Awarded the best authors of last year’s books for children and teenagers | Culture

The IBBY Children’s and Teen Books of the Year Awards is one of the most important events for children’s literature. Prizes are awarded annually to the best children’s book writers, illustrators, translators, as well as for activities in the fields of children’s literature research and reading promotion.

One of the great creators of children’s literature, Vytautė Žilinskaitė, who passed away just a few days ago, was honored with a moment of silence, and her creative legacy was remembered. The writer was quoted and mentioned by more than one participant of the event who took the stage that day. Literary scholar, honorary chairman of IBBY Lithuania, Kęstutis Urba mentioned in his speech three important figures for children’s literature – Hans Kristian Andersen, Astrid Lindgren and Vytautė Žilinskaite.

The musical numbers were performed by the talented pupils of the Saulius Sondeckis Arts Gymnasium in Šiauliai, the actors of the theater studio “Kompaniya šauni” who read an excerpt from the adaptation of Simon Daukant’s work by Sandra Bernotaitė for Saulė Degutytė’s play “Rubinaitis Peliūzė or the way of Lithuanian survival”. The event was hosted by actress and director Monika Šaltytė of the Šiauliai State Drama Theater.

Photo of the organizers/IBBY Lithuania 2023. laureates

The winners of the 2023 Children’s and Adolescent Literature Awards were:

Vince Aurylas Award for the year’s children’s literature research, dissemination or reading promotion activities To Ben Berant – for the dissemination of Lithuanian children’s and teenagers’ literature in the world.

Award for the best picture book for children intended for Jurgas Vile and Valentina Černiauskaitė for the book “The dog that goes out at night” (publishing house “700 lines”) – for the transformation of sensations into artistic images, for the stylistic integrity of image and text, original graphic expression.

Domicelė Tarabildienė’s prize for the most beautiful book of the year dedicated to Ieva Gvazdaityta for the illustrations for Marius Marcinkevičius’s book “Long poems for short ones” (publisher “Mister Pinkman”) – for freedom, positive energy unfolding on the pages, preservation of the texture of the drawing, sensitive monumentality, harmony of all elements and lines of childhood.

Eugenija Stravinskiene Prize for the most significant and artistic translation of the year for children dedicated to Vytas Deškni for translating Tina Oziewicz’s book “What do feelings do?” from Polish (publishing house “Auxos žuvys”) – for a playful and witty journey through the world of feelings.

Adams Druktenis prize for the most significant and artistic translation of the year for teenagers awarded to Migle Šaltyte for the English translation of the book “Fighting Words” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Nieko rimto publishing house) – for the sensitively conveyed inner struggle, strength and courage to speak.

The prize for the best educational book of the year was awarded to Zigmas Vitkas for the book “A moment to decide. Stories of Lithuanian Jewish saviors” (artist Mindaugas Lukošaitis, publishing house “Alma Littera”) – for the topicality of the topic, a penetrating and sensitive look at the past.

Aldona Liobytė’s prize for the most significant debut of the year awarded to Pavel Kulikov for the book “Pingvinas Lituanicus, or the History of the Lithuanian Penguin” (published by “Lithuanian Maritime Museum”) – for humorously, playfully and talentedly telling the unique stories of the penguins living in the Lithuanian Maritime Museum.

Pranas Mašiots prize for the best book of the year for children and teenagers dedicated to Maris Marcinkevičius and Lina Itagaki for the book “Girl with a rifle. A story regarding a girl partisan” (publisher “Misteris Pinkmanas”) – for conveying an important historical stage for Lithuania from a child’s perspective in a high-quality and convincing combination of video and text forms.

Meaningful speeches of thanks were heard from the mouths of the laureates, creators who might not attend the event sent their wishes in video format. According to Marius Marcinkevičius, one of the winners of the main Pranas Mašiots prize, it is very painful to know that children suffer the most during the war. Therefore, they often write on this topic so that we do not forget our history and do not repeat the same mistakes.

Sponsors of the award ceremony – “Alma littera” publishing house, Lithuanian Culture Council, UAB “Sabelija”, UAB “Alumnus”, UAB “Kauno šilas”, UAB “IMG Numeri”, UAB “Vilcentras”, basketball player Šarūnas Marčiulionis, painter Vytautas, a relative of Pranos Mašiots Žirgulis, programmer Antanas Marcelionis, “Debeņu ganyklos” publishing house.