Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2016 winners announced

The 2016 Hans Christian Andersen awards, presented by the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY), have been awarded to Chinese author Cao Wenxuan and German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner, reports the Bookseller. Cao is the author of Bronze and Sunflower (Walker Books), a story about two children brought together during the Cultural Revolution, while Berner has illustrated The It-Doesn’t-Matter Suit (Sylvia Plath, Faber) and The Number Devil (Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Granta). The judges were unanimous in their decision to award Cao, and praised his work for being ‘a great example of how writing wonderful prose and telling stories about brave children facing tremendous difficulties and challenges can attract a very wide and committed child readership as well as helping to shape a literary tradition in China that honors the realities of children’s worlds’. Of Berner the judges said: ‘Children all over the world deserve to be exposed to her brilliant, humane, rich, emotionally true and deeply engaging books.’ The winners were announced at a ceremony at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair on 4 April, and will each receive a cash prize of US$10,000 (A$13,150), as well as a medal and diploma, to be presented during the IBBY Congress in Auckland in August. The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are awarded biennially to an author and illustrator who have made lasting contributions to children’s literature, from nominations submitted by the IBBY National Sections. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, author Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft were nominated by IBBY Australia as the Australian candidates for the 2016 awards, but were not named among the 10 finalists.

Category: International news Junior