IBBY UK nominate Marcus Sedgwick and David McKee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2022
IBBY UK has announced that Marcus Sedgwick and David McKee will be the UK nominations for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Sedgwick has an outstanding body of work which ranges from novels dealing with contemporary issues and philosophical ideas for young adults to humorous stories for a younger readership. David McKee is well-known both for his challenging picture books as well as for some of the best-loved and internationally recognised characters in the world of children’s books and has recently been honoured with the Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award.
Marcus Sedgwick:
Floodland, Revolver, She is not Invisible, The Ghosts of Heaven and Saint Death, all published by Hachette UK.
David McKee:
Not Now, Bernard, Elmer, Mr Benn: Gladiator, The Conquerors and Tusk Tusk, all published by Andersen Press.
Presented biennially by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, the Hans Christian Andersen Awards are the most prestigious international awards in the children’s book world. The awards are presented to a living author and living illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. The nominations are made by each national section of IBBY and are judged by an international jury of specialists in children’s literature.
The shortlists for the awards will be announced in 2022 and the winners at the Bologna Book Fair 2022. The Awards will be presented at the 38th IBBY World Congress to be held in Putrajaya, Malaysia in September 2022.
Pam Dix, the Chair of IBBY UK said ‘We are very excited to be nominating two such highly respected contributors to the UK children’s literature world and look forward to working with them during the nomination process and holding an event with them later in 2021.’
Previous UK winners of the author award are Eleanor Farjeon (1956), Aidan Chambers (2002) and David Almond (2010) and of the illustrator award are Anthony Browne (2000) and Quentin Blake (2002). The 2020 winners were Jacqueline Woodson (USA), author award and Albertine (Switzerland), illustrator award.