid Lindgren. One of her own stories on occasion. the culminating accomplishments of this relationship is Junibacken, a theme-house in Stock- Taylor Kraayenbrink holm based on Lindgren’s writing. Törnqvist’s dual nationality comes through in her illustrations, expressed by a dichotomous body of work. Her illustrations for Swedish books are generally pastoral, and her Dutch work is more urban.

Selected Bibliography • Bellen blazen in Burundi [Blowing Bubbles in Burundi]. Written and illustrated by Marit Tornqvist. Amsterdam: Querido, 2007. Print. • De rode vogel [The Red Bird]. Text Astrid Lindgren. Amsterdam: Hoogland & Van Klaveren, 2012. Print. • Ik blijf altijd bij je [I Always Stay with You]. Text Sjoerd Kuyper. Amsterdam: Querido, 2008. Print. • In Schemerland [In Twilight Country]. Text Astrid Lindgren. Amsterdam: Querido, 2007. Print. • Pikkuhenki. Text Toon Tellegen. Amsterdam: Querido’s Uitgeverij, 2005. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 39 author nominee: Norway Bjørn Sortland Norway ★ Author “The painter Edvard Munch was once asked which of his pictures was his favorite. He said this was impossible to answer. His pictures were like his children, and he couldn’t decide which he liked best. This is the same for me and my books.” Bjørn Sortland

Born in Bergen on the west coast of Norway in more somber treatment in The Heart Remembers 1968, Bjørn Sortland grew up on the nearby island (2009), a picture book which describes a young of Bømlo. While employed as a trained social girl’s conversations with the physically frail Frida worker, he attended a course for writers at the Kahlo, exchanges which help the girl process Academy in Bergen in the early 1990s and debuted the gravity of her own sister’s medical condition. in 1992 with It is not Nighttime. Since 1998 writing While visual art is generally the focus of Sort- has been his full time occupation, and he has land’s works, he has also incorporated literary and published over 40 works for chil- film history into narratives. Sort- dren and young adults. The recip- land’s Art Detective novels comprise ient of numerous literary awards in one of the most popular series in Norway, Scandinavia, and beyond, Norway, introducing young readers Sortland’s works have been trans- to art in many parts of the world. lated into over a dozen languages, In addition to his passion for including Arabic, Korean and art, Sortland is known for his Urdu. Most of Sortland’s books are experimentation with genres. In written in nynorsk (New Norwe- 2009 he published The Girl with gian), but he also publishes works the Completely Even, Soft Eye Brows in bokmål, the other official written (2009), a tactile picture book for the Norwegian norm. blind set in the Balkans and illus- The theme of art is a hallmark of trated by award winning Inger Lise Sortland’s authorship, and he weaves this thematic Belsvik. Sortland has worked with an impressive thread in myriad and often humorous ways into array of illustrators through the years, including his picture books and novels, educating readers— Øyvind Torseter, exposing his readers to a wide younger and older—alike. His breakthrough work, variety of visual art in this way as well. Bjørn Sort- Anna’s Art Adventure (1993), describes a young land frequently holds talks and workshops on art girl’s interactions with artists such as Munch, and writing for all age groups, from very young Picasso, Van Gogh, and Warhol, as she steps into children to adults. He has also written for Norwe- their paintings in an art museum. The meeting gian radio and television. between a famous artist and a child receives a Ingrid Urberg

Selected Bibliography • 12 ting som må gjerast rett før verda går under [12 Things to be Done Before the End of the World]. Oslo: Aschehoug, 2001. Print. • 24 I sekundet [24 by the Second]. Illus. Lars Elling. Oslo: Samlaget, 1999. Print. • Ærlighetsminuttet [Moment of Honesty]. Oslo: Aschehoug, 2005. Print. • Raudt, blått og litt gult [Anna’s Art Adventure]. Illus. Lars Elling. Oslo: Samlaget, 1993. Print. • Den solbrente mammaen som blei bytta mot ti kamelar [The Sunburned Mother Who Was Traded for Ten Camels]. Illus. Kim Hiorthøy. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1997. Print. 40 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Norway Øyvind Torseter Norway ★ Illustrator

Innovation, intuitiveness and experimentation are Torseter received a great deal of critical three of the qualities frequently associated with acclaim for Detours (2007) for which he received Oslo-based illustrator, author, and artist Øyvind the 2008 Bologna Ragazziaward. Bordering on Torseter, one of Norway’s most influential and the comic book genre, an area in which Torseter celebrated illustrators. While some of his tech- has published, Detours is rich in allusions to films, niques are traditional, he also employs and exper- literature and other art forms, and demonstrates iments with three-dimensional paper clippings, both the ways in which Torseter calls upon his ink drawing collages, graphic effects and digital readers and viewers to be co-creators, and his picture techniques, while retaining his own success at addressing younger and older audiences distinct style and voice. Born in Stange in 1972, with the same material. The Bologna jury’s cita- Torseter received his education tion noted Torseter’s ability to at the Merkantilt Institute, the synthesize three-dimensional School for Graphic Design in painting, his refined comic art, Oslo, and the Kent Institute of and his deep understanding of Art and Design in Maidstone, visual art developments. England, before he debuted More straightforward as a children’s book illustrator narrative and simpler artistic in 1999. He has both success- techniques are seen in works fully partnered with highly respected Norwegian such as Click (2004). Written for very young authors such as Jon Fosse, Tore Renberg, and children, this book relates the panic of a young Bjørn Sortland, and published a number of works, boy and his grandparents—effectively conveyed which he has written and illustrated himself. The through the use of the color black—when he acci- first of these was Mister Random in 2002, and this dentally locks himself in the bathroom. Torseter’s minimally texted book introduces the audience use of basic colors to represent danger, fear and to characters such as the elephant man and the safety are also seen in The Violin Girl (Jon Fosse, leopard lady who reappear in a number of Torse- 2009). ter’s later works. The release of this book led to Torseter talks about his art to groups of school an intense discussion surrounding intended audi- children and adults alike, and his work can be ence, and like several of Torseter’s picture books, found in the National Gallery and several public Mister Random has a surrealistic side and can be buildings in Norway. read as both one narrative and individual stories. Ingrid Urberg

