Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
I’m totally swamped with work, but it’s the eve of Harry Potter’s birthday, and (aha, and it’s nearly Thursday) so I’m celebrating with a trip down memory lane: how we rang in the final installment of Harry Potter, unearthed from an old cd of photos that luckily outlived Multiply.
Every year, the third Tuesday of July marks the celebration of National Children’s Book Day, as spearheaded by the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY), the organization committed to the development of children’s literature in the Philippines, in commemoration of the anniversary of the publication of Jose Rizal’s The Monkey and the Turtle in Trubner’s Oriental Record in London.
Children’s writer and illustrator Sally Gardner was one of the major reasons I decided to attend the Asian Festival of Children’s Content this year — I have loved her historical novels “I, Coriander” and ” The Red Necklace” (and I read her Carnegie Medal winner, “Maggot Moon” on the flight over), and the prospect of actually meeting her in person was quite a thrill.
So, on the first day of the AFCC 2014 Writers and Illustrators Conference, I woke up before the sun was up (in SG, mind, so that’s like 7 am) and took the train all the way from the end of the purple line to catch the first session: “Magical Children: The Key to Story” featuring Sally Gardner.
Back during the 2012 AFCC, one of the best sessions I attended was one on translation, conducted by Avery Fischer Udagawa. I wandered into the session out of sheer curiosity; after all, I collect Harry Potter translations for fun. But as I sat through the session, I discovered translation to be a highly specialized segment of the children’s book industry.
The session was quite enlightening, and it made me realize just how rich literature is because of translations — so many of the world’s best-loved books were not originally written in English. And it was because of that session two years ago that I made a beeline for “Found in Translation – Asian Content for the World’s Children” by award-winning translator Cathy Hirano at this year’s AFCC.
SINGAPORE — Filipino writers garnered top honors for the 2014 Scholastic Asian Book Award, a biennial search for new Asian children’s stories written in English, announced at the recently concluded Asian Festival of Children’s Content held at the Singapore National Library Building.
Organized by Scholastic and the National Book Development Council of Singapore, the Scholastic Asian Book Award was presented by Singapore Minister of Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong. Filipino writer Sophia Marie Lee was named the grand prize winner for her story “What Things Mean,” and was awarded a cash prize of SGD 10,000 as well as a publishing deal from Scholastic. Another Filipino writer, Catherine Torres, ranked first runner up with her story, “Sula’s Voyage,” while India’s Vivek Bhanot ranked second runner up with his story “Robin and the Case of the Summer Camp Kidnapping.” Runners-up and selected shortlisted entries for the SABA are also considered for publication.
This year’s entries were judged by an international panel of literary experts and renowned authors led by Sayoni Basu (India) as head judge, along with Ken Spillman (Australia), Marjorie Coughlan (Canada), Sarah Odedina (United Kingdom), Wanitcha Sumanat (Thailand).
“We [the judges] were pleasantly surprised with the high quality in the manuscripts submitted this year, which demonstrated greater depth and diversity in their stories, and more sophistication in writing craft as compared to previous years. The universality of the themes will enable all children in Asia and across the world to identify with the stories,” said Sayoni Basu.
Continue reading “Filipino writers win big at Scholastic Asian Book Award”
