SINCE the foundation of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in 1953, there have been 37 international congresses which united thousands of specialists from around the globe.
Congresses have been held in Greece, New Zealand, Mexico, Great Britain, China, Norway, the United States, Sweden, South Africa, three times in Spain and Germany, and twice in Italy, as well as other member countries.
Moscow hosted this year's event from Sept 10 to 12. Russia joined IBBY in 1968 (there was a Soviet section of the IBBY back then), with its founders, Sergey Mikhalkov and Agniya Barto, authors of classic Soviet and Russian children's literature.
The theme of the congress in Moscow was "Great Big World Through Children's Books: National and Foreign Literature — Role, Value, Impact on Young Readers in Different Countries".
It gave an opportunity to explore diversity of themes, characters and issues in children's literature of the world, and discuss cultural variety, which doesn't prevent them from interweaving and interacting.
Of course, apart from professional experience exchange, participation in the congress brought the joy of companionship of colleagues and friends, new social interactions, collective sightseeing in Moscow, as well as in other regions of Russia.
Experts from 52 countries, as well as cultural and educational institutions from all over the world, connected remotely to the event.
There were especially many connections from Ghana, India, Pakistan, Argentina, Africa, Latin America and south Asia.
Key events at the congress were the IBBY Asahi and iRead awards ceremonies, and the ceremony to award the Andersen Gold Medal, the most prestigious international award in children's literature.
Russian authors Nina Dashevskaya and Olga Vasilieva, artist Olga Monina and translator Olga Drobot were among the laureates on the IBBY honorary list.
Special attention at the congress was paid to the problem of state support for projects to promote children's reading.
At the closing ceremony, the head of the Russian state children's library, Maria Vedenyapina, presented a gift to the ambassador of Malaysia, which will host the next IBBY Congress from Sept 5 to 8 next year.
Ambassador Datuk Bala Chandran Tharman said it was a great honour and responsibility for Malaysia to host the IBBY Congress.
He said the forum would be an international recognition of Malaysia's contribution to world children's literature.
One cannot but agree with him on that point. During my stay in Malaysia, I became convinced that literature for children is the focus of attention of both state and private publishing houses, especially Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Last year, Gabungan Persatuan Penulis Nasional published a series of books on Malaysian folk tales for children, which involved quite a number of writers and artists.
They include Ade Irwan Apandi, Amaruszati Noor Rahim, Aminah Mokhtar, Azalan Hussain, Basari Mat Yasit, Faziah Sulaiman, Harun Azman Dollah, Katrina Tati Sitam, Khairul Azman, Mahaya Mohd Yassin, Mohd Morne Hashim, Norazimah Abu Bakar, Nurul Shahida Hassan, Shaifudin Duakim, Shamsudin Othman, Siti Hanifah Madarsa, Sitti Rahmah Ibrahim, Zakaria Ariffin, Zalina Ahmad and Zamidah Hashim.
I am sure that holding the IBBY congress in Malaysia will give a new impetus to Malaysian writers to create new and interesting books for children.
The writer, writing from Russia, is a former lecturer of Universiti Malaya