Hearing authors and illustrators talk about who inspires them, who teaches them, what role models did (or didn’t) exist for them as young readers and artists brings to life just how pivotal connection to other creators can be. The following is an extension of a conversation begun at the Regional Conference in Austin by the invaluable Cynthia Leitich Smith:
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Held every other year in Bratislava, Slovakia, the 2019 competition included 539 illustrations from 3,056 children’s books, created by 416 illustrators from 47 countries. Castle Bratislava, overlooking the Danube River, was the remarkable venue for the display of the art. The exhibition was available to the public from October 26, 2019 through January 5, 2020. 

The exhibition included the following submissions from the U.S.: 

• Ekua Holmes  - 6 illustrations from The Stuff of Stars (written by Marion Dane Bauer. Candlewick, 2018).
• Yuyi Morales - 6 illustrations from Dreamers (Holiday House, 2018), 4 illustrations from Niño’s Horrendous Hermanitas (Roaring Brook Press, 2018).
• Pamela Zagarenski - 5 illustrations from The Whisper (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015), 5 illustrations from Henry & Leo (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2016).

Awards were announced on October 25, 2019. The International Jury chose the following (some titles in English translation):

• BIB Grand Prix 2019: Hassan Moosave of Iran, for Boxer. 
• BIB Golden Apple 2019: 

Jānis Blanks (Latvia) Mole Cricket 
Soojung Myung (South Korea) The Skirt that Spreads to the End of the 
World
Anton Lomaev (Russia) Lullaby for a Small Pirate, 
Wen Dee Tan (Malaysia) Lili, Circus of Monsters
Chengliang Zhu (China) Don’t Let the Sun Fall

• BIB Plaque 2019:

        Guilherme Karsten (Brazil) AAAHHH! Ride!
        Maja Kastelic (Slovenia) Koozi
        Chiki Kikuchi (Japan) Letter of the Scarlet Maple Leaves
        André Letria (Portugal) War
        Anat Warshavski (Israel) The Restaurant at the Edge of the Pole - The 
Cooking Penguins

• Honorary Mention to the Publisher:

    Ecuador: Comoyoki Ediciones, 2019, Quito: A ritmo endiablado de bomba 
/ At the Evilish Rythm of the Drum
Brazil: Editora pisitivem 2018, Curitiba: Um livro pra gente morar / A Book 
where to Live in
Brazil: Companhnia das letrinhas, 2018, Sao Paolo: Asper de tudo / In 
Spite of All
United Kingdom: David Fickling Books, 2017, Oxford, Tornhill
    
The United States indisputably has many children’s book illustrators worthy of international recognition, and the 2019 BIB was significant for sharing stunning picture book art from this country. Regardless of awards, the U.S. illustrators received worldwide recognition, inclusion in the BIB catalog, and additional publicity.

One of the most prestigious world-wide children’s book exhibitions and competitions, the BIB has been promoting children’s book illustration since 1967. The next BIB will be held in Bratislava 2021. All submissions are through IBBY national sections, and the dates for illustrator suggestions to USBBY for consideration for the 2021 completion will be announced later this year.

​The 2019 USBBY BIB Nominating Committee would like to thank everyone who suggested illustrators, and of course the final decisions were difficult. Brenda Dales, 2018-2019 Chair of the USBBY BIB Nominating Committee would also like to thank committee members Molly McLoughlin and Ed Sullivan for their astute recommendations and keen eyes for picturebook art. While international submission of original art was at times challenging, there were lessons learned and hopefully the number of entrants for the 2021 competition and exhibition can increase. 

The BIB is held under the auspices of the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic. Additional information about the BIB, illustrations, and more can be found at http://www.bibiana.sk/en/biennial-illustrations-bratislava

Notably, the 2020 OIB List expresses the complexity found within the designation international. Many titles on the 2020 OIB List overtly reflect their countries of origin in both setting and story; however, this straightforward representation is regularly disrupted across the list. Young readers, as well as the adults in their lives, will find that many titles on the 2020 OIB List defy prevailing stereotypes and geographical expectations. Through such stories readers are offered titles that honestly reflect a world in which borders and conceptions of culture are ever-changing, often as a result of unjust histories and present-day realities. The titles on the 2020 OIB List can serve as an example to young readers that just as all people’s experiences in and of a place are varied and complex—so too is literature.

The 2020 OIB Committee includes Anamaría Anderson (VA), Betty Parsons Barger (NC), Susan Corapi (IL), Deanna Day (WA), Patrick Gall (IL), Doris Gebel (VA), Amy McClure (OH), Mary Napoli (PA), and Quentin Russell (OH).

