Hans Christian Andersen Award jury president Anastasia Arkhipova has resigned from the 2024 award committee. Reuters reports that Arkhipova, a Russian illustrator, is on the board of the Moscow Branch of Artists Association of Russia (MOCX), which last year ran a contest for artists to create Russian war propaganda. After Arkhipova was elected to the award committee in September, several IBBY member countries protested and withdrew from participation in the award, which has been called the Nobel Prize of children’s literature, reports Danish broadcaster DR. The queen of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II, withdrew her patronage of the award, and the […]
Children's
M&A: Sterling Acquires Boxer Books
Sterling Publishing completed a deal to acquire London-based children’s book publisher Boxer Books. The acquisition includes all of Boxer’s backlist and frontlist titles. The imprint will keep its name under Union Square & Co., which previously distributed Boxer Books in the US. Boxer publisher David Bennett will continue to manage the imprint, reporting to Union Square cco and publisher Emily Meehan. “We are proud to be providing a new home for Boxer Books and publisher David Bennett. I’ve long admired his curated approach to children’s book publishing,” Meehan said in a release. “His titles explore imaginative ideas and concepts, all […]
Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair Postponed
The China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) has been moved to July 22-24, due to Shanghai’s COVID regulations. The fair had been planned for March 20-22, overlapping with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. In 2023, the CCBF is planning to return to its schedule of hosting the fair in the fall.
The Best of the Best Children’s Books of 2021
Once again, we are able to include children’s literature in our annual process of tabulating the consensus Best of the Best Books of the year. Drawing on a slightly smaller group of 18 selective sources in all, this year the data yielded more middle grade picks than in the past (including a nonfiction book, Gary Paulsen’s memoir), with a natural group of top titles there and in young adult, and with a long roster of picture books appearing on the same number of lists: Top Middle Grade Books of the Year The Legend of Aunti Po, Shing Yin Khor Starfish, […]
Shanghai Children’s Book Fair Is Postponed
The Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF), scheduled for November 19 to 21, has been postponed due to the resurgence of COVID-19. The new planned dates — March 20 to March 22 — coincide with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, currently set for March 21 to 24. Shanghai organizers write that: “For the first time, the two major professional children’s book fairs will connect East and West through innovative real-time events. By mobilizing their wide array of resources, the two fairs will organize joint activities in copyright trade, book promotion and illustration so that participants at both ends of the […]
Imprints: Astra Publishing Forms Children’s Division
Astra announced the launch of its children’s division, Astra Books for Young Readers, which will house one new imprint–Astra Young Readers–and five existing imprints: Calkins Creek, Hippo Park (Jill Davis’s newly-named imprint), Kane Press, mineditionUS, and Wordsong. Astra coo Ben Schrank said: “Astra Publishing House now has six very special children’s book imprints that cover books for all ages and children’s interests, from board books for babies and toddlers and picture books to nonfiction and history, poetry, middle-grade, and young adult books and so we felt it was time to identify and celebrate them with a new children’s book division: […]