Are you planning to celebrate the 2025 International Children's Book Day April 2?

Download our digital materials to decorate your event, share posts about it and tag IBBY: @ibby.international (Facebook & Instagram), @ibbyint (Twitter). #ICBD25

In 2025, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is sponsored by IBBY-Netherlands and the poster is made by two Dutch creators of children’s books. The theme of the 2025 International Children's Book Day is The freedom of imagination, and the motto is the last sentence of the poem ‘The Language of Pictures’:

‘Make pictures for my poem, and please feel free: these words belong to you even though they came from me.’





​The poem comes from the illustrated poetry collection Alle wensen van de wereld (2021) by Rian Visser and illustrator Janneke Ipenburg. This book was awarded a Zilveren Griffel in the Netherlands and the Gouden Poëziemedaille (Gold Poetry Medal) in Belgium.

The Freedom of Imagination

In high-quality children’s books, the reader’s imagination is kindled and developed. These books help children to explore their imagination, to develop their creativity and to see the world in a new way. Good books invite readers to interpret the words for themselves, making the story their own.

You can download lesson suggestions (in English and Dutch) based on the theme for three different age groups (ages 4–6, 6–9, and 9–14) on the IBBY-Netherlands website.

International Drawing Competition

Make a drawing, painting or some other kind of art based on the poem ‘The Language of Pictures’. Then take a photograph of your art and (optionally) a photograph of yourself with your artwork and email it to your national IBBY section or directly to IBBY-Netherlands: [email protected].

All the children around the world who are taking part in International Children’s Book Day are invited to join in! IBBY-Netherlands will show all the entries on their website and select the winners, who will be rewarded with a package of books for their school. This virtual exhibition is our way of celebrating the freedom of imagination.

The Language of Pictures
Rian Visser
Translation: Laura Watkinson​

Can you draw pictures
for the words,
for the things I say?
Then draw
part of the picture,
cold,
wind,
a lump in your throat
or tough luck,
draw a cough,
a sigh,
the scent of fresh bread,
time,
a moment,
the beginning or the end
of a plan,
draw the place wherever,
the place where never,
the place where soon
something is going to happen,
draw the pain of a push,
the taste of the sea.
There is so much
that I want to see,
like love,
one day,
and maybe for me.
Make pictures
for my poem,
and please feel free:
these words
belong to you
even though they came from me.

IBBY Press Release
29 November 2024

IBBY joins millions around the world in calling for an end to the nightmare of ongoing killing of children in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

The staggering human toll of more than 13 months of war is still being measured. An analysis of the casualties in Gaza since 7 October 2023, which was published by the United Nations’ Human Rights Office on 8 November 2024, found that almost 70 percent of those killed were women and children. The ages most represented among the dead were 5- to 9-year-olds. Some 80% of those killed perished inside residential buildings or housing.

With over 17,000 Palestinian children killed, thousands buried under rubble, 40,000 wounded, many orphaned, and hundreds left with lifelong disabilities, UNICEF’s spokesperson James Elder has described the situation as “a nightmare become reality.”

The forced cessation of UNRWA’s essential humanitarian work will compound these outrages and, in words of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, “have direct impacts on the human rights of those depending on its assistance”. Urgent protection must be provided for Palestinian and Lebanese children.

IBBY urgently calls on international leaders, humanitarian organizations, and global civil society to take action for immediate ceasefire and the halt of all military operations in Gaza, and the West Bank. We welcome the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon and hope the ceasefire will be lasting. In addition, IBBY calls for the immediate return of aid, both medical and food, to the many who are facing starvation and imminent death.

IBBY has long supported children living in crisis, and is a pioneer in devising projects that provide books and bibliotherapy to traumatised and distressed young people worldwide. Its commitment in Palestine began in Gaza in 2008 with the establishment of two children’s libraries, which sadly have been repeatedly destroyed by Israeli attacks. Yet with support of IBBY International and the local community, the libraries’ mission has persisted despite displacement and destruction.

IBBY pledges to revive and rebuild these libraries, commence bibliotherapy and psychosocial activities for the children in makeshift spaces, and support them wholeheartedly. Some of our sections have commenced fund raising activities already. We call on friends to join us in our effort to raise funds for children in dire need. Every donation, large or small, will make a difference, and be deeply appreciated.

Basarat Kazim
IBBY President
on behalf of the IBBY Executive Committee

Learn about considerations informing their craft in creating stories in both Spanish and English and discover forthcoming titles, from the acclaimed Pam Muñoz Ryan, , bilingual advocate Monica Brown, and author Violet Duncan
About the speakers: 

Monica Brown, Ph.D. is the Peruvian-American author of many award-winning multicultural books for children that have garnered multiple starred reviews and awards, and are available in a dozen languages. Her books include biographies of writers, musicians, and politicians from throughout Latin America. She writes the Lola Levine series (Little Brown Young Readers), her newest book is Doña Fela's Dream: The Story of Puerto Rico's First Female Mayor (Hachette Book Group) and she has books on musicians like Celia Cruz (My Name is Celia/Me llamo Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/la vida de Celia Cruz, Cooper Square) and Tito Puente (Tito Puente, Mambo King/Tito Puente, Rey del Mambo, HarperCollins) authors such as Pablo Neruda (Henry Holt) Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People / Poeta del pueblo and Gabriela Garcia Marquez (My Name is Gabito / Me llamo Gabito: The Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cooper Square), and Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano/ Peruvian Archaeologist (Lee & Low) about the first Peruvian Indigenous archeologist, Waiting for the Biblioburro/Esperando al Biblioburro (Tricycle), about a donkey book mobile in Colombia, and El Cuarto Turquesa/The Turquoise Room (Lee & Low).

