IBBY in New Zealand and poetry

I'm attending the biennial Congress of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in Auckland, New Zealand. This is such a wonderful event, a great opportunity to get a global glimpse of he field of children's literature and meet people from around the world and hear speakers from many countries. I'm particularly eager to check out the poetry published for young people in New Zealand (and Australia) because they are doing some very interesting things there! 

I'm also presenting a poster session on how poetry is a perfect medium for crossing cultural boundaries and will share the graphics here, FYI. I'm trying something different this time and have printed my poster on a scarf which I will display during my allotted time and then WEAR afterwards! I'll try to share photos later. Meanwhile, check out the conference programme here. Very cool!

Several years ago I co-edited the IBBY journal, Bookbird, and we closed every issue with a page featuring a poem for young people by different poets from around the world (usually in English as well as in the poet's native language). I just LOVED doing that and learned so much about poetry for young people published in other countries. Anyhoo, here's a graphic that features all the poems (too small to read, but you get the idea). You can access all these prior issues of Bookbird via Project Muse, if you have access to that resource. Enjoy!

More info to come soon...

Meanwhile, head on over to Dori Reads for more Poetry Friday fun.