Venezuela’s Banco del Libro Wins Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

By Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 4/1/2007

The 2007 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which the Swedish government created to promote literature among children and young adults worldwide, was given to Venezuela’s Banco del Libro (“Book Bank”). The Swedish Arts Council will award $710,000 to the institution, in what is the first time it has honored an institution and not an individual.

Banco del Libro is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Caracas. It was established in 1960, originally as a center for the exchange of textbooks (hence the name). Since then, Banco del Libro has passed on books and stimulated an appetite for reading and writing among countless children and adolescents. It has constructed model libraries, started up school library networks, founded a publishing company for children’s literature, and runs Latin America’s biggest documentation center for children’s literature.

For more information about the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, go to http://www.alma.se/page.php