Dear IBBY Friends,

A lot has happened in the world of IBBY in the past six months. We have new members in Haiti, Serbia and Guatemala, as well as a new individual member in Morocco. The projects that are part of the IBBY Books for Children Everywhere Campaign are taking place around the world. Our Children in Crisis Project in Lebanon is now fully underway. The Gaza Project, which was on temporary hold due to the terrible and tragic events that have taken place there, is now back on track and will commence very soon. And, we are about half way toward our goal of raising funds for a project in Colombia involving 1,000 displaced children in reading groups. We hope that with your help we shall soon reach this goal. A website page is being developed to appeal to donors. Please keep visiting the IBBY website (www.ibby.org) for all the latest information and news.

I have just returned from a fascinating trip to Japan and Korea, where I met many members of JBBY and KBBY; made new friends and caught up with old ones. I was invited to speak at the International Library of Children's Literature, which is attached to the National Diet Library in Tokyo, on multi-culturalism in children's books. The metaphor "children need books that are windows and books that are mirrors", which Elisa Bonilla of Mexico first used in Macau, is a very useful way of looking at issues involved not only in multi-cultural books but in IBBY's work worldwide. I will be exploring this further in a speech at the pre-conference of IFLA's annual congress next month in Durban, South Africa, when I will be attending as IBBY's representative under the IBBY/IFLA/IRA agreement.

For all of you who were in Macau at the 2006 IBBY Congress and saw Tayo Shima's beautiful and fascinating presentation on the impact of the opening of Japan on the picture book, or if you missed it, there is now very good news. The ILCL has a new site, www.kodomo.go.jp/english/index.html, which displays some of the research Tayo Shima has done into international picture books over the years. Please visit the site and see this wonderful new resource for picture books. The link can also be found on the IBBY website (www.ibby.org/index.php?id=249).

While in Japan, Chieko Suemori, Naoko Torizuka, and I were able to meet the people from the Asahi Shimbun who are very pleased with the direction of the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award. The Empress of Japan, her Majesty Empress Michiko also attended a reception at the ILCL and lent her extraordinary presence to this event.

As I was invited to Japan, I took the opportunity to also visit Korea, and was able to spend time on the wonderful Nami Island, which so many of you have recently visited, hosted by the gifted Mr. Kang and the Minn family.

It was a great pleasure to be in Asia when the final decision was made to hire Forest Zhang. His departure will cause pain to our dear friends at CBBY, especially to Mingzhou who has known Forest for sixteen years and worked very closely with him for the past four years. We can only thank Mingzhou and Hai Fei for recognising that their loss will be IBBY's gain. My final reflections before flying home were that everyone I met in Asia seemed very pleased that Forest would be working at the IBBY Secretariat in Basel.

Our Books for Africa Books from Africa virtual exhibition will be displayed in Durban at a stand that IFLA has graciously donated for this purpose. Carole Bloch from PRAESA in Cape Town, who will be taking over the management of this exhibition and ensuring that it remains up to date, will be helping me to attend to the exhibition.

And Liz has been working so hard in Basel ensuring that all our work takes place smoothly. We owe not only her, but all of you who have supported her, a great debt of gratitude.

With best wishes to you all

Patsy Aldana

IBBY President

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