8th National Children’s Book Awards
14 September 2024
SMX Convention Center Manila
Mabuhay! The Philippine Board on Books for Young People’s mission it to make every child a reader and every reader a lover of books. To fulfill this mission, we acknowledge that we need the support and collaboration of the entire community. And so to encourage the authorship of children’s books, PBBY holds competitions such as the PBBY-Salanga Prize for writers, the PBBY-Alcala Prize for illustrators, and the Ruben de Jesus Prize for the wordless or silent book.
Together with its sectoral partners, we also hold seminars and workshops for authors and illustrators to develop their skills so that they may have the confidence to enter the industry professionally.
However, it is not enough to just have books available in the market. Parents and educators also need help in selecting the books that are most suited for their children. For this, PBBY has been collaborating, for the past 8 years, with the National Book Development Board for the National Children’s Book Awards or NCBA.
The NCBA is the country’s premiere award for locally published children’s and young adult books. A board of carefully selected expert judges are gathered to evaluate the titles published in a two-year period. And unlike in other competitions, the NCBA selects an honors list called the Best Reads to avoid the competitiveness of ranked contests. Judges are also informed that they are under no obligation to select any honoree if they feel that there is no entry that meets the standard set by the board. Recently, PBBY has also gathered a board of young readers so that they can choose their own favorite books which usually are different from the choices of adults.
With this year’s list of honorees or Best Reads, added to our existing honor roll, we hope that parents, teachers, librarians, and other adults with little people to guide, can choose books with confidence and help children become readers and lovers of books.
The work of PBBY is a never-ending cycle, from the creation to the consumption of books. We are trying to bring the community together so that we can all learn from each other and thus, lift each other up to accomplish great things and bring to life wonderful and amazing stories that not only entertain but also inspire.
Congratulations to all our honorees, those who are included in our Best Reads and Kid’s Choice Awards. May you all be inspired to write more books for children and young adults. PBBY also thanks all those have been involved in the preparation for the National Children’s Book Awards. Thank you to our judges, both adults and kids, who took the time to read all the entries. Thank you to the people who worked behind the scenes to get the books to our judges and who made sure our judges’ deliberation process was conducted smoothly and on schedule. The work has occupied months of your time. We appreciate your hard work and contribution to our mission to make every child a reader and every reader a lover of books.
Thank you all very much!
- Paula Cabochan Reyes, PBBY Chair
