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Young World
Celebrating the book
RACHNA CHHABRIA
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International Children’s Book Day celebrations are held on April 2 to honour Hans Christian Andersen.
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The host country for the 2008 ICBD is Thailand and the theme is ‘Books enlighten; knowledge delights’.
Photo: Sandeep Saxena
First encounter with the world: Amusing, delightful, quirky...
There is a day for mothers, for fathers, for children, for friendship and many other such days. A day that is more than welcome, is the International Children’s Book Day sponsored by IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People) a non-profit organisation representing an international network of people. The sole aim of IBBY is to bring books and children together. The first encounter with the world — amusing, delightful and quirky characters are all c
ourtesy books. Today books are pitted against PSP’s, computers, iPods, and cell phones to claim a share of the ever shifting attention.
Host nation
International Children’s Book Day celebrations are held on April 2 to commemorate one of the greatest children’s writers, Hans Christian Andersen who was born on the same day in 1805, in Odense, Denmark. After his father’s death H. C. Andersen as he later came to be known as in his country, worked in a factory. He displayed a talent for poetry, publishing a volume of poetry in 1830. H.C. Andersen is famous for his fairytales “The Tin Soldier”, “The Tinderbox”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Snow Queen”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, and “The Little Mermaid”, which gained popularity and delighted children worldwide. These fairytales have been translated into many languages. Hans Christian Andersen died in 1875.
Each year a different national section of IBBY, has the wonderful opportunity to be the international sponsor of the International Children’s Book Day. The host nation decides upon a theme, and invites a prominent author from the host country to create a message for the children of the world, and a well known illustrator is asked to design a poster. These messages are used in many and different ways to promote books and reading.
The host country for the 2008 International Children’s Book Day is Thailand and the theme is ‘Books enlighten; knowledge delights’.
You can pitch in and support the ICBD by disappearing into the pages of a book atleast on that day. Not only will you emerge armed with knowledge, you will also get to meet delightful characters that only reside in the world of books.
Interesting encounters
International Children’s Book Day celebrations involve holding of special events like interesting encounters with children’s authors and illustrators. Writing competitions are organised in schools and libraries, book awards are announced, all this is done with a view to inspire and promote a love for reading and bring about awareness and understanding of other cultures through books.
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