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Get Caught Reading Month~ USA

National Share-a-Story Month~ United Kingdom

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month~ USA

Asian Heritage Month~ Canada

Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature to be Announced~ USA

USBBY - Bridge to Understanding Award Winner to be Announced ~ USA

Discovering Ethnic Minorities - Storytelling Workshops for Children~ Hong Kong

5th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature~ ongoing until May 3, New York, NY, USA

35th Buenos Aires International Book Fair~ ongoing until May 11, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Books Illustrated Traveling Exhibition: An Australian Menagerie -Australian picture books~ongoing until mid Jun, China

Exhibition of Prize Winning Works of 16th Noma Concours (2008) “Palette of Dream Colours IV”~ ongoing until Jul 5, Tokyo, Japan

The Child and the Book Conference: This Land is Our Land~ May 1 - 3, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

BOOKFEST - The Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival~ May 2, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

IRA’s 54th Annual Convention: Reading, Writing and Conversations~ May 3 - 7, Minneapolis, MN, USA

ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers~ May 4 - 6, Toronto, ON, Canada

WordPower~ May 4 - 8, Fort McMurray, AB, Canada

Tehran International Book Fair~ May 6 - 16, Tehran, Iran

Mapfre Hay Festiva~ May 7 - 10, Alhambra, Spain

Once Upon a Time: Children’s Book Illustrators, Then and Now~ May 8 - Jun 14, Oakland, CA, USA

Mt. San Antonio College’s Children’s Literature Day~ May 9, Walnut, CA, USA

Children’s Book Week~ May 11 - 17, USA

New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival~ May 11 - 20, New Zealand

Forest of Reading, Festival of Trees~ May 13 - 14, Toronto, ON, Canada

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival~ May 13 - 17, Auckland, New Zealand

Surabaya Book Fair~ May 13 - 17, Surabaya, Indonesia

Seoul International Book Fair~ May 13 - 17, Seoul, Korea

The 5th China International Cultural Industries Fair~ May 15 - 18, Shenzhen, China

African American Book Festival~ May 15 - 16, Mt. Vernon, NY, USA

Mother’s Day Readings With Authors Mitali Perkins, Christina Seid, Pooja Makhijani, and Others~ May 16, New York, NY, USA

Children’s Books Ireland Conference: Challenge and Change in Children’s Books~ May 16 - 17, Dublin, Ireland

National Black Book Festival~ May 16 - 17, Houston, TX, USA

Sydney Writers’ Festival~ May 18 - 24, Sydney, Australia

The Foundation for Children’s Books New England Voices Series with Author/Illustrators Grace Lin and Giles Laroche~ May 19, Boston, MA, USA

Bisto Children’s Book of the Year Awards Presentations~ May 20, Dublin, Ireland

The Guardian Hay Festival~ May 21 - 31, Hay-on-Wye, United Kingdom

WriteAway Conference: Something Old, Something New -approaches to classic literature, culture and heritage in education~ May 22, London, United Kingdom

Storytelling Association Singapore Presents Silver and Gold: Precious Stories to Inspire Young and Old~ May 23, Singapore

World Village Festival~ May 23 - 24, Helsinki, Finland

Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences and Annual Book Fair~ May 23 - 31, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Library and Information Week~ May 25 - 31, Australia

National Simultaneous Storytime~ May 28, Australia

International Latino Book Awards Presentations~ May 28, New York, NY, USA

Reading Matters Youth Literature Conference~ May 28 - 30, Melbourne, Australia

BookExpo America~ May 28 - 31, New York, NY, USA

Thessaloniki Book Fair~ May 28 - 31, Thessaloniki, Greece

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: The Wizards of Pop -Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart~ May 28 - Sep 19, Abilene, TX, USA

Canadian Library Association National Conference and Trade Show~ May 29 - Jun 1, Montreal , QC, Canada

World Book Fair~ May 29 - Jun 7, Singapore

Moving house can be an unsettling, not to say traumatic experience for children - especially when the move involves a move to a new country with a different culture and language. Usually children have had no say in family decisions and they can feel swept along by the adults in their lives. Stories about other children moving to a new home are certainly a good way to help ease feelings of isolation and, as in so many other situations, provide an opening for children to talk about their own worries. Even children who appear to be positive and excited about imminent changes in their lives need an outlet to express niggling concerns before these whisperings become overpowering spectres.

Goodbye, 382 Shin Dang Dong (National Geographic, 2002) by sisters Frances and Ginger Park and illustrated by Yangsook Choi (who all feature in interviews in our current focus on Korea) is a perfect story to reassure and reflect on: and its ending on a note of optimism means that it’s also a good story to go to sleep on.

Jangmi is very sad that her family is about to move from Korea to America. She has to say good-bye to everything and everyone she knows - the market, her best friend Kisuni, the beloved willow tree in her garden. Jangmi’s parents have done a good job preparing her - she knows a lot about what will be the same, similar, different: but even so, she doesn’t want to go. However, once actually in America, Jangmi starts to feel a bit more optimistic. There is a beautiful maple tree in her new garden and she makes a new friend - and she realises that, despite the distance, Kisuni is still her best friend.

However, this is not only a story for children who have immigrated into a new country: it is also a story that will comfort children left behind by friends moving away. And it reminds all children (and adults) of the importance of making new neighbours feel welcome, wherever they have come from.

For more book recommendations for children and young adults, read New to America - Living the Immigrant Life from The Miss Rumphius Effect; and Ann Lazim’s Personal View for PaperTigers: The Immigrant and Second Generation Experience in British Children’s Books.

The 2009 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which had Korea as its Guest of Honor, is over, but a couple of virtual stops can give you a feel for what happened there.

Start by visiting Craig Virden’s Bologna 2009: A Photo Essay. A Publishers Weekly writer, Craig is a veteran attendee of the Bologna Fair and has teamed up with photographer Mario Ventimiglia on this essay, which was posted to PW’s Bologna by Day and Night blog.

For details about the role Korea played as Guest of Honor and the wide range of cultural events showcasing its art and culture, take a look at the special website put together by the Korean Publishers Association website. The Illustrators Exhibition section showcases the artwork of the 31 Korean illustrators whose work were selected, from thousands of entries, to be displayed at the fair. The image featured here is one of the select works: the book cover of My Cat Copies Me, by artist and author Yoon-duck Kwan (the lovely image reminds me of our Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project!) . The website also includes information and statistics on the current state of the Korean publishing market, in general, and the children’s publishing sector in particular. It’s interesting to note, for instance, that children’s books accounted for 20% of all new books published in 2008 in Korea, and that over the past 10 years there has been a huge increase in the popularity of educational books, specifically the educational comic book genre, over picture books and story books.

Now that you’ve had a taste of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and its guest of honor, be sure to read PaperTigers current issue, where we pay tribute to the narratives for children, available in English, from/about Korea and the Korean diaspora.