Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

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* The National Book Development Board - Philippines and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People will present the first National Children’s Book Awards in July. The awards will honor the ten best books in the Philippines for children and young adults (from the years 2008 and 2009). Nominations for the awards are now open and will close on April 15. Click here for the award rules (click on the image to enlarge it). The nomination form is available here . *Two new children's book awards will be announced at the first Asian Festival of Children's Content in May: the Asian Children's Book Prize, and the Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award for Singaporean children's books. I am so excited about all these awards! =D

*Check out Color Online's latest Women Writers of Color blog post featuring Filipino Italian American children's book author Dorina Lazo Gilmore . Dorina is the author of Cora Cooks Pancit . (Pancit!!!) *Don't forget about Color Online's week-long book discussion of the YA novel Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger. (Neesha Meminger was born in India, grew up in Canada, and now lives in the U.S.!) The discussion starts next Friday, March 19. *Thank you so much to Angel of Story on a Page for giving me the Beautiful Blogger Award. I'm now supposed to say seven things about myself and pass on the award. About those seven things... Ask me questions in the comments section! I really don't know what to say right now. :o) So ask me any question. I'll pass on the Beautiful Blogger Award to these Asian YA book blogs/bloggers: Between the Lines (Bangladesh) Dissecting Perfection (Pakistan) LiyanaLand! (Singapore) Serenehours (Vietnam)

I was checking out the website of the Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations and I saw these illustrations: They are illustrations by Fereshteh Najafi for The Princess , the second prize winner for the 16th Concours (2008). I was intrigued. The illustrations are truly different from other children's book illustrations I have seen. I just had to get to know the illustrator! The gorgeous Fereshteh Najafi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1973. She has a BA in graphic design and an MA in illustration from Tehran Art University. Below is my interview with Fereshteh. She was really candid about her work and children's literature in Iran! How would you define Iranian children’s literature? Literature in Iran has a very old and rich heritage. Many Iranian poets, such as Ferdosi , Nezami , and Molavi , are famous in the world. The main part of contemporary stories were inspired by them. As you know, children have always been attracted to fairy tales and find them pleasant, but there a...

On March 24, the winner/s of the 2010 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award recognizes the best contemporary children's and young adult literature from all over the world. The candidates for the award are authors, illustrators, oral storytellers, and promoters of reading. Below are the 2010 nominees from Asia, and the 2010 nominees of Asian descent: Adarna House Reading promotion organization The Philippines Akal, Aytül Author Turkey Carmi, Daniella Author Israel Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV) Reading promotion organization Turkey Gamos, Albert Illustrator The Philippines Havkin, Hilla Illustrator Israel Hemati Ahoui, Abolfazl Illustrator Iran ILKYAR Reading promotion organization Turkey Jamba, Dasgdondog Author/Promoter of reading Mongolia Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak (Society for the Advancement of Children's Literature) Reading promotion organization Indonesia Knowledge Without Borders Campaign Reading prom...

I've interviewed YA author Malinda Lo about the research she did for her debut novel Ash , which is a retelling of Cinderella. Click here to read the interview at Color Online! YA author Medeia Sharif gave Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind the Honest Scrap Award. Thank you, Medeia! I can't wait to read Medeia's debut novel The Bestest Ramadan Ever , which will be published by Flux in 2011! For the Honest Scrap Award, I am supposed to say something honest about myself. Plus, Tuesday is known as Confession Tuesday across the blogosphere. So here goes: I am crushing pretty hard on Filipino American Olympic medalist J.R. Celski . *blush*

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected the winners of the 2009 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature . The awards promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and are awarded based on literary and artistic merit. Here are the winners in the picture book and youth literature categories: The picture book winner is Cora Cooks Pancit , written by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore and illustrated by Kristi Valiant, published by Groundwood Books. The picture book honor was given to Tan to Tamarind , written by Malathi Michelle Iyengar and illustrated by Jamel Akib, published by Children’s Book Press. The youth literature winner is Everything Asian , written by Sung J. Woo and published by Thomas Dunne Books. The youth literature honor was given to Tofu Quilt , written by Ching Yeung Russell and published by Lee & Low Books. The winners and honor books were chosen from titles by or about Asian/P...