USBBY board member Karen Perry attended the session and shared this response:
I must say that Patrick Gall and the committee did a splendid, cogent, and thoughtful job presenting the new Outstanding International Books list. And our author speakers Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed wowed the crowd --  it was their first time speaking about the book WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED, which comes out in April from Penguin. 

Reminder - When you click on OIB cover images from the USBBY website and purchase from Amazon or Indiebound, USBBY gets a percentage of each sale!

Enormous thanks and credit to Marion Rocco and Christina Hoover Moorehead for their support and work on the OIB page of the USBBY website and the upcoming School Library Journal feature on the 2020 OIB list.

I'm looking forward to meeting with publishing clients from around the world
 and being wowed by beautiful books!

• Ellen Myrick

              President of Myrick Marketing and Media, LLC/Publishers Spotlight
              Co-coordinator of the 2021 USBBY Regional Conference, Nashville

Although I have visited Bologna many times, I never lose my sense of wonder at seeing over 1000 exhibitors from all over the world displaying children's books. I also look forward to seeing my wonderful IBBY friends.

• Evie Freeman,

               USBBY President

It's amazing to see the world of children's publishing in booth after booth! Plus, I'm looking forward to our IBBY Executive Committee and BOOKBIRD meeting. Plus, did we mention this was in Italy?! So fun to be there-- the yummy food, the fun street market, the ancient architecture!

• Sylvia Vardell

              Professor, Poet, Author, Presenter, and Speaker
              USBBY Representative on the IBBY Executive Committee

USBBY nominated author Jacqueline Woodson, and illustrator Allen Say for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and are thrilled to announce that Woodson has been shortlisted for the 2020 HCA, which will be announced at the Fair. The 2020 BolognaRagazzi Awards have already been announced!

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After I “retired” in 1996, I decided to devote a lot of my time and my royalty funds to doing workshops in countries where they had few or no children's books for young children.  I had been working with the use of cloth for a number of years, in my workshops for IBBY and other international organizations. I had found that persons with little or no experience in handling children's picture books did best if they worked in cloth (paper and art materials scared them a bit).  

I used a technique in which I backed up pictures in cloth with fusible web.  The participants then cut out the pictures and ironed them on to the cloth pages, arranging them as they saw fit.  The texts were hand-printed using fabric pens and were usually in their home language and in a major language. Most of these techniques are described in my book, HOW TO MAKE CLOTH BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.

In this way, groups were able to make books in many African languages, indigenous South American languages, and some Asian languages.  In all, my workshops took me to about 40 different countries during the past 25 years. About 20 USBBY members have first-hand experience as to how a workshop is run, since they accompanied me on a trip to South Africa in 2004, just before the Capetown IBBY congress.  We worked with the Venda people in a very remote area of South Africa.

 It usually took me 2-3 months to prepare the materials to take but I had many family members and friends helping me.  They also haunted fabric shops, buying for me the pieces of cloth with interesting pictures that were suitable in many situations: African and Latin American animals, children with skin color that looked like the children I would be working with, flowers and trees that also matched the environments to which I was going.

The favorite types of books were first word books, first name books (a page for each letter in a child's name), simple folk tales from that culture and simple concept books.

My greatest joy has been in seeing the absolute delight the participants had when they saw the first picture books in their home language.

I have not done many workshops in this country, but the few I did do were very successful.  In the one I did for the New York Public Library, we had 15 persons and they made books in 9 or 10 languages.  I also did a workshop in Arizona that drew mostly Hispanics and a few Native Americans.

However, due to health reasons, I am no longer able to travel, and I still have many materials. that could be used to make cloth books.  I am offering these to USBBY members, free of charge, and I will pay the cost of shipping.

I have some cut-out cloth pages (made from old cotton sheets), quite a few pictures already cut out roughly (some with fusible web on the back,) a large amount of pieces of fabric with an assortment of illustrations not yet cut out, and a large roll of fusible web.

For those able to come and visit me in my home, for a one-day demonstration, they could choose the materials suited to their situation.  In other cases, I would do my best to select some materials.

These workshops would be especially welcome, I feel, in areas where there has been a lot of recent immigration.  Such persons are delighted to be able to make books for babies and young children.

All are grateful for this incredible offer. If interested, please let the secretariat know by emailing vev40@comcast.net , and he will help coordinate. 

(Photos credited to Mary Farrell and to the Segenat Children and Youth Library)