Founded in 1953, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit organization, with its headquarters located in Basel, Switzerland. As a non-governmental organization with an official status in UNESCO and UNICEF, IBBY has a policy-making role as an advocate of children’s books. Zhang Mingzhou was elected the first Chinese president of IBBY in 2018.IBBY aims at promoting international understanding through children’s books. The Hans Christian Andersen Award given by IBBY, also known as the “Nobel Prize for Children’s Literature”, is the most prestigious children’s book award. The Patron of the Andersen Awards is Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.IBBY is composed of 81 National Sections all over the world; among them, about 40 are countries of the Belt and Road Initiative. Its members include authors, illustrators, publishers, editors, translators, librarians, journalists and teachers including professors, who are devoted to the writing, publication, research, distribution and reading of quality children’s books.

IBBY gives two important awards:

The IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award, sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, and

The IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award, sponsored by Shenzhen iRead Foundation.

Official website of IBBY:  www.ibby.org