It is the fourth time that Chmielewska's name is on the shortlist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the previous occasions being in 2018, 2020 and 2024.
The other illustrators on the shortlist come from Canada, Brazil, China, Chile and Spain.
Born in 1960, Chmielewska is a graduate of the Fine Arts Faculty at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, north-central Poland.
At the beginning of her career, she illustrated children’s classics such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, as well as Polish poetry.
In the last two decades, she has won a high reputation at home and abroad, receiving the Bologna Ragazzi Award twice, as well as two nominations for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis award for her children’s books. She has more than 40 books to her name.
Chmielewska’s style is described as subtle and melancholic. She often uses pencils and crayons, cutting out pieces from old notebooks and journals and embroidering with one colour.
The Hans Christian Andersen Award is given every other year by the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) to an author and an illustrator who have made a lasting contribution to children's literature.
(mk/gs)