Selected Bibliography • Avstikkere [Detours]. Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2004. Print. • Eg kan ikkje sove no [I Can’t Sleep Now]. Text Stein Erik Lund. Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2007. Print. • Gi gass, Ine [Get Going, Ine]. Text Tore Renberg. Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2010. Print. • Klikk [Click]. Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2004. Print. • Spelejenta [The Violin Girl]. Text Jon Fosse. Oslo: Samlaget, 2009. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 41 author nominee: Russia Vladislav Krapivin Russia ★ Author

“Childhood is like a fairy tale that can be told every time in a new way. The essence always remains: the happiness of discovering the world, the joy of friendship and the feeling of the bright blue sky.” Vladislav Krapivin

Born Tuymen, Siberia in 1938, Vladislav Krapivin devoted to Krapivin’s stories. He has published is the son of teachers. He studied journalism at numerous pedagogical essays, popular and schol- Ural State University before working for newspa- arly. To reflect the importance of his work, in pers and magazines. Krapivin published his first 2011 the Vladislav Krapivin Museum opened books of short stories in 1962 and has worked as at the Literary and Ethnography centre in his a writer since then. In 2007, he was appointed native Tyumen, and the Ural Writers Association professor at Tyumen State established the International University where he teaches liter- Children Literature Award of ature and creative writing. For Vladislav Krapivin in 2006. over 30 years Vladislav Krapivin Over the years, Krapivin has has served as the Commodore influenced millions of readers, in of the Caravel, a special unit of Russia and beyond. He is known the Sea Scouts established by for his able blending of realism him, where young people learn and fantasy, and for finely tuning the skills of reporting news and the psychological novel for young seamanship. adults. For decades now, his work Many of his stories have been has reflected the social, psycho- made into films and television logical, and pedagogical prob- programs, including Lullaby for lems of his homeland, and he has the Brother in 1982. There are over traced the interactions of social 150 editions of Krapivin’s works, commentary and patriotism. For including sixty cycles of realistic and fantastic Krapivin childhood is not only a period of prepa- narratives, tales and short stories, eleven novels, ration for adult life but is an important part of life twenty-five plays, and five collections of poetry. on the whole. The most complete edition of his selected works consists of thirty-five volumes. His work has Roxanne Harde been translated into more than a dozen different languages. Krapivin’s books have been included in the “Golden Library of Selected Works for Chil- dren and Youth,” and two volumes of the Japa- nese series “Selected Works for Teenagers” are

Selected Bibliography • Та сторона где ветер. [August, the Month of Winds]. Moscow: Progress, 1975. Print. • Голубятня нe желтой поляне. [A Dovecote on the Yellow Glade]. Прага: Чешск, 1990. Print. • Бегство рогатых викингов. [The Horned Vikings’ Escape]. Бухарест: Эдитуре ион Креанче, 1974. Print. • Я иду встречать брата. [I’m Going to Meet my Brother]. Moscow: Molecular Café, 1968. Print. • Журавлёнок и молнии. [The Little Crane and the Sea]. Роман: Казань: Татарстан китап нэшрияты, 1989. Print. 42 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Russia Igor Oleinikov Russia ★ Illustrator

Igor Oleinikov began where most illustrators do full of motion, which results in very vivid and not: as a student of chemistry at the Moscow Insti- dynamic end product. The technique Oleinikov tute of Chemical Engineering. Born in Lyubertsy uses is dry brush gouache, which allows him to in 1953, Oleinikov started his journey as a science work in tiny strokes, dots, and points of shades student, but heeding his passion, decided to work of the same color, which produce characters who as an assistant art director at a design institute. seem utterly full of life. Oleinikov is creative in Oleinikov succeeded quickly in his position and his depiction of fantasy, and his work inspires eventually became the art director the imagination both in children himself, without any formal and adults. He works to draw a education in art or design what- connection between the young soever. The illustrator went on to and old, and his illustrations often become a well-known animator involve humor and subtle irony, as for a number of Soviet cartoons, well as beauty. Oleinikov gets his including the very popular show inspiration from the world around The Mystery of the Third Planet. him, as he believes “everything Oleinikov extended his practice that amazes can become a fairy- by branching out to film, and tale in our li[ves].” eventually onto children’s periodi- Igor Oleinikov has won a cals and various book publishers. number of awards in Moscow, Oleinikov has illustrated for a and has been nominated for many number of very popular titles more throughout the world. In by Russian publishing houses, 2012, Oleinikov made it onto including Lewis Carrolls’ Alice in Wonderland, IBBY’s honor list for the creation of a recog- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. nizable yet ultimately unique world in A Ballad Hyde by R.L. Stevenson, and J.M. Barrie’s Peter About a Small Tugboat. His distinctive style of Pan. Oleinkiov has now worked for publishers all graphic instability has labeled him an innovator over the world. among art gallery dealers in Russia, who have Oleinikov usually works quite quickly; he has even gone so far as to coin Oleinikov’s style as illustrated over fifty books with his signature “art-illustration.” quirky style, making him one of Russia’s most Tia Lalani prolific contemporary illustrators. His work is

