Hans Christian Andersen Award Selects Winners
RSSBy Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 03/31/2010
A British author and German illustrator took home the prized Hans Christian Andersen Award for 2010, granted by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).
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David Almond |
“Almond captures his young readers’ imagination and motivates them to read, think, and be critical,” says Zohreh Ghaeni, jury president for this year’s awards and the co-writer of a book on the history if children’s literature in Iran. “His use of language is sophisticated and reaches across the ages.”
German illustrator and author Jutta Bauer captured the jury’s hearts as well with her drawings and stories, including Grandpa’s Angel, or Opas Engel in her native German (Candlewick, 2005), about an old man and the stone angel that stands in his town. Bauer herself has written that her stories could be read and enjoyed by anyone—young or old.
“The jury admired her philosophical approach, originality, creativity as well as her ability to communicate with young readers,” says Ghaeni.
Devoted to global literacy, IBBY also recently awarded two international reading organizations, which the group noted had made a significant contribution to literacy among young people.
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Jutta Bauer |
The Hans Christian Andersen Author’s Award has been granted to writers since 1956, with the Illustrator’s Award handed out since 1966. The jury selected Almond from 28 authors around the globe, while Bauer was culled from a group of 27 illustrators that had been nominated to IBBY. The two will receive their medals at the International IBBY congress in Santiago de Compostela in Spain on Sept. 11, 2010.