Violet Duncan is the author of the National Book Award Finalist Buffalo Dreamer (Penguin/Random House). She has toured nationally and internationally as an author, educator, dancer, and storyteller, and facilitates workshops to promote spiritual wellness and cultural education across the globe. She is currently the Indigenous Cultural Advisor at the Tempe Center for the Arts, where she aims to create space for a permanent program of Indigenous performance and practice. 
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Pam Muñoz Ryan is a multi-award-winning author, who is the most recent recipient of the prestigious ALSC Legacy Award. El Niño (Scholastic), which will be simultaneously published in English and Spanish in May 2025, is an adventure story about a young swimmer who’s navigating grief and family relationships in the wake of his sister’s death. After Kai discovers a book of his sister’s about an underwater realm and a mysterious place called the Library of Despair and Sorrow, details from the story begin to appear in his own life: dolphin pods, imposing rock towers, unusual sea creatures, and even Cali’s beloved bracelet. As myth and reality collide, El Niño unleashes its fury, and Kai is swept up in a storm of events that will change his understanding of love, death, grief, and how best to honor those we’ve lost.

Following the program, the 2025 Outstanding International Books (OIB) will be announced.

​Presented by the United States Board of Books for Young People (USBBY) the U.S. section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

 
If you've ever been to an IBBY Regional, you have experienced the special atmosphere of fellowship, learning and pushing the borders and horizons of children's literature across the globe those events inspire. While planning for Boston in November 2025, we want to look ahead to the next biennial event.

Read more about the proposal and conference planning process. Applications received by June 15, 2025 will be considered at the midyear board meeting. 

This is an unparalleled opportunity to  bring world class speakers to your campus and community, as well as the showcasing your local area to a expert body of children's literature scholars and practitioners.

Contact USBBY President Wendy Stephens with any preliminary questions.

​We are planning an exciting program for the next IBBY Regional, to be held in Boston, Massachusetts November 7-9, 2025, with the theme "Hands-On in the Hub: A Call to Action." 

​Stayed tuned for more information about registration, pre- and post-conference opportunities, and more.

Contact Bindy Fleischman to become part of the local arrangements committee spearheading this event.

All members in good standing will be invited via email to affirm the 2024 Election until November 1, 2024. Please email the Secretariat to check on your membership status if you do not receive a link to vote by Friday, October 11.

Many thanks to the nominating committee Bettie Parsons Barger, Claudia Bedrick, Shanetia Clark, and Chair Tucker Stone.

Jared S. Crossley, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Literacy and Literature for Children and Adolescents at The Ohio State University, Marion Campus. Before joining Ohio State, he taught 4th and 5th grades for Alpine School District in Utah for seven years. Dr. Crossley is most widely known for his work as the director of a documentary film on children’s author Lloyd Alexander, which was sponsored by Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Penguin Young Readers Group and the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. He served on USBBY’s Outstanding Books for Young Reader’s with Disabilities Committee from 2018 – 2023, including chairing that committee in 2020-2021. He currently serves on the Notable Children’s Recordings Committee for ALSC. His research interests are in children’s literature, with emphases in middle-grade literature, diversity in children’s literature, children’s book awards, and the history of children’s literature.

 
Want to network with your colleagues interested in sharing international children's literature? Join our new, private LinkedIn Group today.

​Many thanks to New Jersey State Ambassador Jackie Garcia for starting this conversation and community!

At the June meeting, the USBBY Board of Directors voted to endorse the Statement on the Ongoing Violations of Children's Rights issued by the IBBY Executive Committee on July 17, 2024. Find the text of the Statement below:

Statement on the ongoing violations of children’s rights in Gaza

The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) stands by the principles endorsed in the United Nations Human Rights Conventions, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child and urges all global leaders to work together on behalf of the children of Gaza. 

IBBY was born in the aftermath of World War II with the unflinching belief that international understanding is a necessary condition for tolerance and world peace. By promoting quality children’s books and reading, it has contributed to making the ideals of solidarity, respect, and cooperation known to children and young people all around the world. 

IBBY has helped build and grow libraries and reading programmes for children worldwide, including in Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Palestine. Established in 2008, these were safe places filled with more than five thousand books where children could read, share thoughts, write poems, meet authors, and even win awards – such as the UNESCO "World Tales" competition won by a young member of the al-Shawka library in Rafah in 2021. Those libraries have now been destroyed, but the loss of these cultural and childhood touchstones is only a small part of the tragedy in Palestine. As we watch the continuing violence and destruction in Gaza, we mourn for the children and families who are killed, injured, displaced, and orphaned. We deplore the chaos and confusion that dominates their daily lives, and the lack of basic human necessities of food, water, shelter, and medical aid.

Every child in the world deserves to be protected and nurtured. We condemn the ongoing violations of children’s basic rights in Gaza. IBBY adds its voice to the urgent calls for access to humanitarian aid and life-saving supplies for the people of Gaza. Further, we strongly urge the leaders of Israel and Hamas to comply with the international rulings and resolutions to enact an immediate ceasefire.

The International Board on Books for Young People
Executive Committee
17 June 2024

Roger Mello, friend of USBBY and illustrator for the 2021 U.S. International Children's Book Day (ICBD) poster, will deliver the 2024 Mary Nagel Sweetser Lecture for the Eric Carle Museum for Picture Book Art on  July 25, 2024 at 7 - 8 pm EDT. .

Hosted by Simmons University and Carle, the lecture marks the launch of the 50th anniversary year of Children’s Literature studies at Simmons. Mello will be joined by Cathryn Mercier, director for the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons.

The 2024 Sweetser Lecture is associated with Mello's first exhibition in the United States; Fuzuê! Invention & Imagination in the Art of Roger Mello, on view at The Carle from June 16, 2024 - January 5, 2025. 

Learn more and register for the virtual program.