Volunteers get children's book congress off the ground

New Zealand will host an International Children’s Congress for the first time in 70 years, despite relying solely on donations to do so.

“The main difficulty hosting the congress has been getting funding and sponsorship,” said Rosemary Tisdall, co-director of New Zealand’s branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

“We’re all volunteers. We don’t get paid for it.

“We’ve had to go out and get people to give us money and that’s been hard, because schools, librarians and publishers don’t have a lot of money,” said Ms Tisdall.

“Thankfully, [sponsor] Mainfreight and academic institutions have provided a lot of support.”

Despite overcoming funding difficulties, IBBY is still not very well known in New Zealand, Ms Tisdall told Te Waha Nui.

“IBBY is a very unusual organisation. It’s not just a book club,” said Dr Libby Limbrick, another co-director of IBBY.

“The congress’s focus is on children’s literature, but it actually exists in trying to support children’s identity and their sense of understanding, of their own culture, and other people’s cultures,” said Dr Limbrick.

The congress will feature a variety of speakers, including Markus Zusak, the author of international bestseller The Book Thief, along with academic paper and poster presentations from 150 delegates around the world.

The Hans Christian Andersen Award, and the Supreme Children’s Award, will be presented at a gala dinner.

The congress is also responsible for a number of support initiatives around the world.

“For example in Syria and in Mexico IBBY supports a number of refugee kids by providing them with access to books,” said Dr Limbrick.

“In the United States there are tens of thousands of refugee children who have no access to books and IBBY has started getting them into libraries.”

With the congress being held in New Zealand, there are hopes the benefits of children’s literature will be embraced domestically.

“Our hope for it is that people will go away inspired, reinforced in their belief that literature can support young people’s development hugely,” said Dr Limbrick.

Although the main demographic of conference-goers has been librarians and teachers previously, Dr Limbrick said they expect a broader range to attend this year. “Once people hear Markus Zusak is coming, they say, ‘We love The Book Thief, we’ll come’.

“And we are going to open his talk up to the public,” said Dr Limbrick.

The 35^th IBBY will be held at Auckland’s Aotea Centre from August 18-21. To see the complete line up of speakers, visit IBBY’s website.