The world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature is turning ten years old in 2012. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) has contributed to raising the status of books for children and young people for a decade now. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Sweden’s Minister for Culture, says: ­
? The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award highlights literature for children and young adults in an important way, giving it a prominent place in society.

When Astrid Lindgren, Sweden’s most renowned writer, passed away in 2002, the Swedish Government adopted the decision to set up a memorial award fund. Since its establishment, eleven award recipients have been recognized for their lifetime achievements in the arts and their efforts to promote literacy.??

Quoting Minister Adelsohn Liljeroth:
? The award promotes interest in literature for children and young people all over the world, and reinforces the rights of children on a global level. Year upon year, the award has received increasing media attention and had greater and greater impact. This gives rise to optimism about children’s literature and active reading.

Over the course of the decade, more than 550 candidates from over 90 nations have been nominated. Nominating bodies include organizations and research institutes related to literature for children and young people. Today the ALMA award office cooperates with more than 400 nominating bodies worldwide.

The tenth birthday of the award will be celebrated with an exhibition about the award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the world’s largest book fair for young readers, to be held in Bologna, Italy from 19 to 22 March 2012. On 20 March at 1 p.m., the name of this year’s recipient or recipients will be announced. The announcement will be made in Vimmerby, Sweden, where Astrid Lindgren grew up. It will be webstreamed to the book fair in Bologna and on the website of the award: http://www.alma.se/en .