Since 1967, on April 2nd, coinciding with the birth date of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, IBBY has promoted the celebration of International Children's Book Day
to promote good children's and young adult books and reading among young people.
Each year, a national IBBY chapter has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of Children's Book Day and selects a representative writer and a renowned illustrator from their country to create the message addressed to all the world's children and the poster that is distributed worldwide, promoting the celebration in libraries, schools, bookstores, etc.
In 2025, the day is sponsored by the IBBY Netherlands chapter, and the poster is created by two Dutch children's book creators. This year's theme is "The Freedom of Imagination," and the motto is the last line of the poem Visual Language: "Draw pictures for my poem but feel free: these words that have come from my mouth are yours." The poem comes from the illustrated poetry collection Alle wensen van de wereld (2021) by Rian Visser and illustrator Janneke Ipenburg.
