Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

You guys doing anything Saturday afternoon? =D Let's hang out with illustrators and talk about the key points the Philippine delegates took away from the third Asian Festival of Children's Content !

How will you celebrate? =D

Links, links, links! * Click here for a report on the very active Filipino reading community - it's my last post as the PaperTigers June guest blogger! * Author Candy Gourlay was one of the first to blog about the 3rd Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) in Singapore. Read her posts here . * Little, Brown editorial director Alvina Ling blogged about the AFCC and Book Expo America (BEA) here . Meeting Alvina was one of the highlights of the AFCC for me! =D *major fangirl spazzing* * Illustrator Blooey Singson summarizes the AFCC here . * Here author Trevor Kew shares key points he took away from the festival.

All of the sessions I attended at this year's Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) inspired me to read more, blog more, teach more, and generally work more for children and teens and the books they enjoy. But three of the sessions in particular really hit me hard! Applying Asian Folktales and Fine Art Traditions to Picture Books Presenter: Yoko Yoshizawa , Illustrator, Japan During Yoko Yoshizawa's presentation, I was reminded of what I live for: creative people and their work and sharing their work. I was so amazed by Yoko's love for and dedication to folktales, folk art, and naive art. Some countries or cultures cannot publish their folktales or art because of political or economic reasons, and Yoko works hard, even uses her personal funds, to introduce some of these tales and art to Japan through children's picture books. When she discovers a great folktale and is impressed by the folk art or naive art in its place of origin (for example Chiang Mai, Thai...

Literature, Media, and the Romance of Childhood: States of Innocence and the Business of Frightening Our Children, an interdisciplinary conference for early career researchers and postgraduates MA/MS/PhD students and independent researchers are welcome. When: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 (9 a.m. - 6 p.m.*) and Wednesday, August 22, 2012 (10 a.m. - 4 p.m.) Where: The University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City (specific rooms to be announced) We welcome 250- to 300-word abstracts from postgraduates and early career researchers who would like to contribute 20-minute papers to a two-day conference at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Paper topics include but are not limited to: children's literature innocence and experience the sexualization of children in literature and in the media the gothic imagination and the literature of horror conduct literature and media didacticism maternity, paternity, and parenting the Harry Potter phenomenon and relevant popular literature e...

* This is my second guest blog post for PaperTigers . Please read it to find out about some new Philippine young adult literature. =D * Click here to read about a possible international book bloggers meetup. If it happens, I'll definitely be there! * Fantastic news! Tu Books has announced the first annual New Visions Award . The New Visions Award will be given for a middle grade or young adult fantasy, science fiction, or mystery novel by a writer of color. The winner receives a cash grant of $1000 and a standard publication contract with Tu Books. An honor winner will receive a cash grant of $500. Click here for more details. I look forward to reading the winning novels!

Every year, the Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) in Singapore sets up a wonderful bookstore for the festival attendees. This year, the bookstore was the best it's ever been because it was run by Bookaburra , a specialist children's bookseller in Singapore that believes in "good books and even finer children." There was a greater variety of the latest children's and young adult books from all over the world and the people from Bookaburra were doing a great job hand-selling. This, of course, was dangerous for the wallets of all the festival attendees! While in Singapore for the AFCC, I made sure to visit Woods in the Books , an independent picture book shop for all ages. The shop had a well-curated collection of new and classic board books, picture books, comics, and graphic novels from around the world. The Sunday afternoon I was there, there were so many customers: artists, families with very small children, and young professionals (I could even h...