Tehran – Iran’s Children’s Book Council has revealed the country’s candidates for the 2026 Ibby-Iread Standing Stasting Reading Promorter Award.
Ali Asgal Seiyedabadi, an Iranian reading advocate and children’s literature researcher, has been nominated for this respected honor, the IRNA reported on Friday.
The Ibby-Iread Outstanding Reading Promorter Award will be announced at the Ibby Congress, held in Guadalajara, Mexico from July 5th to 9th, 2026.
Seyyedabadi is a writer, reading promoters and researcher of literature for children and young adults. Over 35 years of work, every position, every title, he has always pursued reading as a social action and activity. He has strived to promote the library as a safe shelter and voluntary reading, especially in challenging social conditions, as a means of resilience and resistance.
The first book by Seyyedabadi for Children was published in 1996. The following year he regularly focused on writing for children and young adults, and today around 70 books have been published by him. Some of his books are on theoretical topics in the literature of children and young adults.
He transformed individual activities in promoting reading into facilities and group activities about 20 years ago, leading to the establishment of several reading promotional institutions in Iran. He also implemented ambitious projects that have a major impact on the expansion of reading across Iran.
In 2014 he launched an innovative initiative to promote reading across Iran. The result was a massive pro-reading movement involving non-governmental and private, government and public institutions in Iranian cities and villages. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these initiatives have become one of the effective networks connecting children, young adults and the promoter.
These activities have engaged in 180 cities and 1,400 villages in Iran, with over 17,000 book clubs in cities and villages and 40,000 book clubs in kindergartens across Iran.
The Iranian Children’s Council previously nominated Seyedabadi for the 2024 Ibby-Iread Standing Reading Promoter Award.
Ibby-Iread’s outstanding reading promoter award was established by the Deep Shenzhen Iread Foundation and Ibby (International Committee on Books for Youth).
The Ibby-Iread Award judges select two winners each year. The two winners will receive 200,000 RMB of Yang each, and an additional 150,000 RMB of Yang will be given to their non-profit children’s reading promotional project of their choice.
Swedish author Marit Ternqvist and Chinese educator Zhu Yongxin were awarded the 2020 Ibby-Iread Standing Standing Reading Promoter Award. The two winners of the 2024 Ibby-Iread Standing Reading Promoter Award were Basarat Kazim of Pakistan, Basarat Kazim, nominated by Ibby Pakistan, and Irene Vasco of Colombia, nominated by Ibby Canada.
The Ibby-Asahi Reading Promotion Award is awarded every two years to one group or institution determined to be a permanent contribution to a reading promotion program for children and young people. The award was founded in 1986 and is sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
The $10,000 award and diploma will be presented to the winning project at the Biennale Ibby Congress.
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