Nissan announces winners of children’s book competition

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced the winners of the 36th Nissan Children’s Storybook and Picture Book Grand Prix, organized by the International Institute for Children’s Literature, Osaka.

Izumi Yamamoto won the Storybook Grand Prize for “Nasubi wa Naniiro?” (“What Color Is an Eggplant?”). Satoko Iwasaki won the Picture Book Grand Prize for “Kutsuya-san to Obake” (“The Shoemaker and the Ghosts”).

The competition, part of Nissan’s corporate citizenship activities, attracted 2,402 entries from amateur authors and illustrators.

“Nasubi wa Naniiro?” tells the story about a boy and his new classmate, a girl, who helps him stop the hiccups. Their short conversations exquisitely depict a distance between them, while well-placed descriptions of colors successfully create a unique, colorful world.

In “Kutsuya-san to Obake,” familiar ghosts from Japanese folk tales visit a shoemaker and ask for solutions to their daily problems. The ghosts are portrayed in a bold, humorous style to appeal to children and adults alike.

In addition, three storybooks and three picture books won special prizes, and 20 storybooks and 10 picture books won prizes for excellence. The Grand Prize-winning books will be published by BL Publishing Co., Ltd., in December.

The book competition is hosted by the International Institute for Children’s Literature, Osaka, with the aim of helping develop children’s imagination and creativity. The competition was launched to commemorate the 1984 opening of the Institute. In support of its objectives, Nissan has sponsored the competition from the start.

The competition also gives talented amateur authors and illustrators the opportunity to take their work professional. More than 119,000 entries have been received in the 36 years since the start of the program, and 65 books have been published.

Over the years, Nissan has donated more than 250,000 books to libraries and child care facilities across Japan, as well as to Japanese schools and Japanese language schools overseas. Nissan has also carried out initiatives related to children and literature, such as storybook readings at the Nissan Gallery in Yokohama.

To learn more about Nissan’s corporate citizenship activities, go here.

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