IBBY exhibition visits the Falmer campus

The School of Education’s Curriculum Centre was delighted to have again been chosen to host the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) biennial touring exhibition.

IBBY is a non-profit organisation which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.

The exhibition is a selection of recently published, outstanding books for young people with disabilities which has three categories: specialised formats such as sign language, Braille, tactile and dyslexia friendly; universal access which includes wordless picture books; portrayals of disability which includes picture books, fiction and non-fiction. The exhibition has visited many countries including Italy, Japan, USA, China, Ireland, Slovakia and Greece.

The exhibition offered an exciting opportunity for education and teaching students to explore the collection and find outstanding new books for and about children with different abilities. It was displayed at the Curriculum Centre on the university’s Falmer campus for two weeks in December.

Students were able to investigate how disabilities are currently portrayed in children’s books, look at international illustration techniques and book publishing and explore how the books offer children both mirrors in which to see themselves and windows to look out into a different world.

Mandy Williams, the Curriculum Centre coordinator said: “We were privileged to have been asked to host this exhibition once again.  It was great to see staff and students engaged in close study of the books, admiring the artwork and the different physicality of the books, ‘reading’ books in unfamiliar languages and exploring differences and similarities across cultures.”

One of the exhibition visitors said: “Really enjoyed looking at this collection. Such varied storytelling and the cross cultural approaches were fascinating. I liked the textures for the visually impaired and the Japanese books were beautiful and thought provoking. I feel very lucky to have seen this.”

We very much hope the exhibition will visit us again as it is a great resource for our education and teaching students.

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