Editorial

What has been achieved during these past four years? Bookbird goes through a two-year publication cycle due to the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award, which we cover with two special issues. Every other year, there is also the congress issue to consider. Since the Andersen issues consist of commissioned material, this was especially problematic when we ran both Andersen issues in the same year because we were likely to publish too few articles in that year (eight in total in 2016). However, for the period 2017–2018 the two Andersen issues came out in different years, which meant that we could publish three standard issues per year—with an average of circa fifteen articles per year (see overview below). This was an important reform for Bookbird, carried out as part of the successful bid to be included in the SCOPUS journal ranking index, a distinction which will make Bookbird even more attractive to publish in, cite from, subscribe to, and download.

As editor, I have striven to develop the collaboration with the International Youth Library, to which we have old ties, and have invited IYL to write about their ongoing projects and exhibitions. Naturally, they have continued the reviews activity, the Books on Books being a long-standing feature. I also welcomed a suggestion from the Bookbird Board to invite Barbara Lehman as Postcards editor. The authors of the fifty-nine published peer-reviewed articles come from twenty-five different countries. Thirty-one of these articles were written by authors from the English-speaking world (USA, UK, NZ, AU, CAN), while the other twenty-eight articles were written by authors from the rest of the world. If we look at the other texts, the spread is even better. This diversity of content is a hallmark of Book-bird, and I have worked hard to increase this diversity even further. Behind the scenes, I have pruned and renewed the editorial board. The present board is considerably less oriented towards North America; it now includes specialists from most parts of the world. The only collaboration that, despite efforts, has not panned out the way I had hoped is with the Bookbird correspondents; here there is room for improvement.

Sixteen issues (including the upcoming November issue) have been published. Of these, two have been congress-themed, one New Zealand-Australia-Oceania themed, and one Greece-Cyprus-Turkey themed. Two of them have covered the nominees for the H. C. Andersen Award, while two have been devoted to the H. C. Andersen Award winners and shortlist. Of the remaining ten, five have been open; the other five have been themed. The following topics have been covered (guest editor in parenthesis): Children's Literature and the Posthuman (Zoe Jaques), Children's Nonsense Literature (Michael Heyman), Indigenous Children's Literature (Rox-anne Harde), Child Writers and Illustrators (Peter Cumming), and Translation and Transmedia (Anna Kérchy). As single editor, it has been a particular delight to me to collaborate with guest editors for the special themes, including the congress issues (Anna Jackson and Petros Panaou). I also believe that the special editors play a great role in furthering the cause of Bookbird within the academic community. An issue that gave me particular joy was the combined H. C. Andersen and 60 Years Commemorative issue (55.4), since it gave me the opportunity to communicate with my editor predecessors and collect their reminiscences in that issue.

Finally, I would like to thank the designer, Mats Hedman, and my copyeditor, Jasmin Salih, for their excellent work, as well as the ever supportive Book-bird Board and its president, Valerie Coghlan. My warmest thanks also to IBBY director, Liz Page, and the IBBY Executive Committee. I have always felt your encouragement, and I am thankful for the friendly and warm support over these four years.

Over and Out, Björn

ERRATA We regret that the first print run of 56.2 was affected by a design error, pages 88-91 (in Focus IBBY). The electronic version is correct, however. We also apologize for the fault in the table of contents, issue 56.3, where New Zealand author Joy Cowley is...