Selected Bibliography • The Ballad of a Little Tugboat. Text Joseph Brodsky. Russia: Azbooka, 2011. Print. • Br’er Fox and Br’er Rabbit. Text Joel Chandler Harris. Russia: Akvarel, 2012. Print. • Nightingale. Text Hans Christian Andersen. Taiwan: Grimm Press, 2006. Print. • The Ox and the Donkey Near the Manger. Text Jules Supervielle. Russia: Nikeya, 2013. Print. • Working ABC. Text Joseph Brodsky. Russia: Azbooka, 2013. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 43 author nominee: Slovakia Daniel Hevier Slovakia ★ Author

Daniel Hevier, one of the most important figures to discover profound messages and life lessons. in Slovakian reading promotion programs, was Hevier encourages his young readers to rethink born in Bratislavia in 1955. He earned a degree the conventional relationship between good and in Slovak Language, Literature, and Aesthetics evil, and recognizes that these two forces are at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1980, not mutually exclusive in everyday childhood and began working in radio soon after. Hevier experiences. published his first book when he was just eigh- Not only does Hevier’s influence emanate teen, and has been freelancing throughout Slovakia, but he also ever since. From 1989-1991, he reaches young readers in Czech was editor-in-chief at Mladé Republic, Germany, Finland, Letá publishing, and in 1992 and Poland through his trans- he founded HEVI publishing lated editions. He has also earned house. Hevier decided to dedi- a number of national and inter- cate himself to teaching in 2005, national awards for his children’s and has taught Creative Writing poetry and prose. In 1994, he and Children’s Literature at both received the Triple Rose Award, Comenius University and the the most prestigious award for Bratislava Academy of Perfor- children’s literature in Slovakia, mative Arts. He has also worked and he recently won the Slovak with Slovak television and radio Republic Minister of Culture programs for children in order to Prize for his contributions to the promote literary education. field of children’s literature. To For Hevier, the most important literary rela- date, Hevier has published over fifty children’s tionship is that between the text and the reader, books, poetry collections, and anthologies, and and a book is not truly created until a connection he continues to promote literacy and love for is built between the words and their reader. Rich reading and writing among young people across language and wordplay permeate both his poetry Slovakia. and prose, and it is within his humorous and lighthearted writing style that the child is able Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Hovorníček [Word Fun]. 1992. Illus. Olga Bajusová. Bratislava: Mladé Letá, 2010. Print. • Kam chodia na zimu zmrzlinári [Where the Ice Cream Men Go for Winter]. Illus. L’uba Končeková-Veselá. Bratislava: Mladé Letá, 1984. Print. • Krajina Agord [The Country Agord]. Bratislava: HEVI, 2001. Print. • Nevyplazuj jazyk na leva [Don’t Stick Your Tongue Out at the Lion]. 1982. Illus. Svetozár Mydlo. Bratislava: Mladé Letá, 2003. Print. • Xaver s nohami do X [Xaver with His Legs Like an X]. Bratislava: Perfekt, 2011. Print. 44 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Slovakia Peter Uchnár Slovakia ★ Illustrator

Peter Uchnár was born in Sobrance, an Eastern tools. He is an artistic chameleon—adapting his city in Slovakia, in 1970. Both his secondary and technique to match the mood and plot of the post-secondary education were grounded in the stories he narrates—yet he maintains a recog- arts, studying at the High School of Arts and nizable style throughout his oeuvre. Uchnár’s Crafts in Košice from 1984 to 1988, and at the compositions portray a dreamy fantasy world— Bratislava Academy of Fine Arts and Design thick brushstrokes, rich, vivid colors, and close from 1992 to 1998. After finishing his degree in attention to detail create a visual reverie that Graphics and Book Illustration, he was hired by draws his readers’ attention and evokes strong the department as an assistant professor, where emotional response. he taught until 2002. One of the Uchnár began earning awards most important children’s book immediately after entering the illustrators in Slovakia, Uchnár realm of children’s illustration. has dedicated himself to the His first book earned him the field of picture books, painting, Biennial Illustration Bratislava graphic design, and postage (BIB) Golden Apple Award in stamps, and currently freelances 1999, and since then he has won from Pezniok, near Bratislava. multiple awards in the Most From his first published chil- Beautiful Books of Slovakia dren’s book in 1998, an illus- contest and the Children’s Jury trated version of Swift’s Gulliver’s Award at BIB 2009. He publishes Travels, Uchnár has attracted both locally and abroad, with a great deal of attention in the books published in Japan and the realm of children’s literature. He Czech Republic, and his book incorporates a heroic yet relatable Štyria škriatkovia a víla [The character into each of his illustrated narratives, Four Elves and the Fairy] has been translated and ensures that his young readers can make into English. Uchnár is a prominent figure in the personal connections to the characters he brings middle generation of Slovak children’s illustra- to life. It is important for Uchnár not to impose tors, and his work has been celebrated at exhibits his own imagination onto his readers, but instead across Europe and Asia. guide them through their own understandings of Samantha Christensen the narrative using both text and image as their Selected Bibliography • Drevený zámoček [A Wooden Castle]. Bratislava: Buvik, 2011. Print. • Gulliverove cesty [Gulliver’s Travels]. Text Jonathan Swift. Bratislava: Slovak Society of Writers, 1998. Print. • Peter Pan. Text James Matthew Barrie. Bratislava: Slovart, 2008. Print. • Štyria škriatkovia a víla [The Four Elves and the Fairy]. Text Ján Uličiansky. Bratislava: Perfekt, 2009. Print. • Vel’ká kniha slovenských rozprávok [The Big Book of Slovakian Fairy Tales]. Text L’ubomír Feldak. Bratislava: Reader’s Digest Výber Slovakia, 2003. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 45 author nominee: Slovenia Polonca Kovač Slovenia ★ Author “A child is exposed to all the troubles of the adult world, and is much more vulnerable and psycho-socially less mature, so such stories must be written ‘realistically’ and without instant solutions. Not everything in life ends hap- pily, not even in fairy tales; one has only to think of Andersen. However, we can push in the right direction.” Polonca Kovač

