Filipino children literature author Albert Gamos have been nominated in Sweden’s prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s largest prize for children and young adult literature according to the consulate general of Sweden in Manilla, the award administered by the Swedish Arts Council gives away every year five million kroner to authors, illustrators, storytellers, and promoters of reading. The prize aims to increase and strengthen interest in children and young adult literature worldwide. The winner will be announced on March 24.
Gamos is an illustrator of the “The Best of Lola Basyang” by Severino Reyes, which bagged the Gintong Aklat Award for Children’s Literature and won the National Book Award for Best Anthology. He has received various international awards for his work. Adarna’s literacy project was a response to a study conducted among public school students showing that after completing first grade, 40 percent of students were still illiterate. Together with top educators from the University of the Philippines, 32 picture books were published and a campaign to teach teachers how to use BMR materials was done. In the first year, the ratio of illiterates dramatically dropped from 40 percent to four percent. Today BMR has covers 2000 schools.
Previous recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Award have been candidates from the United States, Austria, Brazil, Japan, Venezuela, and Australia, among others. The prize aims to increase and strengthen interest in children and young adult literature worldwide and the winner will be announced on March 24.
