Belgium

Flemish Branch – IBBY Flanders

The Flemish Branch of  IBBY-Belgium is affiliated with Iedereen Leest (Everybody Reads), and is located in Antwerp.  

The projects we do

To get Flanders reading, Iedereen Leest organises a Children’s Book Week (Jeugdboekenweek) in March which precedes Reading Aloud Week (Voorleesweek) in November. We join young reading enthusiasts in the Children’s Jury (Kinder- en Jeugdjury Vlaanderen) and developed the Challenge (De Weddenschap) for young people in secondary schools. And in cooperation with the Flemish healthcare services we develop Book Babies (Boekbaby’s) for babies and toddlers.

One of our newest programs is O Mundo: a little world library, in which we introduce picturebooks from all over the world in Flanders’ multicultural classrooms. www.omundo.be 

The library

Iedereen Leest  has a subject library on children’s literature and reading promotion ranging from reference works and monographs, periodicals, congress reports, exhibition catalogues to cuttings collections, and a large collection of children’s books by Flemish authors, illustrators and translators.

The website www.jeugdliteratuur.org publishes news from the world of children’s books and provides hundreds of author profiles. The Library organises training for (aspiring) teachers, librarians and other children’s books aficionados, often in collaboration with the University of Antwerp, and hosts the Book Quest site for children: www.boekenzoeker.org

The people we work with

Our dedication exceeds the possibilities of Iedereen Leest so we have joined hands with people in schools, libraries, day-care centres, the book profession, and the media. With them, we develop ideas and projects. To widen our scope and to keep track of trends we exchange ideas and expertise with our international partners and occasionally adapt some of their successful projects to the Flemish context. Together with specialists and researchers we organise conferences and workshops.

IBBY Belgium - French Branch

The new team of the French-speaking Belgian branch of IBBY has chosen to realign itself with the missions of IBBY. In particular, a better understanding between peoples thanks to children's literature. Based in Brussels, the French-speaking Belgian section encourages the reading of quality children's books and supports Belgian children's literature via a website, a Facebook group and various concrete actions.

Once a year, we publish a collector's issue on Belgian children's literature whose central topic varies yearly (e.g. special issues dedicated to renown authors and illustrators, to Belgian children’s literature future talents, among others). At the beginning of the year, we award three 'IBBY Belgique Francophone’ prizes to illustrated children’s books in the following categories: Illustrated Book, Illustrated Belgian Book, Funny Book.

We coordinate with the Flemish branch of IBBY Belgium for proposals for the Hans Christian Andersen Prizes and the IBBY Honor List. We also promote Belgian authors and illustrators internationally, for example at the Astrid Lindgren Prize.