ICBD 2026 Sponsored by Cyprus
Are you planning to celebrate the 2026 International Children's Book Day?
Download our digital materials to decorate your event, share posts about it and tag IBBY: @ibby.international (Facebook & Instagram). #ICBD26
In 2026, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is sponsored by IBBY Cyprus, around the theme “Plant stories and the world will bloom”. Through this beautiful motto, IBBY Cyprus recognizes the inherent value of stories, books, and reading and their potential to improve the world. It also emphasizes the need for a shift to more environmentally friendly life choices.
Both the messages and poster were chosen via a nationwide competition featuring distinguished Cypriot authors and illustrators. To ensure fairness, all entries were submitted anonymously to about 20 schools across the country, with their authors’ identities disclosed only after the final votes were counted. Elena Perikleous is the author of the poem embodying 2026 ICBD. The poster was created by Sandra Elephteriou.
Activities for the classroom and at home
IBBY Cyprus has designed a series of activities for children and young readers of all age ranges. Download the ICBD digital material and enjoy creativity in the classroom or at home.
ICBD 2026 Official Song - "The Little Gardener" by Giorgos Hatzipieris
IBBY Cyprus is happy to share the ICBD 2026 song, “The Little Gardener", a beautiful initiative and composed pro bono by the Cypriot musician and composer Giorgos Hatzipieris.
Inspired by the text of Elena Perikleous and the illustration of Sandra Eleftheriou, the song is rooted in this year’s ICBD 2026 message and poster, sponsored by Cyprus IBBY.
“Plant Stories and the World Will Bloom.”
The instrumental version is also available, visit the Cyprus IBBY Youtube. Listen, watch, enjoy, create your own, and share it — because if stories make the world bloom, music is surely one of the best fertilizers.
Credits:
Lyrics, Music: Giorgos Hatzipieris – Performance: Giorgos Hatzipieris
Arrangement: Marios Takousis – Sound Engineering, Mixing, Programming: Marios Takousis
Voice Recording: Michaela Tsangari - The Elbow Room Studio
Violin: Sorin Alexandru Horlea – Acoustic Guitar: Odysseas Toumazou
Illustration: Sandra Eleftheriou – Animation: Michalis Papanikolaou
Production Management: Giorgos Hatzipieris – Production: The Lazy Dragon © 2026 All Rights Reserved
About the Author & Illustrator
ICBD 2026 Message - Original Greek text
ICBD 2026 Message - English translation
Plant stories, and the world will bloom
Elena Perikleous
Translation by Despina Pirketti
Once upon a time, a child was born, longing to live better than the heroes of fairy tales—who only lived happily ever after.
The child grew and changed, read, and became Don Quixote, battling windmills; Alice, bringing wonder to life; Robin Hood, saving the forests; a wolf, gathering moon-singing packs.
Years passed, but the world remained untouched by the change once dreamed of.
Yet—the child managed to put together a brand new world within a garden courtyard, filled with everything dear to the heart.
More years passed.
And as books whispered wisdom into the soul, the child knew what had to be done.
When autumn came, the earth was tilled and seeds were planted.
Winter arrived.
The child waited patiently for the white sheath to melt, nurtured by the company of budding books.
Then it was spring. Tender leaves shot out from the stems.
Trunks thickened, branches stretched, buds sprouted.
The child’s soul blossomed, filled with colours and scents.
And summer?
It was the time of boats, sailboats, hot-air balloons, bicycles… the time of travelling far and wide!
Now the child knew—without a doubt:
This was the way to change the world: by becoming a planter.
A planter of magical stories, sowing words, cultivating images, harvesting wonder, watering imagination.
And so stories began to grow and spread.
Then?
The child pruned with love, gifting bouquets to passersby—
Bouquets of peace, hope, strength, and faith in the impossible.
Bouquets of small miracles, for each and every one.
Every spring, on the second of April,
the stories the child had sown set the world ablaze with bloom.
Oh, and through the gardening workshops, reaping wisdom was passed on to young and old alike.
And the child’s garden became the Garden of Hope,
the courtyard, the Courtyard of Wonders,
as the magician always held his ground—
unspooling red threads of storytelling into the breeze.
ICBD 2026 Message - Arabic translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Basque translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Catalan translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Chinese translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Croatian translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Farsi translation
ICBD 2026 Message - French translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Galician translation
ICBD 2026 Message - German translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Italian translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Japanese translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Lithuanian translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Polish translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Portuguese translation
ICBD 2026 Message - Spanish translation
