IBBY Honours List

 

So my second picture book MOMMIES has been selected for the IBBY Honours List. 

Sometime earlier, my publisher called and we had a conversation that went something like this -

R: Priya, congratulations, MOMMIES has been selected for the IBBY Honours List and you are the only illustrator from India whose book has been selected in the Illustration category!

Me: Oh, okay

R: (mildly exasperated) Priya, do you even know what IBBY is?
Me: Well, I've seen the name here and there.
R: (incredulous) Priya, can you Google and read what IBBY is all about? It is such an honour to be selected for this!

So I did Google and read up about IBBY. I've learnt that it stands for the International Board of Books for Young People. Apparently it is a very coveted honour to have one's book selected in the categories of Writer, Translator and Illustrator, not to mention the only one to be selected in a particular category.

This book MOMMIES has won several awards and honours:

FICCI Award for best picture book 2024

Publishing Next award for best picture book 2025
DPictus 100 Outstanding Picturebooks for 2024 and 2025

Parag Honours List 2025

and now this, India's selection for illustration for the IBBY Honours List.

Twenty years ago, when I first bought my apartment, created a studio and began working seriously and consistently on my art, if I had ever been told that I would illustrate two books, one published by Seagull Books (an award in itself), and chosen to be published by them solely because of the quality of my illustrations, I thought it would have ended there. That was enough of an achievement for me to end my professional life with. However, I made a second book, and it was the recipient of DPictus 100 Best twice and much to my surprise, an IBBY Honours list. 

Twenty years ago, after the deaths of my parents, I was pretty much written off by extended family, community and society as that oddball woman doing that illustration stuff, whatever it was, instead of getting married. Ten years ago when I returned from Montreal, most of the people I was acquainted with expected me to end up as a kind of paraplegic, someone to be commiserated with and entirely dismissed. So, in retrospect, it seems to me that if there is one other thing that is as immensely satisfying as having these two books on my bookshelf,  it has been in proving my naysayers wrong. 

I am reminded of this poem that I came across by The Fallen Poet -

What a privilege it is to be overwhelmed by a life I once prayed for.

What a privilege it is to become a version of myself I once thought was impossible.

What a privilege it is to still believe in good things.

What a privilege it is to grow into someone I used to need.

What a privilege it is to become softer in a world that tried to harden me.

What a privilege it is to no longer beg for love that should have been freely given.

What a privilege it is to finally be proud of the person I'm becoming.

If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next - if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions - you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone ever again. You'd never dare to.

~ Margaret Atwood.

AN EXHIBITION

 

Sometime in April 2025, Richa Jha, publisher, Pickle Yolk Books , curated a massive exhibition of Indian Children's Illustrators at India International Centre in Delhi. This exhibition, titled BECOMING, was created to celebrate 130 years of Indian illustration. What was so joyful and heartening to me was that my first book Is It The Same For You?  written by Neha Singh, illustrated by me, Priya Sebastian, and published by Seagull Books, got the much overdue attention it deserved, a kind of resurrection after getting published just before the pandemic in 2020 after which the world came to a standstill. Illustrations from this book were blown up into huge installation pages and placed in the centre of the exhibition resulting in a renewed interest in the book.

Here is Richa talking about this book. Her wonderful words about my illustrations truly warms my heart.

Also, Archana Atri, editor at Pickle Yolk Books, talks so movingly about how much she loved the illustrations in my book in her post on her Instagram account over here -  >>>LINK

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When I was around 5 years old and in Class 1 at school, it was Open Day, when classes were decorated nicely and people came to see what the students had put on display. When I climbed up the steps to enter my class, several of my classmates rushed up to me, “Priya! 3 boards full of your drawings have been displayed in class!” And indeed, when I walked towards my classroom, right at the entrance, I saw 3 boards full of my drawings pinned up on them. The teacher had taken the drawings from my drawing books and pinned them up for all to see.

I’ve tried to remember how I felt back then. What I do recall was that I was rather confused at the excitement of my classmates around me. I remember being somewhat surprised that their drawings had been grouped together on a couple of other boards, while my drawings had 3 boards all to themselves. I had no idea why. Drawing was simply something that I did spontaneously and naturally, like eating or sleeping.

Now, so many years later, there seems to be a repetition of what happened long ago when my publisher decided to blow-up my work giant-size for the exhibition of illustrators and eulogized my work with so much enthusiasm. I am happy.

Had I been in my 20s or 30s and received such attention for my work, I'd have probably thought it undeserved and retreated into my shell and showed off some kind of mock bravado in public. Now, in my 50s, seeing this still fills me with a sense of disbelief and it took me several months to process and make a post here. 

Everything happens at the right time. This is a good way to end over 2 decades of my vocation as an illustrator. Many, many thanks to Richa both for this unique exhibition of illustrators and for highlighting my work in this manner.

Photographs by Archana Atri (editor Pickle Yolk Books)

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"The trouble with metrics, I’ve learned, is they have the habit of collapsing right when we’ve got them where we want them. You get a promotion: AI wipes out your sector. Buy a house: the market collapses. Find the love of your life: they find theirs. As the old Yiddish proverb goes, ‘We plan, God laughs’."

~ Rajeev Balasubramanian

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