The Bologna Grand Tour

Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) has embarked on its 2025/26 Grand Tour, the fifth edition of the tour of major book fairs around the world. This initiative began in 2021 thanks to the support and collaboration of ITA-Italian Trade Agency and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Not only does the tour offer opportunities to expand and consolidate the fair’s network of international contacts through meetings with stakeholders, strategic partners and key industry operators, but it also serves to enhance its outlook by encountering new stimuli to transform into new proposals and activities for the public of the fair. 

Also for this edition of the tour, BCBF is flanked by BolognaBookPlus (BBPlus), the initiative specifically for generalist publishing organised in collaboration with the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), and by Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids (BLTF/Kids), focussed on the relationship between the worlds of publishing and licensing.

After the preview at GamesCom in Cologne and the first stage at the Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, the Bologna Grand Tour has then headed for the Frankfurter Buchmesse (from 15 to 19 October), where, as it does every year, BCBF presented a selection of the best international illustration. The following stop was the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (from 14 to 16 November), co-organised by BolognaFiere, an annual opportunity to engage with one of the world’s most flourishing publishing markets, before continuing on to the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (from 29 November to 7 December), a touchstone for the entire Latin American and Spanish-speaking publishing world. The tour has then moved on to Die Spielwarenmesse (from 27 to 31 January 2026), the world’s leading international toy fair, held every year in Nuremberg. For the first time, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair has featured in Spielwarenmesse with a stand and a small delegation of Italian publishing professionals. The tour concludes in February in New York, where BCBF will present an exhibition of children’s books exploring the themes of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This reflection on sustainability will feature a selection of excellent titles from around the world, and will include a special focus on recent Italian production, in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals Book Club, of which BCBF is a partner.
A three-stop tour in New York: in February, BCBF presented an exhibition of children’s books exploring the themes of the United Nations’ 17 Goals. It was a reflection on sustainability, featuring a selection of outstanding titles from around the world, with a special focus on recent Italian production, in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals Book Club, of which BCBF is a partner. In March, it was the turn of the MoCCA Festival, a two-day event dedicated to comics, while on 9 June 2026 “Bridging Markets: Women in Children’s Publishing from Italy and North America” will take place, a day devoted to rights exchange between Italian and U.S. publishers and agents.
Hosted at the Society of Illustrators on the occasion of the Zig Zag Festival - an illustration festival organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and curated by Hamelin with Steven Guarnaccia, in collaboration with BCBF- the initiative includes matchmaking sessions, networking, a roundtable between Italian and American publishers and an industry seminar open to the public. It is designed to further strengthen the fruitful bond between the United States and Italy.
The 2025/26 tour will conclude with stops in Beijing and Annecy: from 17 to 21 June 2026, the fair will be at the Beijing International Book Fair, one of the most important and interesting fairs in the Asian region. BCBF will participate for the first time with its own stand, welcoming visitors and introducing them to the news, projects, and many opportunities offered by the fair not only in Bologna, but through the entirety of its international activities.
From there, it will continue to the MIFA – International Animation Film Market, from 23 to 26 June, held within the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious events dedicated to the animation industry. The goal is to strengthen the fair’s growing connection with the cross-media dimension, particularly with the audiovisual and gaming worlds. The Bologna Children’s Book Fair will take part with its own stand and will bring one of its most universally appreciated and recognized initiatives, The Illustrators Survival Corner.

Follow these pages to discover all the events and exhibitions at each stop!