Tuesday Blurb: Hans Christian Anderson Award Winner

I had some errands to run this morning – mailing the books to our Writing about Reading winners from Share a Story 2010 and a few Easter things – so the day is starting a little bit later than normal. It didn’t take long, though to find some news to share …

Today at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) has just announced that author David Almond (UK) and illustrator Jutta Bauer (Germany) are the winners of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award!

In other news from Bologna, IBBY also announced the winners of the 2010 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Awards. This is the 20^th Anniversary of the award given by IBBY and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company for international projects run by groups or institutions who are making a lasting contribution to reading for young people.

Last night I tweeted (or I thought I did) Bill’s most recent post at Literate Lives. He recaps Grand Discussion #3 and also takes us back to January’s Grand Discussion #2, where the group talked  about Also Known as Harper.  In a nutshell: Bill’s sister, who teaches at a neighboring school, chatted with the group. She described life at her school which is far different from what the kids at Bailey Elementary (Bill and Karen’s school) know. Her discussion left such a deep impression with the kids that …

They wanted to take on the task of raising money to buy books for the library at my sister’s school. The kids wanted to take the lead on promoting the event and they wanted to make sure that the Bailey kids understood that this money needed to come from them, not their parents, them. I was thrilled and met with a group of parents after speaking with Martha and we began planning. It’s turned into more than a fund raiser, we are now talking about making this an ongoing thing, sort of making Bailey and Lincoln Elementary schools, sister schools. Each of taking care of the other in the ways that we are able. There has been talk of pen pals, and video conferencing, some sort of an exchange program and inviting kids from our sister school down for special events in the future.

Emphasis in the quote is mind. Do head over to Literate Lives and read all of the Grand Discussion posts. It is amazing what big things can happen when you share a book.

In Malasyia, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the Prime Minister’s wife, spoke about the importance of literacy yesterday. I loved her speech, as characterized in this Bernama.com article.

Early literacy is one of the most important elements in shaping the life and future of children … it is an imperative human capital investment that [is] fundamental for the nation’s progress and prosperity.

As a result of a systemic literacy and education plan, more than 93 percent of the Malasyian population can read and write. I do wish she’d come speak to the US Congress! “Human capital investment fundamental for progress and prosperity.” They MIGHT get that!