Latest News

20/03/2026— Join us at the Bologna Children's Book Fair with major announcements at our Annual Press Conference and visit us at our IBBY Stand (Hall 29 Stand B44) during your time at the fair! Read more about our activities at the fair here.

13/03/2026— Bookbird, Inc. and IBBY are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak and Dr. Lorraine Kerslake Young as the new Co-Editors of Bookbird: An International Journal of Children’s Literature. Read more about the new Editors and Bookbird here.

12/03/2026— We are proud to announce the official nominees for two of the IBBYs prestigious Reading Promotion Awards: the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award and the IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award. Read the newsletter in full here.

09/03/2026 — Read the full newsletter or visit our Hans Christian Andersen Award page to discover the list.

02/02/2026 — Visit our ICBD page to learn more about the celebrations taking place this year!

29/01/2026 — Read the full press release or visit our Hans Christian Andersen Award page to discover the Shortlist.

11/12/2025—Read the latest newsletter from the IBBY Europe network here and hear about the events of our sections in the region!

28/10/2025— IBBY pays tribute to the children of the IBBY library communities in Gaza. As we hope that the ceasefire endures, our hearts are with the families and loved ones of these children, with our IBBY communities, and all of the families and children of Palestine. Read the letter in full here.

17/10/2025— Today, leading voices from international organizations across the publishing and book sector come together to launch the statement “Belonging Matters — For Our Sector, Our Societies, and the Stories We Share.” Read the press release here.

03/10/2025—We are thrilled to announce that IBBY will once again be at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest gathering of the publishing community. This year, our stand takes on a special focus: a celebration of the upcoming 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. Read the newsletter here.

24/06/2025—The IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages is a worldwide invitation to publishers, librarians, and institutions—public and private—working for the promotion of books and reading, to discover and share books written for young readers in Indigenous and endangered languages. Read the newsletter here.

27/05/2025—Read the latest newsletter from the IBBY Europe network here and hear about the events of our sections in the region!

31/03/2025 — Read the full press release or visit our Hans Christian Andersen Award page to discover the nominees.

31/03/2025 — At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, UNESCO and IBBY launched the IBBY–UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages — a powerful new initiative that calls on the world to discover, protect, and share stories told in Indigenous and endangered languages.

Read more on the new initiative and the regulations here!

31/03/2025 — On 31 March, at the Bologna Children's Book Fair IBBY Annual Conference, the Jella Lepman medal was awarded to Patricia Aldana for her lifelong commitment to bringing books to young readers around the world. Within the framework for IBBY's campaign for the Right of Every Child to Become a Reader, Patricia was instrumental in establishing many of IBBY’s ground-breaking projects to support and encourage children’s reading, such as the IBBY Yamada Fund and the IBBY Children in Crisis programme.

Patricia Aldana is a children's book publisher based in Canada. She is the founder and former publisher of Groundwood Books, past president of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), former president of the IBBY Trust, and current publisher of Aldana Libros, an imprint of Greystone Kids. 

27/02/2025 — The 2025 Bologna Children's Book Fair (BCBF) is just around the corner! We are delighted to invite you to the 2025 IBBY Press Conference, taking place on Monday 31 March, 2:30pm CET at the Illustrators Café (BCBF Service Centre). Thanks to the continuous support of BolognaFiere, IBBY will once again be represented at the fair. We cannot wait to share important news with you! 

Read more on the press conference programme here!

2/12/2024— The following were selected to serve as members of the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury: Brenda Dales (USA), Diana Laura Kovach (Argentina), Giorgia Grilly (Italy), Holly Tonks (UK), Maare Müürsepp (Estonia), Margaret Anne Suggs (Ireland), Morgane Vasta (France), Nadia El Koly (Egypt), Shailaja Menon (India) and Tan Fengxia (China). The Jury will work under the guidance of Jury President Shereeh Kreidieh (Lebanon). IBBY Executive Director Carolina Ballester is an ex officio Jury member. 
Read the full release here. 

17/12/2024—Read the latest newsletter from the IBBY Europe network here and hear about the events of our sections in the region!

24/09/2024— The IBBY Members elected Basarat Kazim as IBBY President for the term 2024-2026 and renewed its Executive Committee at the 2024 General Assembly which took place on 31 August as part of the 39th IBBY Congress in Trieste, Italy. Shereen Kreidieh was elected as 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury President during the Assembly. Read the full release here. 

28/08/24—The second IBBY Asia-Pacific newsletter is out, with news from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korean, Malaysia, Mongolia, and Vietnam

20/06/2024— The 2024 IBBY Honour List features 184 high quality titles from 59 countries, including 68 entries in the category of Writing; 55 in the category Illustration; and 61 in the category Translation. Discover the list of children's books creators nominated to the prestigious list here.

17/06/2024— The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) stands by the principles endorsed in the United Nations Human Rights Conventions, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child and urges all global leaders to work together on behalf of the children of Gaza...

Read full statement 

28/05/2024—Read the latest newsletter from the IBBY Europe network here and hear about the events of our sections in the region!

05/04/2024 – The IBBY Press Conference will take place on Monday 8 April 2024, 3:00pm–4:15pm at the Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustrators' Café. The event will be broadcasted on the IBBY Youtube channel.
The annual Press Conference presents the work of IBBY throughout the year and highlights its most important events, including the 39th World Congress (Trieste, 30 Aug–1 Sept, 2024) and the 2024 International Children's Book Day. It is also the much-expected occasion to discover the winners of the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award and the IBBY Reading Promotions Awards. Download full programme here.

Visit the IBBY stand at the Bologna Children's Book Fair (Hall 29 C45)

4/03/2024 – After two successful editions in 2022 and 2023, the IBBY Sections of Latin America and Spain will once again celebrate literature for children and the youth though an online seminar organized on the theme of 'Courage' (Valentía) and bringing together a splendid line-up of writers and illustrators in race for the most important awards in 2024. Participation is free upon registration. Click here for more details.

9/02/2024 – Since 2018, the Hans Christian Andersen Jury is invited to create a selection of about twenty outstanding titles from the 2024 nominees that they felt were important enough to merit translation everywhere so that children around the world could read them. The list crafted by the 2024 Jury is now available on the IBBY website. Read more

29/01/2024 — IBBY Japan is the 2024 International Children’s Book Day official sponsor, under the motto "Cross the Seas on the Wings of Imagination". This year’s ICBD programme is the result of a collaboration between writer Eiko Kadono and artist Nani Furiya. Together, they have paid a vibrant tribute to imagination. Find out more.

18/01/2024 — The International Board on Books for Young People is proud to announce the Shortlist for the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award. Read the full Press Release and visit the Hans Christian Andersen Award web page to read more about the shortlisted candidates.