IBBY-Yamada 2023: Cuba

Workshop «Children must think as soon as they can think…» : the significance of high-quality books in the cultural identity of children and young people

Co-sponsored by the IBY-Yamada Fund and the Cuban Committee of the IBBY, this XI^th IBBY-Yamada Workshop “We Work for the Children” took place in October 2023 in Havana, Cuba, as part of the International Congress “Reading the 21^st Century. The three-day workshop was attended by over 200 participants, including students, specialists, librarians, academics and officials. In different sessions held over three days and led by Latin American specialists from Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba and Brazil.

All attendees received a comprehensive set of PDF files containing thoughts of top-level Latin American authors on fundamental themes of the workshop, including literary criticism, mediation and the meaning of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, with special emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean. A dozen books by Katherine Paterson, Ana María Machado, Lygia Bojunga Nunes, María Elena Walsh and María Teresa Andruetto, Lygia Bojunga Nunes, and Katherine Paterson (to whom the General Congress was dedicated), were mentioned and commented during “conversas”, a discussion format implying a continuous direct exchange between the facilitator, specialists and assistants, under the concept that the knowledge transmitted "as equals".