Author, translator, editor, advocate: I wear many hats. But they all come from the same hatbox: the one with CHILDREN'S BOOKS written across it.
Everywhere I go, everyone I meet is as passionate as I am about getting books into the hands of all children from a very early age. After safety, food and shelter, this is probably the single most important thing you can do for your child’s development, wellbeing and future.
But what about those children who don’t even get those basic needs covered? Children from very disadvantaged backgrounds or in dire circumstances such as those lingering in refugee camps. What good are books going to do them?
The answer, actually, is a lot of good.
For the past year, I have been involved with the Irish branch of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People. Founded in the rubble of post-war Europe by an extraordinary woman, Jella Lepman, IBBY has long known that to rebuild ruined lives, you must start with the children. By exposing them to books from around the world, you can show them that they are not alone, and that there are different ways to live. Lepman talked about ‘building a bridge of children’s books’. Breeding kindness and tolerance, celebrating diversity and fostering international understanding: such are the goals of IBBY. This is what IBBY Ireland’s motto reflects: ‘One world, many stories’.
So, what exactly can a volunteer international network of authors, illustrators, librarians, publishers, academics, booksellers and general lovers of children’s books do to build this bridge? Plenty, as it turns out, from supporting local reading-promotion initiatives to organising auctions for IBBY’s Children in Crisis fund.
In 2012, IBBY Italy was moved by the plight of the refugees landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Reaching out to those families was made more complicated, however, because of the language barrier, so IBBY Italy gathered a collection of wordless picture books from all the other sections. The result was a set of over 100 top-notch ‘silent’ books that went straight onto the shelves of the new children’s library in Lampedusa. It contains classics such as Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman alongside more recent titles like Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and Suzy Lee’s Wave. The books come from Slovenia, Iran, Canada and 20 other countries, and the beauty of it is that whatever your age, whatever your language, you can read every single one of them.
A second set of the collection was deposited at the documentation and research archive in Rome (Palazzo della Esposizioni), while a third became part of a travelling exhibition. And for the last few months, this exhibition has been touring Ireland. Myself and my colleagues at IBBY Ireland have been very excited to bring it to South County Dublin, Dún Laoghaire and now Kerry in June (to Tralee Library). It’s a hands-on affair, where visitors are welcome to ‘read’ any of the books on display. The libraries will also use them as part of their regular activities (like baby book clubs and so on), invite schools in to look at and discuss them, and run workshops with writers and illustrators to bring the collection to life. To date, the lineup includes Children’s Laureate PJ Lynch, award-winning author-illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Debbie Thomas and Tatyana Feeney.
Together with our visitors, they will help celebrate the right of every child, no matter their age, language, culture or situation, to become a reader.
The IBBY Silent Books exhibition is at Tralee Library from 2-18 June. More info at at www.ibbyireland.com.