Born in 1937 in Ljubljana, Polonca Kovač earned of Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry series were a degree in comparative literature and Italian chosen five times for the Slovene “My Favou- from the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. She then rite Book” Award. She has also won the 2000 taught Italian and German at the Cene Štupar Večernica Award for the work Kaja in njena Workers University in Ljubljana. She later družina [Kaja and Her Family] (1999), and the worked at the Counseling Centre for Children 2009 Levstik Award for her life work. and Adolescents in Ljubljana, Kovač’s stories for children and then taught German in the most often function entirely Centre for Foreign Languages. realistically in that they describe Now a full-time writer, Kovač is people, their behavior and the the author of over thirty original characteristics, and the “real texts. Her literary works for chil- world.” Her children and young dren and young adults encom- adults, in their sadness and pass different genres, including confusion, in their considerations fantasy tales, stories, and fairy- of life’s problems, thus come to tales for children; realistic fiction matter to their young readers. and non-fiction for teenagers; Ultimately, Kovač writes as an plays; screenplays for television, advocate for young people, real- and textbooks. Kovač is known istically but with great joy and for creating important texts of humor. high quality in all genres. Kovač is also renowned as a Roxanne Harde translator. Her translation of the work of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales made the IBBY Honor List in 2008, and her other important translations include Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, and books by Michael Ende and Arcado Lobato. Kovač’s translations

Selected Bibliography • Andrejev ni nikoli preveč [Never Too Many Andrews]. Illus. Melita Vovk Štih. Ljubljana: Borec, 1977. Reprinted: Illus. Alojz Zorman. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1980, 1993. Print. • Kaja in njena družina [Kaja and Her Family]. Illus. Maja B. Jančič. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1999. Print. • Špelce [Lizzies]. Illus. Matjaž Schmidt. Ljubljana: Borec, 1983. Reprinted: Mladika, 1994. Print. • Zelišča male čarovnice [The Herbs of the Little Witch]. Illus. Ančka Gošnik Godec. Ljubljana: ZD S, 1995, 1998, 2002. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2009. 2012. Print. • Zverinice od A do Ž: izbrane zgodbe za otroke [Beasts from A to Ž: Selected Stories for Children]. Illus. Marjan Manček. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2007, 2012. Print. 46 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Slovenia Alenka Sottler Slovenia ★ Illustrator

Alenka Sottler was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia awareness of the importance of artistic freedom in 1958, and grew up among a family dedicated of expression. Her style is contemporary, with to the arts. Her father was a sculptor, while her subtle elements of modernist painting tradi- mother worked for a leading newspaper and tion reminiscent of the Late Gothic and Early printing company. Alenka first learned to draw Renaissance. She is an extremely with precision and sculpt in her father’s studio, where she culti- and consistency, allowing her images to adhere vated a love of art that would take to a system and form their own her through both undergraduate personal narrative. and postgraduate studies in Alenka Sottler has illustrated painting at the Academy of Fine many children’s classics and Arts in Ljubljana. In 1988, Sottler cultural stories and fairytales, and began to work as a freelance has also brought to life the fairy painter and illustrator for Slove- tales of Oscar Wilde by incorpo- nian and foreign publishers and rating her own artistic style and magazines, including the largest technique to the texts. Sottler’s Slovenian publisher, Mladinska colorful, contemporary style has knija. Since then she has illus- also illustrated distinctly Slove- trated more than 45 books, with a nian cultural texts—works by particular flair for fairytales. She poets and authors such as Oton has won many awards, including Župančič and Grigor Vitez— the Hinko Smrekar Award at the and her artistic contributions to Biennial of Slovenian Illustra- these canonical works prove that tion, and awards from other countries such as illustration is an important aspect of Slovenian Japan, Croatia, and Italy, as well as five certifi- literature and culture. cates of Merit from the Annual Exhibition in New York, and she made the IBBY Honor list Samantha Christensen in 2008. She has received other accolades for her work, most prominently for her illustrations in Folk Tales from Around the World. Sottler often takes risks and experiments with her craft. Her artistry steadfastly displays an

Selected Bibliography • Agnes Cecilija [Agnes Cecilia]. Text Maria Gripe. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1998. • Pepelka [Cinderella]. Text Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2006. • Pravljice [Fairy Tales]. Text Oscar Wilde. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1999. • Svetlanine pravljice [Svetlana‘s Fairytales]. Text Svetlana Makarovič. Dob: Miš, 2008. • Svetovne Pravljice [Folk Tales from Around the World]. Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2004. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 47 Illustrator nominee: Spain Javier Zabala Spain ★ Illustrator

With a passion for learning and an incredible flair abstract illustrations of his characters and their for illustration, Javier Zabala has earned a reputa- surroundings, he manages to create a relation- tion as one of the most talented and influential ship between text and image that is both familiar illustrators in Spain. Born in León, Zabala origi- and relatable to his young readers. His ability to nally did not see himself as an artist, but eventu- blend colors and bend traditional illustrative rules ally left his studies in veterinary medicine and law makes him particularly skilled at capturing the in order to pursue an education in graphic design essence of the stories he illustrates, and he does and illustration at the Oviedo Art so uniquely and innovatively. School in Asturias, Spain. It was Currently, Zabala teaches in art school that he developed a summer courses at the Univer- passion for children’s book illus- sity of Macerata in Italy, where tration, and after beginning to he has been teaching since publish in a number of prominent 2006, and in 2009 he also began Spanish magazines and working teaching summer courses at the for major publishers, he has Ostia Library in Rome. Zabala currently illustrated over seventy has been recognized by many books. Having been translated international awards, exhibits, into fifteen languages, Zabala’s and children’s literature festi- books are influential in the lives vals, including the 2005 national of children around the world, award for Best Illustration in and his ability to relate to chil- Children’s Literature and the dren through thought-provoking 2010 APIC Junceda Iberia imagery allows him to immerse readers from all Award for his illustrations in a children’s edition over the world in Spanish culture. Picturebooks of Hamlet. He is also heavily involved in chil- such as Santiago and Don Quijote are deeply dren’s reading programs in Spain, and has dedi- embedded in Latin American culture and tradi- cated his life to art, children’s literature, and the tion, and Zabala’s attention to detail and unique beauty implicit in blending the two. artistic style capture his young readers’ attention and familiarizes them with Spanish experience. Samantha Christensen Zabala’s artistic style has been deemed avant- garde, but while his pieces do offer somewhat

