About this archive

This is an independent reference archive on the history of children’s literature, written in English. It begins with the Hans Christian Andersen Award: who has received it, who judged it, and where it was presented. It is not affiliated with the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), with any of IBBY’s national sections, or with any research institute whose work it cites. It does not speak for any of them.

This domain

Until it changed hands, chlhistory.org was the website of the Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature in Iran, a research institute based in Tehran. Links to this address made before the change were made to the Institute. This archive is a separate, independent project: it is not the Institute, does not speak for it, and has no connection with it. Where this archive draws on the Institute’s research, it cites the work and credits its authors by name.

Method

Every name, year, country, title and date on this site comes from a structured data file, and every record in those files carries at least one source. The site is built from those files; a record without a source cannot be published, because the build refuses it.

Each record and each page is checked by a person against its sources before it is published. Until then it is marked as unreviewed, and the production build fails.

Where sources disagree, the archive follows the awarding body for award facts and records the disagreement for review rather than choosing silently. Countries are given as IBBY lists them for the year of the award, with the present-day state alongside where it differs.

Life dates and identifiers come from Wikidata and are linked on each entry so they can be checked.

What the archive does not do

It does not rank or evaluate writers and illustrators; it reports what juries decided and what the sources say. It does not reproduce protected texts, illustrations or covers; works are described in words. It does not publish pages about identifiable children.

Language models may be used to help draft connecting prose from facts that have already been sourced. They are never used as a source of facts. Any page where this has happened says so at the foot of the page.

Corrections

If you find an error, the most useful report names the page, the fact, and a source for the correct version.