Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2012

John Burningham and Philip Pullman Nominated for International Awards.

John Burningham and Philip Pullman have been nominated by IBBY UK for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Awards which are given to “great authors and illustrators who have made an outstanding contribution to children’s literature”. Regarded as the equivalent of Nobel Prizes, they are the leading international awards in the fields of writing and illustrating for children and young people. In their fifty year history they have been won by some of the great names in children’s literature, including Britain’s Anthony Browne, Aidan Chambers, Quentin Blake, and most recently, David Almond.

John Burningham has been writing and illustrating picture books for more than forty years and has produced a number of classic titles including Borka: the Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers and Mr Gumpy’s Outing, both of which won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963 and 1970 respectively.

Philip Pullman’s first book, The Ruby in the Smoke, was published in 1985 and since then he has gone on to write a number of significant titles including the His Dark Materials trilogy the first volume of which, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal in 1995. In 2005 he was presented with the International Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award which is given to authors in recognition of their entire literary output.

Nominations have now closed from more than 70 IBBY national sections and the final announcement of the winners will be made at the Bologna Book Fair in 2012 and the Awards will be presented at the IBBY International Congress which is being held in London in August of that year.  Visit the IBBY website to see a full list of all the nominees for the awards.

For further information contact John Dunne: j.f.dunne@btinternet.com