Message from the Executive Director

Warm greetings from the Singapore Book Council!

On behalf of the SBC team, I would like to welcome you to the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) 2021!

After a year of lockdowns, social distancing, wearing masks and finally some form of re-openings now, we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. We are immensely grateful and happy that we are able to present AFCC this year. We are truly excited to share all the programmes with you over these four days.

As we are still recovering from the disruptions wrought by COVID, the experience has reminded us more than ever that stories are absolutely vital to our existence and to the core of our humanity. This year at AFCC, we celebrate the theme “Reimagine. Rebuild. Reignite.” We invite you to Reimagine a new exciting world of stories; to Rebuild the ties and bonds that bind us, and to Reignite our collective imagination so that we can share our stories in different languages and across different cultures with the rest of the world. Let’s harness the power of our stories so that we can face what lies ahead together with hope, courage and empathy.

This year’s sessions will tackle many current topics, such as writing about cultural and ethnic diversity; making books inclusive and accessible; developing the joy of reading and communities of readers; promoting mental wellbeing; pushing for more translated books; the future of audiobooks; raising eco-consciousness, and many many more. We will also feature Thailand as the Country of Focus (COF) this year, as we continue our efforts to showcase the best children’s books from Southeast Asia.

You will still be able to catch the sessions for 30 days on Video-on-Demand after the festival is over. So take your time to experience and explore the various programmes.

Thank you for joining us! Have a wonderful and enlightening time at AFCC 2021!

William Phuan

Executive Director Singapore Book Council