Briefly, I'm sure all those who attended agree that was an impressive event in a variety of ways. 154 colleagues and members from 30 countries participated, with a high proportion of younger scholars including those from the dynamic NorChilNet group. The quality of papers was extremely high, with considerate attention being paid to engaging the audience, including those who do not have English as their first language. The groupings of papers and the range of formats were particularly successful - helped by the excellent new building and facilities in which the congress was held and which the board first saw as a building site two years ago! For this as for the overall management Rolf Romoren and his team of colleagues deserve our thanks and congratulations. Additional thanks are due to Agder University College, which not only welcomed us so warmly but is including, and financially supporting, the proceedings from the congress in its Research Series in collaboration with Norwegian Academic Press.

IRSCL membership supports the congress and various awards linked to it. Again, more detailed information about these can be found on the website, but here we should celebrate the achievements of those who were honoured by the Society:

2nd IRSCL Fellow: Göte Klingberg, Sweden read more here

IRSCL Award: Clare Bradford for Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature (Carlton South, Vic: Melbourne University Press: 2001) read more here

IRSCL Honour Books:
Kerry Mallan and Sharyn Pearce (eds), Youth Cultures: Texts, Images, Identity (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003)
John Stephens (ed), Ways of Being Male: Representing Masculinities in Childern's Literature and Film (London and New York: Routledge, 2002)

IRSCL Research Grant: Martina Seifert, University of Leipzig

Travel grants were also awarded to: Clara Cyraningtas, Darja Mazi-Leskovar, Jana Pohl, Martina Seifert and Margarita Slavova.