Selected Bibliography • Don Quijote de la Mancha [Don Quixote of La Mancha]. Text Carlos Reviejo. Ediciones SM, 2004. Print. • Hamlet. Text William Shakespeare. Madrid: Nordica Libros, 2009. Print. • Por qué nos preguntamos cosas [Why We Wonder About Things]. Text Victoria Pérez Escrivá. Barcelona: Thule, 2013. Print. • Santiago. Text Frederico García Lorca. Barcelona: Zorro Rojo, 2007. Print. • El soldadito Salamón [Salamon the Soldier]. Text Rocìo Antón and Lola Núñez. Madrid: Ediciones SM, 2004. Print. 48 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Illustrator nominee: Sweden Eva Lindström Sweden ★ Illustrator “The way I see it, if my story’s going to be the way I want it, I have to be my own target audience. I’m afraid that what I want to say will get diluted if I start thinking about the way anyone else, adult or child, might conceivably want to read my book” Eva Lindström

With her unique and oftentimes dark subject balance between darkness and optimism. She matter and highly personal technique, Eva Lind- also uses color to reflect the mood of the stories ström has become an influential artist in the field she illustrates, along with the emotions of her of children’s book illustrating. Born in Västerås in characters, and she works to capture realistic 1952, she attended the local school of arts for her experiences of childhood. first year of post-secondary (1968-69), and from Lindström’s passion for capturing the essence there she went on to the Art School of Konst- of childhood through color and familiar imagery fack, where she studied painting until gradu- make her a beloved illustrator in the realm of ating in 1974. Lindström’s time Swedish children’s literature. Not at Konstfack was a period of left- only does she illustrate children’s wing political activism, and she books, she also writes them. and her classmates formed the Her first published text, Någon radical group “Svarta hämnarna” flyttar in—Berättesler om Mats [The Black Avengers], which Och Roj [Somebody Moves In— used poster art to make political Stories About Mats and Roj] statements. The group played a was published in 2002, and she definite role in her dark, radical has written many picture books, style. her latest being Olli Och Mo Lindström began her illus- [Olli and Mo] (2012). She has trating career in the mid-1980s, won a number of awards for her where she illustrated texts by illustrations, including the Elsa various authors and made a Beskow Plaque in 1993, the En name for herself in the field. She Bok För Alla’s Literary Humor authored and illustrated her first book in 1988, Prize in 2003, and Snöbollen’s Best Picture Book Katmössan [The Cat’s Hat], and her second book, of the Year in 2012. Lurix (1996) is considered her illustrative artistic Samantha Christensen breakthrough. Her stories often deal with difficult subject matter, such as the search for identity and general loneliness, but her subtle humor and rich color patterns help her strike a proficient

Selected Bibliography • Apan och Jag [Monkey and Me]. Stockholm: Alfabeta, 2011. Print. • En fågeldag [A Bird Day]. Stockholm: Alfabeta, 2000. Print. • Jag rymmer! [I’m Running Away!]. Stockholm: Alfabeta, 2006. Print. • Min vän Lage [My Friend Lage]. Stockholm: Alfabeta, 2001. Print • Olli och Mo [Olli and Mo]. Stockholm: Alfabeta, 2012. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 49 Illustrator nominee: Switzerland Albertine Switzerland ★ Illustrator

Born near Geneva in 1967, Albertine studied space, and of the variety of media she employs— at the École supérieure d’art visual of Geneva. including gouache, collage, line drawings, After graduating in 1990, Albertine opened a and digital pallets—speak to her sense of play. screen-printing workshop and became a press Overall, her art is aptly described as joyous and illustrator for Le Nouveau Quotidein, L’Hebdo, unrestrained, and her refusal to subscribe to the Bilan, Femina, and Les Carnets de Versailles. Her traditional constraints of illustrated books means marriage to writer Germano Zullo in 1996 has led that her work will stay fresh and relevant to chil- to an ongoing and productive collaboration. Their dren in the decades to come. children’s books have won many awards, including the Golden Roxanne Harde Apple of Bratislava in1999, Prix Suisse Jeunesse et Médias in 2009, the Prix Sorciéres in 2011, and the New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book in 2012. Albertine also collaborates with director Claude Barras, and they have made animated and short films, and a puppet show production. She continues to develop her artistic career and has exhibited drawings, screen prints, lithographs, and wood engravings in Geneva, Paris, Rome, Valencia, and Tokyo. Albertine also teaches screen- printing and illustration courses in Geneva. In interviews, Albertine often references the importance of games and play to her work. Her commitment to the story comes through the stroke of her Rotring, but her use of color and

Selected Publications • Le Chat botté [Puss in Boots]. Text Charles Perrault. Geneva: Éditions la Joie de Lire, 2009. Print. • Les Gratte-Ciel [Sky High]. Text Germano Zullo. Geneva: Éditions la Joie de Lire, 2011. Print. • Marta et la bicyclette [Marta and the Bicycle]. Text Germano Zullo. Geneva: Éditions la Joie de Lire, 1999. Print. • Les Oiseaux [Little Bird]. Text Germano Zullo. Geneva: Éditions la Joie de Lire, 2010. Print. • La Rumeur de Venise [The Venice Rumor]. Story Germano Zullo. Geneva: Éditions la Joie de Lire, 2008. Print. 50 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: Turkey Serpil Ural Turkey ★ Author “When I consider what I wanted the children to gain from my books, that two-part category comes to mind: ‘Roots and wings’: roots to introduce their culture in such a way to give the child a sense of identity; wings to motivate their fantasy, to give them a means of getting rid of prejudice, gain tolerance and the ability to participate freely in a multi-cultural world.” Serpil Ural

