Netherlands

The Dutch IBBY Section was established in 1953; it is not affiliated to any another organization or institution and is run by volunteers. Netherlands was host to the 25^th IBBY Congress in Groningen, with the theme Telling the Tale in 1996. Two members of the Dutch IBBY Section have been made Honorary Members of IBBY: Miep Diekmann in 2006 and Jant van der Weg-Laverman in 2014. 

The world of children’s books is well organized in the Netherlands, therefore the Dutch IBBY Section focuses on supporting IBBY Sections in less fortunate countries. Several times in the past the Dutch IBBY Section has sponsored the international dues and had joint projects with other sections: Latvia, Lithuania, Uruguay and the former section of Bulgaria. 

Within the Netherlands, the IBBY Section works in close co-operation with working group It Fryske Berneboek (The Frisian Children’s Book). This working group gives advice for projects wherever Frisian books are involved. The Frisian language, which is spoken in northern Netherlands, has a literary tradition of its own. 

Dutch IBBY organizes the annual Day for the Friends of IBBY. Every two years the IBBY diplomas for the Dutch Andersen Award candidates and IBBY Honour List nominations are presented, and in the other year the Awards for the Dutch artists nominated for the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava are presented at this special event. The section is also co-organizer of the yearly Annie M.G. Schmidt lectures.

The Section has its own award: the Jenny Smelik/IBBY prize, named after the children's book author Jenny Smelik, given every two years to the author and/or illustrator and/or instigator of a children's book that has contributed to a better understanding of minorities, especially ethnic minorities.

In 2011 a Master Degree programme about children’s literature was established at Tilburg University. IBBY participates in this programme by supporting the yearly symposium for the students, excursions and guest speakers. The IBBY-Section acts as the secretariat for a working group for researchers of children’s literature. An annual workshop is organized where researchers can present their research projects. Every two years the Miep Diekmann Thesis Award for the best Master thesis about children’s literatureis presented at this workshop.

The Dutch IBBY section also supports several projects of the International Youth Library in Munich and selects and prepares the submissions for the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava.

Twice a year an IBBY Newsletter (in Dutch) is published and is distributed to all the Friends-of-IBBY, the board members of the Flemish branch of Belgian IBBY, as well as to several (inter)national organizations.

Every year, Dutch IBBY publishes three issues of the magazine Literatuur zonder leeftijd (Literature without age). The magazine includes articles on children’s literature, as well as reports and speeches that reflect the national and international activities surrounding literature for children and young adults, criticism and scientific research, reviews of specialist books and bibliographic notes.

In January 2017 the book, Een boek voor jou (A book for you), a compilation of Dutch stories with their Arabic translations and with illustrations from several Dutch illustrators was distributed to refugee centres in the Netherlands. More details of the project can be found here.