Here's the final installment in my video "series" of readings from around the world. Both clips feature books from Norway.The first is from the IBBY Documentation Centre of Books for Disabled Young People, sponsored by IBBY and currently housed at the Haug School and Resource Centre in Sandvika, Norway and managed by Director Heidi Cortner Boiesen.
The aim of the Centre is to “promote research, production, mediation and the use of books especially designed for disabled young people.” It is a project of IBBY and the Center develops an annotated catalogue and international traveling exhibition, the "Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities" list launched biennially at the Bologna Book Fair. Here's Sissel Hofgaard Swensen who assists with selecting the titles for the Outstanding Books exhibition and catalogue reading an excerpt from the book, Pass deg, Line (No. 18), a novel for and about young adults with learning disabilities.
Sissel is also involved in another project, “Books for Everyone” is a Norwegian organization that supports and promotes “adapted literature” with the goal of providing books to all those who struggle with reading sponsored by The House of Literature in Oslo, Norway. This project included one poetry book unlike anything I have ever seen! It is designed for both sighted and visually impaired children (in Braille and with tactile elements) with components on every page to read-- in print or in Braille, as well as tactile components to engage the child and expand the rhymes through multiple senses. It's ingenious! My short demo video doesn't really do it justice, but here you go:
Image credit: SV; IBBY
Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2011. All rights reserved.
Love that Braille book. Wish I could read the text! But I'd love holding it and trying out the words anyway:>)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the demo, Sylvia! I am sharing your post with our State Library Braille & Talking Book Program staff.
ReplyDeleteMy first picture book, Keep Your Ear on the Ball is on the list this year! What an honor! It's the story of a blind boy in a sighted classroom and how he and his classmates learn about interdependence. I love how a little story based on a little kickball game I played with my class could grow to find international recognition! Thanks IBBY!!
ReplyDeleteHi, friends,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting. Glad to see there are others who found this as intriguing as I did. I know there are many books printed in Braille, but this one was designed to MAXIMIZE the medium of touch, while still maintaining the usual visual elements of a book-- and for POETRY!
And how wonderful to connect with one of the list authors, Genevieve! Congratulations on your success and thank you for sharing your words with us!