Born in Western Turkey in 1945, Serpil Ural field in her country. She began working towards attended schools in Istanbul and the United a Turkish section of IBBY as early as 1980, States before majoring in Graphic Design at the after a trip to the IBBY Secretariat in Basel. School of Applied Fine Arts in Istanbul. After That effort was realized in 1994. In 1980, with graduating, Ural worked as a copywriter in an a research grant from the International Youth advertising agency. She began writing books for Library in Munich, Ural research the history of children after marrying and moving to Ankara in environmental issues in children’s literature and 1977, and published her first book, a picture book later published her findings. Ural does volunteer about a chubby bunny, in 1979. Her texts have work for children’s literacy, including working rarely been as light-hearted as in a Bookmobile that distributes she grapples with difficult issues books to children in rural areas. that affect real children. Ural’s She also participates in work- concerns include environmental shops, conferences, and exhibits, problems, war and death, divorce, and contributes book reviews to and physical challenges. She was a periodical aimed at parents and the first Turkish author to create teachers. Ural recently served a picture book on disability, on the Board of Consultants and has been a groundbreaker on Children’s Literature to the throughout her career, including Turkish Ministry of Culture, her recent collaborations with and she teaches a course in the authors from other countries and field at the Middle East Tech- cultures. Her books about other nical University in Ankara. cultures, including India and Spain, promote cultural diversity. Roxanne Harde To that same end, Ural translates books from English into Turkish, and her work has been translated into other languages as well. Aside from her work writing books for children, Ural has been a tireless advocate for the

Selected Bibliography • Ağrı’dan Zelve’ye Anadolu Anlatıyor [Folktales from Turkey: From Agri to Zelve]. Illus. Dilara Arin. Istanbul: Çitlembik Yayınları, 2012. Print. • Aksak Ali [Ali, The Limping Boy]. Istanbul: Ya-Pa, 1993. Print. • Şafakta Yanan Mumlar [Candles at Dawn]. Australia: Limelight, 2004. Print. • Trompistan’dan Gelen Çocuk [The Boy from Trompeland] Illus. Nathalia Kapatsoulia. Istanbul: TÜYDAP, 2009. Print. • Üşengeç Yengeç [The Lazy Crazy Crab]. Istanbul: Turkish Ministry of Education, 2006. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 51 Illustrator nominee: Turkey Saadet Ceylan Turkey ★ Illustrator

“Nature is my chief source of inspiration. The beauties and peaceful state of nature attract me. I believe children’s books must reflect affection, peace, and confidence to children.” Saadet Ceylan

Born in 1955 in Düzce, Saadet Ceylan began with my illustrations. I feel extremely free when illustrating children’s books while still working working. I have the utmost respect for the author on her degree in the Academy of Fine Arts at I do my best to perceive well the world which the Marmara University. After graduating in 1979, author aimed to create, and to pains to shape and Ceylan worked as a graphic designer before reflect that world.” becoming a full-time artist. Since then, with In supporting her very busy career, Ceylan also more than five hundred titles in print, including teaches art courses to children and enhances her books in many different own artistic practice by taking languages, she has had prolific a variety of courses, including career, and has illustrated at in illumination, ceramics, least one book for nearly every and children’s literature. In Turkish author of children’s addition, Ceylan studied and books and has been commis- teaches the Ottoman art of sioned by the majority of marbled paper, and uses it Turkey’s publishers. in some of her illustrations, With her use of clean lines particularly collages. She has and subtle colors, Ceylan’s also given many workshops work appeals to audiences of and talks, attended chil- all ages. While varying her dren’s book fairs and exhibits, styles to suit the text at hand, spoken on many panels, and Ceylan nonetheless has devel- served on several juries. oped a distinctive oeuvre with an emphasis on the natural world and the ability to imbue every Roxanne Harde character with a vibrant personality, from a crow to a snowman. Her wet on wet watercolors are easily discernible, and her use of ink for details over watercolor give her great flexibility in serving the needs of the story. In an interview with Serpil Ural, Ceylan describes her work this way, “I believe I enhance the spirit of a book

Selected Bibliography • Büyülü Bahçe [Magic Garden]. Text Ayfer Gürdal Ünal. Istanbul: Tudem, 2008. Print. • Düşler Tramvayı [Dream Tramway]. Text Seza Kutlar Askoy. Istanbul: Tudem, 2011. Print. • Maths Garden Stories. Text Nüket Solmaz. Dubai: Seri Yayıncılık, 2012. Print. • Noktacık [Noktacik]. Text Seza Kutlar Askoy. Istanbul: Tudem, 2008. Print. • Titiz, Cat on the Bosphorus. Text Figen Yaman Coşar. Istanbul: UMP, 2013. Print. 52 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: United Kingdom Jacqueline Wilson United Kingdom ★ Author

“When I was growing up children’s books were bland and middle class, I wanted books with more bite, ones that showed what life was really like. So I decided to write them.” Jacqueline Wilson

