PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

President’s Message, November 2020

Dear USBBY members,

We are currently in the 9th month of the pandemic in the United States.  I think about my parents who lived through the Spanish flu, the Depression, and World War II.  But I never imagined that our generation, with all our medical and technological advances, would be in the throes of a global health crisis.  We hope you and your family are staying well and safe.  We are very grateful for our USBBY members and all you do to promote international peace and understanding through children’s books, even during these challenging times.

As you know, we held our first virtual USBBY Annual Members’ Meeting on November 14 where we launched the 2021 International Children’s Book Day poster and message.  The magnificent poster was created by Brazilian illustrator and good friend of USBBY, Roger Mello, and the inspiration message was written by award-winning author Margarita Engle.  If you were unable to join us, the video of the meeting and the poster can be found on the USBBY website. We were also excited to announce USBBY’s nominees for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Awards.  USBBY has nominated Linda Sue Park for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing and Kadir Nelson for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration.

As you do your holiday shopping, we want to remind you that USBBY receives contributions for purchases made from both the Amazon Smile program and Indie Bound Affiliate program.  To find out details, visit our website page: https://www.usbby.org/shop-to-support-usbby.html  You might also consider a year-end gift to support our Twinning partners through the Children in Crisis Fund or the refugee children at the border through a contribution to REFORMA: https://www.usbby.org/donate.html

Our amazing USBBY committees have been hard at work on the many projects of USBBY.  We will be appointing new committee members in January. You can see the list of committees on the website:  https://www.usbby.org/volunteer-with-a-committee.html  We also appoint special ad hoc committees and task forces during the year.  If you are interested in serving on a USBBY committee or have any questions, please contact me at [email protected].

We know that your winter holiday celebrations may be very different than usual this year. We wish you a joyful holiday season and good health and happiness in 2021.


Warmest wishes,
Evelyn “Evie” Freeman
USBBY President

​