See also the page Social Programme in the section INFORMATION

Information about the IBBY Pre-congress Workshop, see below.

Sunday September 7

Monday September 8

Monday night: Social activities according to your registration

Tuesday September 9

Wednesday September 10

The main theme of the congress is Stories in History – History in Stories: How has children’s literature reflected the actual history of a country or people – and how has consciousness of the past influenced stories for children? There are many general topics related to the past and present in literature for children, as well as specific periods and events in history, various geographical areas, and cultures. In the plenary sessions, the keynote speakers will touch upon many of these topics.
Some of the topics:

• How cultural and ethnic heritage is described in children's books
• Living – and reading – in a time of hardship: during war, suppression, deprivation, exile, etc.
• Integration and socio-cultural conflicts.
• Society and culture(s) of a country, and its contemporary stories and myths.
• Freedom of speech in children's books.
• Religion and morality in children's books.
• The relevance of myths and legends in contemporary society, e.g. the great Indian and other epics.
• Slavery; Colonialism; Holocaust; Segregation; Apartheid.
• Children's reading in times of crisis.
• Personal stories and biographies for children.

Most of the seminars will deal with topics related to the congress theme, incl. those of the keynote speeches. Other seminars will deal with children’s books and multimedia, illustrations, literary awards, promotion of children’s literature and reading, story-telling, and Hans Christian Andersen.
Besides, there will be presentations of the IBBY Honour List and the winners of the IBBY/Asahi Prize, a Bookbird meeting, an IBBY Forum, a special workshop chaired by Katherine Paterson, as well as opportunities to meet colleagues at professional meetings. And we invite to spontaneous story-telling in a special tent for this purpose.

You will find a list of the plenary speakers, incl. short abstracts and biographies, on the page Plenary Sessions, and a list of all seminar speakers and their topics on the page Seminar Sessions, both in this section of the website.

The seminar speakers' abstracts can be found on the page of that particular seminar, in the form they have been submitted by the individual speaker.

Children´s Books in Denmark

Pre-Congress Workshop

The forthcoming IBBY Congress in Copenhagen will, for the first time, include a workshop that is especially designed for our members and their work. The aim is to strengthen the IBBY National Sections from within and encourage their work in reading promotion, thus encouraging a reading society and ultimately the quality of life.

The workshop will take place during the day of the opening ceremony – Sunday, 7 September 2008 .

It is very important that every section is represented and we shall do everything possible to ensure that one member of every National Section is able to attend. Although we shall have to restrict the attendance to one designated representative from each National Section because of space and funding restrictions, it is acceptable to alternate participates during the day.

Throughout this workshop we will encourage exchanges between the participants and share relevant experiences from friends around the world.

Every National Section representative who attends must be able to take the information back to the section and use it to strengthen and help the section. Most of the sessions will be in English, but we are arranging for Spanish-English simultaneous translation to be available.

The day will be divided into two major topics:

I   The work of the National Sections

Many IBBY sections are well established and working hard. These tend to be sections that represent a board range of people involved in their national children's book community. We want to help all our sections to strengthen their work by becoming equally connected in their communities. This session will focus on how to create dynamic and viable National Sections.

II   The practice of using Bibliotherapy in difficult situations.

Bibliotherapy uses books to help children overcome trauma experienced because of war, civil unrest or natural disasters. This activity lay at the heart of IBBY's earlier work and with so many of our members facing civil disruption and natural disaster it has returned to the forefront of IBBY's activities.

We have invited experienced colleagues who are experts in their fields to lead the sessions. The following experts will lead the sessions:

A How to network, fundraise and establish useful relationships in your country:

•  with the education and early learning community: Carole Bloch (South Africa)

•  with NGOs, other organizations, local and national governments: Jacqueline Kergueno (France) and Murti Bunanta (Indonesia)

•  with publishers: Ahmad Redza A. Khairuddin (Malaysia)

•  with national and local libraries: Elizabeth Serra (Brazil)

B Bibliotherapy

•  as applied following a natural disaster: Carmen Diana Dearden (Venezuela)

•  as applied during civil disruption: Ivanka Stricevic (Croatia); Silvia Castrillon (Colombia); Julinda Abu Nasr (Lebanon)

The timetable of the workshop is in the process of being finalized. However, the work of the national sections is planned as the main topic during the morning (09:00-12:30) and Bibliotherapy after the lunch break.

The workshop will be held in a schoolhouse just south of the city in the new centre of Ørestad; the Metro runs from the centre of Copenhagen to the school. Practical details will be distributed closer to the time.