One of the most successful authors in the world, is because she had a very rough start in life. … Jacqueline Wilson has published over a hundred When I go to schools and ask children why they books that have sold more than twenty million like her, they say, ‘because she’s naughty.’ Then copies and have been translated in to thirty when I ask why she’s naughty, they say, ‘because languages. Her work, which most often focuses she’s sad.’ I ask why she is sad, and the children say on the difficult issues that children face, has been ‘because she wants to see her mum,’ or ‘she doesn’t widely adapted for radio, television, and the stage. have any friends.’ I am thrilled to bits that they Born in 1945 in Bath, Wilson can see the reasons why Tracy is created stories from an early age, as she is.” Wilson went on to write and her first job was with the three sequels to The Story of Tracy girls’ magazine Jackie. Although Beaker. she wrote and published steadily, Wilson’s work has received Wilson had only minor success wide recognition. In 2002, she until she published The Story of was awarded the Order of the Tracy Beaker in 1991. Wilson’s British Empire for service to titular character is a girl living literacy in schools, and she served in a children’s home who longs as Children’s Laureate from for a family. The novel is remark- 2005 to 2007. In 2008, she was able for the fresh colloquial style appointed Dame Commander of of Tracy’s first-person narration, the Order of the British Empire, told through her journal. Tracy’s the first children’s author to be narrative is both humorous and so named. Wilson’s books have moving as Wilson negotiates garnered many awards, including between the sadness and anger the child holds and the Smarties Prize, the Guardian Children’s her irrepressible energy and optimism. The novel Fiction Prize, the British Books Awards Chil- also marked the beginning of Wilson’s collabo- dren’s book of the Year, and the Blue Peter People’s ration with illustrator Nick Sharrat, who still Choice Award. More importantly to Wilson, in designs her book covers and provides ink draw- 2003, UK children named her as their favorite ings to go along with her text. In a 2009 interview writer, and for a number of years she was the most with Partnership for Children, Wilson notes that borrowed author from UK public libraries. “Tracy Beaker is appalling badly behaved, but that Roxanne Harde

Selected Bibliography • Hetty Feather. New York: Doubleday, 2009. Print. • The Illustrated Mum. New York: Doubleday: 1999. Print. • Lola Rose. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print. • The Story of Tracey Beaker. New York: Doubleday, 1991. Print. • Vicky Angel. New York: Doubleday, 2000. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 53 Illustrator nominee: United Kingdom John Burningham United Kingdom ★ Illustrator

John Burningham (b. 1936) was very young Until then, the colors were separated by hand, when the Second World War broke out, which a technique Burningham claims he could never contributed to his unusual childhood, some of have managed. The result drew instant acclaim which was spent living in a caravan because his and was awarded the Kate Greenaway Award for parents rented out their home to pay for school illustration. Since then, Burningham has aver- fees. Burningham attended nine different experi- aged more than a book a year, and his pace has mental boarding schools, including Summer- increased in recent years. hill. Burningham left Summerhill with a school Burningham’s stories typically portray ordi- certificate in English literature, but failed many nary family life. His parents are often rather other subjects including art. tired. In his two books about Nevertheless, he was able to Shirley: Come Away From the enter the Central School of Art Water, Shirley (1977) and Time to in London, where he met his Get Out of the Bath, Shirley (1978), wife, the award-winning chil- the divide between the right and dren’s illustrator, Helen Oxen- left pages is used to separate the bury. Some of Burningham’s mundane world of the adult from most loved books are based on the imaginative interior world incidents in their family life with of the child’s imagination. Shir- their three children. ley’s parents are so caught up in This year marks the fiftieth the prosaic concerns of the here anniversary of Burningham’s first and now, they fail to notice Shir- picture book Borka: The Adven- ley’s fantasy world. Burningham tures of a Goose with No Feathers has frequently commented on (1963), and a special anniversary the importance of the extended issue has been released. Loved for its delightful family, especially grandparents. Granpa (1994) protagonist who—because she has no feathers— was inspired by the loving relationship his cannot live like other geese, and so has to find youngest daughter had with her grandfather. A her own way of being in the world, Borka also similarly affectionate bond across the generations marks an important turning point in publica- is evident in the stories about Mr. Gumpy. tion history. Borka was the first book that Jona- than Cape published using full color lithography. Lydia Kokkola

Selected Bibliography • Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963. Print. • Come Away from the Water, Shirley. London: Jonathan Cape, 1977. Print. • Granpa. London: Jonathan Cape, 1984. Print. • Husherbye. London: Jonathan Cape, 2000. Print. • Mr. Gumpy’s Outing. London: Jonathan Cape, 1970. Print. 54 | bookbird IBBY.ORG author nominee: United States Jacqueline Woodson United States ★ Author

Jacqueline Woodson was born in 1963 in story, our language does, and woven through it Columbus, Ohio. She was raised by her mother are all the places we’ve been, all that we’ve seen, and grandmother, as her parents separated when experiences held close, both good and bad.” she was a child. Woodson spent the first seven The poetic use of dialect in her work—dialect years of her life in South Carolina, and then that tells of experiences “both good and bad”—is moved to New York. Since then, she has chosen fitting and indicative of Woodson’s attention to to reside in New York; however, her life and both the beauty and harshness of human expe- work are characterized by her dual experience of rience. Her narratives deal with many sensitive the American South and the North. As a child, issues, such as racial tension, drug abuse, sexual Jacqueline was encouraged to abuse, sexuality, and more. read extensively, and her encoun- However, Woodson addresses ters with books motivated her to difficult issues because she be a writer. Woodson earned a believes that these stories are BA at Adelphi University at Long important to tell, and the telling Island, NY, where she focused on of a story is the first step towards literature studies to prepare her reconciliation and wellness. Even for writing. so, sometimes Woodson’s stories Woodson’s work is eclectic in do not end on a note of healing, as nature. She has authored chil- she seeks to teach young readers dren’s literature in the form of about the potential irreversibility picture books, but she also has of certain hurtful behaviours. written novels for adolescents Thus, for example, in her 2012 and young adults. She has even written one novel picture book Each Kindness, a girl who has been for young adults in verse form. Woodson, even unkind to another classmate does not get the when not writing in verse, is especially attentive opportunity to make amends, even though she to the fluidity and lyricism of her style. She often seeks to. Despite the cautionary nature of such uses dialect and repetition to elevate her prose. episodes, Woodson’s work is primarily character- As an African-American author, Woodson’s ized by the presence of hope for positive change employment of dialect captures the language and in the world. spirit of the place she comes from: “It tells its own Taylor Kraayenbrink

