Join Siobhán Parkinson at the Irish Museum of Modern Art this Sunday 29th January for the launch of Look No Cows, her new outdoor sculpture trail for children, which will be launched at 1pm at the gallery in Kilmainham. Further details here - http://www.imma.ie/en/page_212469.htm

CBI is currently inviting nominations for Laureate na nÓg 2012 -2014. This important initiative was instigated in 2010 with the inauguration of Siobhán Parkinson as Ireland’s first children’s literature laureate.

Siobhán will complete her imaginative and successful term in May 2012 so now is the time to nominate an Irish author or illustrator to be Laureate na nÓg 2012 –14

Individuals and organisations are invited to make a nomination between now and February 24th 2012. Nominees must be Irish and should be an internationally recognised author or illustrator who has made a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature in Ireland. Further details about the laureate project and the nomination process can be found on here or from info@childrensbooksireland.ie

Laureate na nÓg is an initiative of the Arts Council with the support of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA), Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland.

CRITERIA FOR NOMINATION OF NEXT LAUREATE:

The person nominated for the role needs to meet five key criteria:

1. The laureate should be an Irish writer or illustrator with an internationally recognised body of high quality children’s writing and/or illustration.

2. He or she must have made a particularly significant contribution to the field of children’s literature in Ireland and have had a considerable positive impact on readers as well as other writers and illustrators.

3. He or she must demonstrate both eagerness and skill in engaging with children, young people, adults, and media and with the sector as a whole.

4. He or she should demonstrate an enthusiasm for promoting children’s literature in general.

5. Nominees must be of Irish nationality.
Nominations should be sent to info@childrensbooksireland.ie before February 24th, 2012

There was a large and receptive audience for the first of the two Laureates in Conversation events, featuring Laureate na nOg Siobhan Parkinson, and the UK Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Julia Donaldson, which took place at the Royal Irish Academy in Dawson Street on Friday, 20th January.

The conversation was moderated by Dr. Amanda Piesse of TCD, and topics covered included the public role of the children’s laureate and the importance of libraries in schools and other formal and non-formal contexts.

Siobhan Parkinson, Julia Donaldson and Amanda Piesse at the Laureates in Conversation event.

Sadie Cramer's tribute to the Parkinson/Donaldson joint appearance

Booking for the Joints Laureate Reading has now closed, because we simply can’t fit any more people in to the Royal Irish Academy Meeting Room.

Thanks for all the interest – we’re all looking forward to a great event.

Siobhan Parkinson’s recent visit to the US has been reported in Publisher’s Weekly. Click here for the edition: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/49883-in-brief-december-15.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+Children%27s+Bookshelf&utm_campaign=bb8d706b8d-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email

Siobhan Parkinson in New York December 2011

Siobhán Parkinson and Katherine Paterson meet in Vermont

Siobhán spent the first day of her four day trip to the US with a visit to Vermont to meet with US Reading Ambassador Katherine Paterson. Katherine hosted a lunch for children’s writers from the Vermont area and there was a great exchange of views about the situation for children’s literature in both Ireland and the US. Joining her on the trip was Nicole Deming from the Children’s Books Council, the US trade association of children’s publishers. Plans for furthering the co-operation between Ireland and the US were discussed – watch this space

LAUREATE NA NÓG TRAVELS TO NEW YORK FOR IMAGINE IRELAND PROGRAMME
IRELAND OF THE IMAGINATION: MEETING IRISH CHILDREN’S LAUREATE, SIOBHÁN PARKINSON
Children’s writer Siobhán Parkinson is Ireland’s first Laureate na nÓg, or Children’s Literature Laureate. The author of some 20 novels for children, young people and adults, Ms Parkinson’s most recent publication is Long Story Short, published by Roaring Brook in the US in September 2011. Siobhan will discuss recent developments in children’s literature in Ireland, from her perspective as Literature Laureate, as well as talking about her own work as a novelist and teacher. This event is being sponsored by Culture Ireland’s Imagine Ireland programme – a year-long celebration of Irish Arts for American audiences.
WHERE
New York Public Library’s Childrens’ Center, 42nd Street, New York
WHEN
1pm, December 10, 2011

BOOKS BEYOND BORDERS
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND, KILDARE STREET, DUBLIN 2, 22nd OCTOBER 2011

PROGRAMME

Saturday 22nd October : 10am to 1.00pm

10.00-10.10 Welcome by Chair, Celia Keenan

10.10-10.50 – “What to do With a Book – different perspectives” – Rachel van Kooij and Hildegard Gärtner, Publisher, Jungbrunnen
10.50-11.30 Panel Discussion: An overview of education and immigration and the role of the school. Dr. Margit Böck (University of Salzburg) and Professor Sheila Greene (TCD), chaired by Celia Keenan.
11.30- 11.50 Special address by Frances Fitzgerald, T.D. Minister for Children and Youth Affairs
11.50-12.50 Case studies and plenary discussion – Mairead Duggan, JCSP Librarian and Irene Barber
12.50-1.00 Concluding Remarks by Chairman

BOOKS BEYOND BORDERS SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Irene Barber
Irene Barber is a recently retired primary school teacher.She is a board member of Children’s Books Ireland and the International Board on Books for Young People-Ireland. She has a life-long interest in promoting reading and school libraries.

