Pinoy illustrator, publishing house nominated for Swedish award

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino illustrator and a local publishing house have been included in the 153 nominees selected from 60 countries up for a prestigious Swedish award. Filipino Albert Gamos has been nominated for the category of “Illustrator" while local publisher Adarna House as “Promoters of Reading" in the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is the world’s largest award for children’s and youth literature, offering a cash prize of five million Swedish crowns or almost P30 million. It was named after Astrid Lindgren, a famous Swedish children’s author who died in 2002. Gamos was the illustrator of “The Best of Lola Basyang" by Severino Reyes – the book that won the Gintong Aklat Award for Children’s Literature and the National Book Award for Best Anthology. On the other hand, Adarna House was nominated for its work in the literacy project “Bright Minds Read" with Ronald McDonald House of Charities, the Department of Education, and the University of the Philippines. The project, launched in 2003, was started because a study among public schools said that 40 percent of Filipino first grade students still could not read. Since then, Adarna House has published 32 picture books and has taught teachers how to use BMR materials – slashing the number of non-readers in the first grade to only four percent. Adarna House, for 25 years, has been a leading publisher of storybooks for children and manuals for parents, teachers, and daycare workers in the Philippines. The winners of the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced on March 24. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANews.TV