Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday on April 2nd, International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.
Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of International Children’s Book Day. It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster.
Let Us Grow with The Book!
What a joy to hold a new book in one’s hands! At first you don’t know what the book is about. You resist the temptation to open the last page. And how good it smells! It is impossible to divide this smell into components: printing ink, glue… no, it is not. There is a particular smell of a book, an exciting and unique one. The tips of some pages would stick together as if the book had not woken up yet. It wakes up when you start reading it…
This year’s ICBD message comes from poet/author Sergey Makhotin and illustrator Mikhail Fedorov of IBBY Russia.
“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.” — Hans Christian Andersen
While many readers may be familiar with Anderson’s Fairy Tales, they may be unaware that Anderson’s works have become more widespread than any other author ever (only the Bible has been translated into more languages). Anderson grew up poor in Odense, Denmark, the only son of Hans, a self-educated shoemaker and Anne Marie, an illiterate washerwoman. For most of his childhood he lived in poverty with his parents in their one-room home. Learn how Anderson’s vivid imagination and love of the theater helped him to escape the lowest ranks of society at Hans Christian Anderson Centre and the British Library’s Online Gallery.
https://archive.org/stream/FairyTalesByHansChristianAnderson?ui=embed
KPMG’s Family for Literacy partners with First Book
On Wednesday, March 22nd, KPMG, through its KPMG’s Family for Literacy (KFFL) program, partnered with First Book to bring 10,000 brand new, FREE books to young San Francisco readers.
It was a great event, hosted by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Wonderfully organized, the KPMG’s Family for Literacy Book Fair was ably supported by a helpful team of volunteers. A big thank you to Chi and Thor, who helped with packing and loading eight boxes of children’s books for delivery.
Did you know?
- More than half of U.S. public school students live in low-income households.1
- In some of the lowest income neighborhoods, there is just one book for every 300 children.2
- Two-thirds of children from low-income families lack access to books.3
- 79 percent of fourth graders from low-income households do not read proficiently – a key predictor of a child’s future educational and economic success.4
- Poor educational outcomes are tied to poverty, unemployment, illness, dependence on welfare, social exclusion and crime.5
https://www.firstbook.org/about-first-book/understand-the-need
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