The New Golden Baobab Prize launched on the International Children’s Book Day which was on Saturday 4th April 2016.
International Children’s Book Day is an annual event sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People that was first celebrated in 1967. It is hosted on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, April 2. Andersen you will recall as the Danish genius behind books like include “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Nightingale”, “The Snow Queen”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “Thumbelina”, and many more. During this day there are activities hosted like writing competitions, announcements of book awards and events with authors of children’s literature.
On the continent there was a few things happening to commemorate this the biggest day dedicated to the kids enjoy the best stories in print on the activity front. One of my favourite was following the tweets being posted by our friends Wawa Book Review. Here are some of their tweets talking about literature targeted at children;
#WawaCelebrates International Children’s Books Day https://t.co/r2IqqhAliY pic.twitter.com/lVkwiUnEI7
— Wawa Book Review (@BookWawa) April 2, 2016
#WawaCelebrates International Children’s Books Day https://t.co/GixH5nGl6j pic.twitter.com/Tbd9gyJdIy
— Wawa Book Review (@BookWawa) April 2, 2016
#WawaCelebrates International Children’s Books Day https://t.co/NXWp7tRg2w pic.twitter.com/tGA3i7svaT
— Wawa Book Review (@BookWawa) April 2, 2016
#WawaCelebrates International Children’s Books Day https://t.co/4unshGsHzj pic.twitter.com/Ae2h0DDEhq
— Wawa Book Review (@BookWawa) April 2, 2016
One of the coolest things that the coolest things that happened on the day was the Golden Baobab prize was launched with a video on their Facebook page. For the uninformed, the Golden Baobab Prize are the only annual Pan African literature prizes aimed at inspiring African authors to create and submit unpublished stories targeting readers below the age of 12 years. There are three Golden Baobab Prizes: for the best picture book, for the best early chapter book and for the best African Rising Writer. Additionally, Golden Baobab’s Literary Services connects winning and shortlisted authors to leading publishers across Africa. All the above are unique to Golden Baobab. Some of the previous winners of the award include Portia Dery , Mary Okon Ononokpono and Xanele Puren.
After what looks like a one year break for the prize they have returned with a bang. Prize co-founder Debra Osei-Agyekum announced in a Facebook video that entries are now being received for those who want to take part this year. On offer this year is US$20,000 in cash prizes as well as publishing opportunities to the winners in the prescribed categories.
The team at the awards have not yet given deadlines but you can keep up with the prize at their official website here.
Watch below a report on International Children’s Book Day featuring prize co-founder Deborah Ahenkorah.
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