Lecture: “The Magic Door” by British picture book author Rachel Bright

【2024-E001】

The International Library of Children’s Literature (ILCL) of the National Diet Library (NDL) invited Ms. Rachel Bright from the UK to present a lecture on Feb. 4, 2024. Ms. Bright is a multi-award-winning and internationally best-selling author and illustrator.

In her lecture titled “The Magic Door: The Art of Books for Children and their Power to Change the World,” she passionately championed the importance of stories for children and their power to change lives and perspectives. She explored how books present infinite opportunities for thought and exploration and make a sense of magic and possibility accessible for any child, anytime, anywhere. Touching on tackling big, universal ideas, presented in small, intriguing packages, she drew from her 17 years of experience and her journey publishing more than 40 books across many publishing houses (so far translated into 47 languages), as well as comparing collaboration with world-leading illustrators and illustrating and designing her own author-illustrated titles. The highlight of the talk was a reading of her book The Lion Inside.

In the following Q & A session, Ms. Bright was asked many questions such as what she thinks about translated versions of her own work, the relationship between illustration and text in the picture book production process, and books parents want their children to read and books children want to read.

This was the first in-person event with a foreign lecturer at the ILCL after the COVID-19 pandemic and was a great success. A video recording of the lecture will be available on the NDL’s YouTube channel until the end of March 2025.

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(2024.3.15 update)
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