‘The Arrival’ named an honour book in IBBY Silent Books project

23 May 2013 Books+Publishing

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (Lothian) has been selected as one of 10 honour books in Silent Books, a travelling exhibition run by the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY).

Presented by the Italian arm of IBBY in association with Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the Silent Books project has collected over 100 of ‘the best in books without words’ from more than 20 countries. The project aims to ‘promote the value of illustrated textless books as crossing the boundaries of culture, geography and language’.

The project’s honour list, on which Tan’s book appears, was selected by an international jury, with books chosen for their ‘originality, complexity, historical value and subject matter’. Another Australian title, Jeannie Baker’s book Mirror (Walker Books), has been included in the overall Silent Books list.

The Silent Books collection will be exhibited at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni until 21 July, before forming a travelling exhibition that moves around Italy and abroad. Once it has finished its tour, the collection will be donated to a new public library the Italian island of Lampedusa, which has many child immigrants.

To see the full Silent Books honour list, visit the IBBY website here.

Category: Local news