2nd Symposium on Illustrated Children's Books: Writing – Illustrating – Reading

and Illustrated Children's Books Exhibition: Second Step

November 29 – December 12, 2025
Ankara, Turkey

​

From the moment they are born, children begin trying to understand what they see, reflect on it, and make meaning from it - and illustrated children's books play a vital role in supporting this development. Encouraging children's engagement with sound, color, line, reading, and tactile interaction with books, and initiating their communication with art at an early age, not only nurtures their growth but also enriches us as adults.

 

Our aim is to develop our fundamental skills in recognizing, understanding, analyzing, examining, and evaluating the processes of writing, illustrating, and reading illustrated children's books together.

 

With this purpose in mind, we held our first meeting in 2022, focusing on illustrated children's books from Turkey and Finland.

 

This year, we are launching our second gathering on November 29, 2025, at the Turkish Japanese Foundation Cultural Center in Ankara, featuring examples of illustrated children's books from Turkey and Japan.

 

This initiative consists of a symposium - aimed at promoting reading culture - and an exhibition that will showcase selected illustrated books and illustrations. The program brings together experts, artists, academics, and educators working in this field.

The 2nd Symposium on Illustrated Children’s Books is jointly organized by the Reading Culture Association and the Turkish Japanese Foundation.

 

Invitees / Participants: Authors, illustrators, publishing professionals, specialists in the field of children's literature, preschool teachers, librarians, academics and students from relevant university departments, associations promoting reading culture, and representatives from the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as all reading enthusiasts and supporters, are invited to participate.