…and to all the illustrators who have won prizes in the prestigious international BIB award in this special, 50th-anniversary year.
I have been enthusing recently about Laura Carlin’s book The Promise, written by Nicola Davies (Walker books/Candlewick Press, 2013) but she has won here for her illustrations for two other titles: Ted Hughes’ modern classic The Iron Man, a true tour de force, and her innovative A World of Your Own (Phaidon Press, 2014).
Here’s what the jury said:
The Iron Man and A World of Your Own are two diverse narratives, both created in a confident and highly-skilled personal visual language in a variety of media.
Laura Carlin moves with ease, yet with great care between different moods, demonstrating both sensitivity and a sense of humour.
The smallest vignettes as well as double-paged illustrations are composed with care and the pages are paced to perfection. Innovative design-features are always functional, never applied in a flippant or gimmicky manner.
With a sense for detail as well as a clear view of the ‘whole’, these books are brilliant examples of a dialogue between technique and medium and an extensive frame of reference.
Winners of BIB Golden Apples are:
Mirocomachiko (Japan) for オレときいろ (‘Yellow and I‘)
Elena Odriozola (Spain) for Frankenstein
Javier Zabala (Spain) for El pájaro enjaulado (‘The Caged Bird’)
Ronald Curchod (Switzerland) for La nuit quand je dors (‘The Night When I Sleep’)
Bingchun Huang (Mi He) (China) for Braid
…and of BIB Plaques:
Annemarie Van Haeringen (Netherlands) for Sneeuwwitje breit een monster (‘Snow White Knits a Monster’)
Myung-Ae Lee (South Korea) for 플라스틱 섬 (‘Plastic Island’)
Natalia Sаlienko (Russia) for About One, Two, Three, Four and Five
Renate Wacker (Germany) for Mascha und der Bär (‘Mascha And The Bear’ – retelling of a Russian folktale)
Levi Pinfold (UK) for Black Dog and Greenling
The winner of the Children’s Jury Award was Martijn van der Linden (Netherlands) for Jonas en de visjes van Kees Poon (‘Jonas and the fishes of Kees Poon’)
The Mayor Of The Capital City Bratislava Award went to Veronika Klímová (Slovakia)
Kan Ya Ma Kan in Palestine received an Honorary Mention For The Support Of The Development Of Picture Book Publication, for The Black Fish by Rose Shoumali: I haven’t tracked anything down about this book but the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award blog features a beautiful illustration in their post about the Awards.
Lebanese publisher Dar Onboz Publishing House received an Honorary Mention for their book Hkeyeh A Athar; and Artforum in Slovakia for
Hlbokomorské Rozprávky ‘Tales of the Deep’ by Monika Kompaníkov and Veronika Holecová.
I have drooled over the winning artwork here and discovered some incredible new illustrators from around the world. Do explore their individual websites too (linked to their names where I have found them!). You can read the jury’s citations here at Books for Keeps, with illustration examples alongside. And take a look at some of the book covers below. I haven’t been able to track down all the books (if you can point me towards them, please do!), but it’s interesting that most of these books are authored by the illustrator. One is the illustrator’s own retelling of a folktale; three are newly illustrated classics – Tom Hughes’ The Iron Man and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and extracts from Vincent Van Gogh’s letters (Javier Zabala’s El pájaro enjaulado).
BIB is held under the auspices of UNESCO and IBBY, as well as the Slovak Ministry of Culture. Representatives from different countries select the artists whose work will go forward to the final stage of the competition in Bratislava. To enter the competition, illustrators must submit five original artworks from published books. This year there were entries from more than 350 illustrators from 50 countries.You can see the 15 UK artists selected by IBBY UK and the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society in an article for The Guardian by Piet Grobler, who was a member of this year’s BIB jury. The artwork will now remain on show for the next couple of months in Bratislava before setting off on a world tour for the next two years. If the exhibition comes anywhere near you, don’t miss the chance to see it!
オレときいろ (‘Yellow and I‘) by Mirocomachiko (Japan)
Frankenstein, illustrated by Elena Odriozola (Spain)
El pájaro enjaulado (‘The Caged Bird’) by Javier Zabala (Spain)
La nuit quand je dors (‘The Night When I Sleep’) by Ronald Curchod (Switzerland)
Sneeuwwitje breit een monster (‘Snow White Knits a Monster’) by Annemarie Van Haeringen (Netherlands)
플라스틱 섬 (‘Plastic Island’) by Myung-Ae Lee (South Korea)
Mascha und der Bär (‘Mascha And The Bear’) by Renate Wacker (Germany)
Black Dog, by Levi Pinfold (UK)
Jonas en de visjes van Kees Poon (‘Jonas and the fishes of Kees Poon’) illustrated by Martijn van der Linden (Netherlands) – written by Harm de Jonge
Hlbokomorské Rozprávky ‘Tales of the Deep’ by Monika Kompaníkov´ and Veronika Holecová (Slovakia)