Margit Böck
Margit Böck is Lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Salzburg. Her research interests are in modes and media of communication, in ‘literacy’ – including ‘academic literacy’ – as well as in media uses in the everyday, in relation to issues around social inequality, and learning in a wide sense. At the moment she is writing her Habilitation on Communicational practices of everyday life in a fragmenting society (Kommunikative Alltagspraxis in einer brüchigen Gesellschaft).

Mairead Duggan
Mairead Duggan is originally from County Tipperary but has have spent the last four years living and working in Galway and Dublin. She did a Joint Honours Degree in English Literature and Irish Language in University College Cork, spent a few years travelling before returning to Ireland in 2001 and to complete a Diploma in Journalism and a Masters Degree in University College Dublin in Library and Information Science. She has been working on the JCSP Demonstration Library Project for the past 8 Years in various schools in both Dublin and Galway. She is currently pursuing a part-time Masters Degree in Children’s Literature in St. Patrick’s College in Drumcondra.

Frances Fitzgerald, T.D., Minister for Children and Youth Affairs
Frances Fitzgerald, T.D. was appointed Ireland’s first ever Minister for Children earlier this year. Frances was also Leader of the Opposition in the Senate on her election as a Senator to the 23rd Seanad and previously served as T.D. for Dublin South East for ten years. She gained a B.Soc. Science in U.C.D. and an M.SC. in Social Administration and Social Work in the London School of Economics. Prior to her election to the Dail Frances was a high profile Chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (1988-1992) and Vice President of the European Women’s Lobby.

Hildegard Gärtner
Hildegard Gärtner is the Director of Jungbrunnen, the Austrian publisher of children’s literature. The Vienna-based children’s publishing house Jungbrunnen was founded with the express intention of making good literature available to children who might not otherwise have access to books, and the provision of high-quality texts and images continues to be at the heart of what Jungbrunnen does. Jungbrunnen wants to challenge children as well as to entertain them, and the company selects titles very carefully with these values in mind.

Professor Sheila Greene
Sheila Greene is the co-founder and former Director of the Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin, (see www.tcd.ie/childrensresearchcentre), and former holder of the AIB Chair of Childhood Research, having retired on September 30th this year. Her publications include The psychological development of girls and women: Rethinking change in time (2003, Routledge) and Researching children’s experience: Approaches and methods, which she co-edited with Dr Diane Hogan (2005, Sage). She was Co-Director of the National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland, Growing Up in Ireland, (see www.growingup.ie) from 2006-2011.

Celia Keenan
Celia Keenan recently retired as a lecturer in English and children’s literature from St. Patricks College of Education, where she was Director of the MA in Children’s Literature. She is editor, with Mary Shine Thompson, of the influential study Children’s Literature 1500 – 2000 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004).

Rachel van Kooij
Rachel van Kooij was born in 1968 in Wageningen in The Netherlands, but moved to Austria with her family when she was ten. After she left school, she studied education, with an emphasis on special needs, in Vienna. She lives in Klosterneuberg and works as a carer for disabled people. She has published seven works for children and young adults.

Dr. Siobhán Parkinson
Siobhán Parkinson, Ireland’s inaugural Laureate na nÓg, writes fiction for children, young people and adults. She has published 22 books since 1992, and her work has been translated into as many languages. She has been shortlisted nine times for the Bisto Book of the Year Award, which she won on one occasion; she has received Bisto Merit and Honour awards four times. She has been included on the international Ibby Honour list twice, as well as several White Raven awards. She won an Oireachtas award for Dialann Sár-Rúnda Amy Ní Chonchúir, her first book in Irish and in 2011 was short-listed for the prestigious international Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Images Beyond Borders, an exhibition of illustrations by children’s literature illustrators from Ireland and Austria, had a marvellous launch night at the No Grants Gallery, Temple Bar, on Friday 7th October. A crowd of over 50 people gathered to view the exhibition, with a reception hosted by the Austrian embassy. Laureate na nÓg Siobhán Parkinson and Karin Fichtinger-Grohe, Deputy Minister at the Austrian Embassy, welcomed everyone there, and they were followed by a short discussion on illustration by renowned illustrator, Niamh Sharkey and Valerie Coghlan of the Church of Ireland College of Education.

Laureate na nÓg Siobhán Parkinson welcomes guests to the exhibition opening

Karin Fichtinger-Grohe at the exhibition launch

Niamh Sharkey and Valerie Coghlan in conversation at the exhibition launch