Selected Bibliography • Beneath a Meth Moon: an Elegy. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012. Print. • Each Kindness. Illus. E. B. Lewis. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012. Print. • If You Come Softly. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Penguin, 2002. Print. • Locomotion. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Penguin. 2005. Print. • Show Way. Illus. Hudson Talbott. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Penguin 2005. Print. IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 55 Illustrator nominee: United States Bryan Collier United States ★ Illustrator

“Once you form a sensibility about connection, how different elements relate to each other, you deepen your understanding of yourself and others.” Bryan Collier

Bryan Collier is passionate about creating a voice clippings from his own paintings, to his child- for young people through artistic expression and hood memories of his grandmother’s quilts, and powerful imagery, and he has dedicated his life his style evokes the same familiar response in to empowering children and teens through his those who engage with his work. Collier spent artistic mediums. Growing up as the youngest of seven years working to create a foundation for six children in Pocomoke, Maryland, Collier spent himself in the realm of children’s book illustra- his childhood and adolescence not only writing tions, and it was in 2000 that Laura Godwin and and illustrating stories but also playing football. Henry Holt encouraged him to write and illus- He declined a football scholarship in order to trate his first children’s text—Uptown (2000). The instead attend Pratt Institute on book earned both the Coretta a talent scholarship, and it was Scott King Illustrator Award and there he pursued both his passion the Ezra Jack Keats Award for for painting and his dedication New Talent, and it launched his to representing African-Amer- passion for illustrating children’s ican experience through artistic texts representing African-Amer- expression. While he was still in ican experience. art school, Collier began volun- Much of Collier’s work depicts teering at the Harlem Horizon African-American history in the Studio in New York’s Harlem United States, and he has illus- Hospital Center, where he trated texts on African-American encouraged young people—both figures such as Martin Luther patients and the general public— King, Rosa Parks, and Roberto to express themselves and build Clemente. He has earned many self-confidence through art. awards for his illustrations, Collier’s style is incredibly unique—often including five Coretta Scott King Awards and blending painting, drawing, and collage—and two Caldecott Honors, and he often volunteers much of his most astonishing work is embedded his time in schools, where he helps children and in African-American experience. He attributes teens express their own stories through artistic his inspiration for his collage work, which incor- mediums. porates magazine clippings, watercolors, and Samantha Christensen

Selected Bibliography • Clemente. Text Willie Perdomo. New York: Henry Holt, 2010. Print. • I, Too, Am America. Text Langston Hughes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Print. • Martin’s Big Words. Text Doreen Rappaport. New York: Jump at the Sun, 2001. Print. • Rosa. Text Nikki Giovanni. New York: Henry Holt, 2005. Print. • Uptown. New York: Henry Holt, 2000. Print. 56 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Our Forthcoming Issues:

52.3 (2014) The Mexico City Congress Issue: Children’s Literature in the Hispanic World 52.4 (2014) Open Themed & the Hans Christian Andersen Award Shortlist 53.1 (2015) Ecocritical Perspectives in Children’s Literature

IBBY.ORG 52.2 – 2014 | 57 58 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Call for Papers: Machines, Monsters and Animals: Posthuman Children’s Literature

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature invites contributions for a special issue exploring the relationship between children’s fiction and posthumanism. From Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies to Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, children’s fiction intervenes in debates about what it means to be human, animal, “natural,” or machine. Indeed, children’s fiction has an imaginative history of conceiving alternative modes of being. Human and animal ethics, utopia/dystopia, anthropomorphism, and ecocriticism would be appropriate topics to explore. Areas of thematic interest may include, but are not limited to: • The alien or monstrous “other” • Digital technology and virtual reality • Animal ethics • Dystopia and utopia • Anthropomorphism • Ecocriticism and nature studies • Artificial Intelligence • Machine animism and robotics • Cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) • Wildness and civility • Digital childhoods

Full articles should be submitted to the editor, Björn Sundmark ([email protected]), and guest editor, Zoe Jaques ([email protected]) by 1 June 2014. Please see Bookbird’s website at www.ibby.org/ bookbird for full submission details. Papers which are not accepted for this issue will be considered for later issues of Bookbird.

Would you like to write for IBBY’s journal? Academic Articles ca. 4000 words Bookbird publishes articles on children’s literature with an international perspective four times a year (in January, April, July and October). Articles that compare literatures of different countries are of interest, as are papers on translation studies and articles that discuss the reception of work from one country in another. Articles concerned with a particular national literature or a particular book or writer may also be suitable, but it is important that the article should be of interest to an international audience. Some issues are devoted to special topics. Details and deadlines of these issues are available from Bookbird’s web pages.

Children and Their Books ca. 2500 words Bookbird also provides a forum where those working with children and their literature can write about their experiences. Teachers, librarians, publishers, authors and parents, short articles discussing the ways in which you have worked with children and their literatures, or have watched children respond to literature are welcomed. Articles concerned with a particular national issue are of interest, but should be written in a manner that appeals to an international audience.

Postcards and Letters ca. 300 or 1000 words Bookbird publishes reviews of both primary and secondary sources. Brief ‘postcards’ (ca. 300 words) on individual works of children’s literature, or extended ‘letters’ (ca. 1000 words) introducing the work of a particular author or illustrator are welcomed. In addition to the full publication details, please comment on whether the works are available in translation.

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60 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2014 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor.