Co-established by International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and Shenzhen iRead Foundation of China, the IBBYiRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award is a biennial award for reading promoters worldwide who have made outstanding contribution to children’s reading. The Award is established with the hope to inspire a lasting commitment to the cause of reading promotion in the hope of spreading this Dedication to others around the globe.
This award is an incentive for people who have worked creatively and innovatively at least three years on reading for children and young adults and its different methods and they need to show continuity in their work. It can cover various activities such as development of bookreading projects and implementing dynamic activities in such projects, effective promotion of reading and the relevant strategies as well as supporting children’s right for reading. Children’s Book Council (CBC), as the national branch if IBBY, introduces the nominees for this award. In 2019, CBC nominated Aliasghar Seidabai, as the Iranian Nominee for taking iREAD for following reasons: •30-year activities in the field of promoting variable and creative book reading, as the rural library director and journalist who promotes book reading;
• Active and effective membership in selecting short list for the “Flying Turtle” (a list of the best children and young adults books in Iran);
• Author of educational books about promotion of book reading;
• Working with Iranian Association of Writers for Children and Youth;
• Launching national activities to promote book reading in Iran including Children and Youth Book Reading Clubs Cup, Iranian network of book-loving villages and nomads, Iran’s Book Capital, network of book reading promotion groups.
• Holding educational workshops for the children and youth living in the deprived areas of Iran to promote reading;
• Brainstorming and designing events and facilities to promote non-governmental bookreading activities such as book vow (binding one of Iranian religious traditions with book reading promotion across the deprived areas);
• Proposition of launching Mehr Award (a book-reading plot which is run and judged by orphan and Afghan girls living in the Tehran dorms.)
