NATIONAL Book Development Board (NBDB) and Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) are celebrating National Children’s Book Day on July 21 through the Umuulan ng Libro: Philippine Children’s Book Summit.
The day has been picked to commemorate the anniversary of the publication of Dr. Jose Rizal’s “The Monkey and the Turtle” in Trubner’s Oriental Record in London.
Summit is open to authors, illustrators, publishers, educators and librarians.
Guest speaker is Wen Dee Tan, winner of the Illustrator’s Award at the 2015 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival. Tan’s “Lili” likewise won third place in the Macmillan Prize 2013, an annual contest by Macmillan Children’s Books UK.
Also a speaker is Mariko Nagai, associate professor of creative writing and Japanese literature at Temple University, Japan Campus in Tokyo. Nagaihas received the Pushcart Prizes in poetry and fiction.
Also featured are MJ Tumamac, author of “Ngumiti si Andoy”; poet-fictionist Kristian Cordero; Edgar Samar, author of the “Janus Silang” series; Blooey Singson, writer of the blog “Bookmarked!;” Carljoe Javier, managing editor of “Anino” comics; and children’s author Cheeno Sayuno.
Festival will culminate in the awarding of the PBBY Salanga children’s story prize to Sayuno for his winning story, “The Missing Blanket.” Meanwhile Joffrey Z. Atienza and Maria Sabrina P. Palmares are honorable mention winners of the 2015 PBBY Alcala illustrator’s prize.