National Children’s Book Day is fast approaching!
Every year, the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) spearheads the celebration of National Children’s Book Day on the 3rd Tuesday of July to commemorate the publication of Jose Rizal’s “The Monkey and the Turtle” on Trubner’s Oriental Record in London.
This year’s celebration is entitled, “Umuulan ng Libro,” because while it’s been raining all over the metro, it’ll rain books on National Children’s Book Day.
Here’s a rundown of the festivities in celebration of NCBD 2015: the Philippine Children’s Book Summit (mounted by the National Book Development Board in partnership with PBBY) on July 21 at Centris, and a librarian’s workshop and children’s book fair at the Ateneo Rizal Library on July 25.
Umuulan ng Libro: Philippine Children’s Book Summit (July 21)
This whole-day summit will feature discussions on diverse topics such as Asian children’s books, children’s book illustration, best practices in copyright, children’s librarianship, and Filipino comics. It will feature both local and international speakers.
Local authors and publishers who will be sharing their knowledge on children’s content include M.J. Cagumbay Tumamac, author of Ngumiti si Andoy; poet and fictionist Kristian Cordero; Edgar Samar, author of the Janus Silang series; Blooey Singson, owner and writer of the blog Bookmarked!; Carljoe Javier, managing editor of Anino comics; and 2015 PBBY-Salanga Prize honorable mention winner, Cheeno Sayuno.
International speakers include the winner of the Illustrator’s Award at the 2015 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, Wen Dee Tan. Lili, one of Tan’s picture books, won third place in the Macmillan Prize 2013, an annual picture book competition by Macmillan Children’s Books UK. Joining Wen Dee Tan in the roster of international speakers is Mariko Nagai. Mariko is an Associate Professor of creative writing and Japanese literature at Temple University, Japan Campus in Tokyo, where she is also the Director of Research and Study Abroad Academic Coordinator. She has received the Pushcart Prizes both in poetry and fiction. Nagai’s collection of poems, Histories of Bodies, won the Benjamin Saltman Prize from Red Hen Press, and her first collection of stories, Georgic: Stories won the 2009 G.S. Sharat Chandra Fiction Prize from BkMk Press.
The festival will be concluded by the awarding of the 2015 PBBY-Salanga Prize and 2015 PBBY-Alcala Prize.
The summit is open to authors, illustrators, publishers, educators, and librarians who are devoted in ensuring quality books for children.
For inquiries about the summit, you may contact 352-6765 loc 204.
Librarians Workshop and Children’s Book Fair (July 25)
This workshop to be run by PBBY member and librarian par excellance, Zarah Gagatiga, shall provide activities that will help librarians design and develop reading programs for students in the K-3; middle grades (4-8); junior high school (9-10); and senior high school (11-12) levels. Participants are encouraged to bring existing reading programs they implement in their school libraries. This will be followed by a presentation of recommended reads for kids and teens and a book discussion of favorite children’s books.
A book fair, featuring eight local children’s book publishers, will also be held at the 5th floor of the Rizal Library. Aside from launching their new titles, publishers will also hold exciting games and activities for everyone.
For inquiries about the workshop and book fair, you may contact 0939 934 6521.
I’ll be at the Philippine Children’s Book Summit as part of the panel on “Why Adults Should Read Children’s Books.”
I will also be joining my book club, Flips Flipping Pages, at the NCBD2015 Children’s Book Fair, where we’re moderating a book discussion of the Peter Pan Prize winning “Naku, Nakuu, Nakuuu!” by Nanoy Rafael, illustrated by Sergio Bumatay III (who have both confirmed to join the discussion, yay!). We’re also running a booth at the fair, where we’ll have some art activities and sell bookish items and crafts made by our members.
And, as you saw in my previous post, I’ve joined the #NCBD2015 blog tour, which runs the entire month (aaack, must keep up with the weekly posts!).
Join us in celebrating National Children’s Book Day! If you can’t be with us in person, there are countless of other ways to celebrate: dress up as a Filipino children’s book character, read a Filipino children’s book or organize a storytelling session, give a child a locally published book to read, and share your photos on social media with the hashtag #NCBD2015.
Happy National Children’s Book Day!