International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit institute which had been founded in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1953 in response to a proposition made by Jella Lepman, an English-German Journalist (1891-1970), with the aim of improving the quality of children and young adults’ books, extension of their libraries and making an understanding between young generations of various nations via books. Holding the International Children and Young Adults Literature Congress once every two years in the member nations is one of the most important activities of IBBY. The 36th international congress of IBBY under the title of East Meets West around Children’s Books and Fairy Tales was held in Athens, Greece, from August 30 to September 1.
This congress was attended by Roya Maktabi-fard (Two Women, Two Continents and A Single Ideal: Jella Lepman and Touran Mirhadi), Bahar Eshraq (Footprint of Little Prince in Iran’s National Children Literature), Hamid Peymani and Delneshin Danaie (Children Books Publishers’ Perspective about Copyright in Iran). In the Posters category, Soudabeh Nowzari and Mitra Samimi proposed their poster as “Iranian Children and Young Adults Look to the World: A Report about a 38-year Project in Iran”. Likewise, this congress appreciated candidates of the IBBY Honour List of. Farhad Hassanzadeh, author of Call Me Beautiful (Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults), Farzad Farbod, translator of The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Paryan Press) and Nazanin Abbasi, illustrator of Warning, The Risk of Mice and Others’ Attack (Neyestan Press) were three Iranian artists and authors whose works in compilation, translation and illustration categories became candidate in the IBBY Honour List and received appreciation plaque from juries of Hans Christian Andersen Awards.
