Castilian branch of Spanish IBBY

The General Council of Children and Young People's Books is a non-profit association that represents and defends the interests of the Spanish language within the OEPLI organization. Established in 1982, it is a founding member of the Spanish Organization of Children and Young People's Books (OEPLI). The Council is made up of different legal entities related to the world of children and young people's books.

Our objectives are:

• To select, promote, programme and carry out projects, initiatives and actions aimed at the dissemination and promotion of children and young people's books, and reading among children and young people.
• To promote and defend the professional interests of its members.
• To provide advice and cooperation to entities and persons, government bodies and professional sectors interested in or coincident with these specific purposes.
• To establish the necessary agreements with public and/or private entities for the better fulfilment of its purposes
• To promote, encourage and research everything that can stimulate the creativity of young readers

• Children and Young People's Book Fair (Salon del libro infantil y juvenil de Madrid). With more than 800 books that include those published in the last year and during the month of December, children and young people, school groups and families are offered a wide selection of workshops, storytelling, meetings with authors, presentations and different activities.

• Science Book Day (Día del libro de la ciencia). An annual meeting to present and defend the belief that science books, in addition to teaching, create readers. Open to the general public, and especially designed for teachers, librarians and mediators.

• Spring Festival. A week-long festival consisting of book presentations, workshops and meetings with authors located every year in a different public library of the Madrid peripherial area. 

• Inter-sector seminars (Jornadas intersectoriales). Multiple associations work around children and young people's books from different angles. With some exceptions, they mostly carry out their work isolated from book professionals. These seminars are organized with the idea to foment the contacts between different aspects of the the childrebn's book industry and encourage fertile meetings between professionals of different horizons.

• Writing Day (Día de la Escritura). Literary contest among teenagers from schools in the town of Blanca (Murcia), during a course guided by a prestigious writer, with awards given to the winners in the presence of the authorities in the municipal theater.

• Cervantes Children's and Young People's Book Fair in Utrecht, Netherlands. The Cervantes Children and Young People's Book Fair at the Instituto Cervantes in Utrecht aims to promote children and young people's literature in Spanish in the Netherlands. We contribute to the programme with books and the presence of authors.