THEMES AND GUESTS
Eagerly awaited authors and illustrators featuring in Bologna include: Ximo Abadia, Emma Adbåge, Beatrice Alemagna, Mac Barnett, Anne Brouillard, Nadine Brun-Cosme, Davide Calì, Nat Cardozo, Kitty Crowther, Max de Radiguès, Julia Donaldson, Linde Faas, GUD, Ulrich Hub, Jenny Jägerfeld, Oliver Jeffers, Aviaq Johnston, Joëlle Jolivet, Benjamin Lacombe, Philippe Lechermeier, Leonard Marcus, Lorenzo Mattotti, Bart Moeyaert, Jérémie Moreau, Roger Olmos, Neal Packer, Lincoln Peirce, Victor D.O. Santos, Lola Shoneyin, Axel Scheffler, Olivier Tallec, Øyvind Torseter, Paloma Valdivia and Edward van De Vendel, Cao WenXuan.
Among the themes taking centre stage at the Fair’s focus sessions and debates, sustainability will be playing a prominent role as a key issue for the global publishing industry. On this topic, books are also shaping the worldview of the citizens of tomorrow. In collaboration with the United Nations and the International Publishers Association (IPA), a programme of panel discussions will explore the topic in depth. Space will also be given to foreign markets: from the aforementioned Slovenia to China, a country with which BCBF has built a solid relationship based on collaboration over a number of years, also as co-organiser of the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF). The focus on Africa also continues in parallel with appointments that aim to bring together the expertise of the publishers exhibiting at BCBF with the emerging and multi-faceted publishing of this rich continent. Due attention will also be paid to the cultures of indigenous minorities and the representation in “mainstream” publishing of authors and themes linked to African-American and Afro-Latin-American stories.
The challenges Artificial Intelligence poses to publishing will be discussed at a programme of panels with international guests from various professional backgrounds who will debate approaches, visions and possible scenarios.
The focus on one of the most interesting sectors of the contemporary publishing industry, and the one that is expanding the most, also continues: Comics will once again play a leading role at BCBF this year, with international publishers gathered at the Comics Corner and numerous panel discussions examining the experiences of individual countries with more, and less, consolidated traditions, as well as the new trend of comics for very young children. Space will also be made for one of the central themes of BCBF since the fair’s inception: two meetings will explore the story and the background of picture books, books that transmit knowledge that is at the service of the human capacity to interpret and acquire consciousness, foreshadowing answers to the questions of the present.
THE COLLABORATION WITH THE UNITED NATIONS
A new feature for 2024 is the important collaboration with the United Nations, which has led to the creation (also in collaboration with the International Publishers Association - IPA) of shared initiatives on sustainability, the seas and children’s rights: the panel discussion “Reading for a Healthy Planet: Inspiring Children’s Books to Help Achieve a Sustainable Future” and the round table “Sea of Stories: The Science, History, and Cultural Importance of the Sea in Children’s Literature", the exhibition Reading for a Healthy Planet: Inspiring Children’s Books to Help Achieve a Sustainable Future, showcasing the best titles concerning sustainability issues, and “Reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (9 April, Illustrators Café, 4.00-4.40 pm), a collective reading of the UDHR with the participation of authors and illustrators from all over the world, each reading in their own language.
THE AWARDS AT BOLOGNA CHILDREN’S BOOK FAIR
A showcase for the best of the world’s publishing, BCBF influences and guides trends in the sector through its now well-established awards: the BOP - Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year acknowledges the best publishers in each area of the world; the BolognaRagazzi Awards for books is divided into several categories, including the special 2024 category The Sea, as well as the new permanent Toddler category; the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award recognises publishing projects that have been successfully transposed onto other media.
Featuring again at the Fair will be the announcement of the Strega Prize Ragazze e Ragazzi for Best Picture Book; the translation competition In Altre Parole, dedicated in this 14th edition to the Slovenian language as a tribute to Slovenia, Guest of Honour Country 2024; the 6th edition of the Carla Poesio Award, recognition for the best Italian degree thesis on Children’s Literature. There are also opportunities for those selected for the Illustrators Exhibition with the ARS IN FABULA - Grant Award and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair - Fundación SM International Award for Illustration. The BolognaBookPlus awards: Talking Pictures, for the best visual books from Ukraine; the Indie Authors Book Jacket Award, with the aim of giving visibility to the best covers by self-published authors; and the Bologna Licensing Awards, prizes for licensors/agencies, licensees and retailers related to the development of intellectual property and brands during 2023. The 2024 edition of BCBF sees the introduction of the new Best Licensed Sustainable Project category.
But BCBF also offers its world stage for the presentation of important industry prizes: the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the IBBY Reading Promotions Awards are announced during the fair.
Finally, PublisHer is launching the new PublisHer Excellence Awards to acknowledge female publishing professionals who have made a difference in the industry.
THE EXHIBITIONS AT THE BOLOGNA CHILDREN’S BOOK FAIR 2024
Alongside the customary Illustrators Exhibition will be solo exhibitions for Paloma Valdivia, Inês Oliveira and Andrea Antinori (respectively, the illustrators of the cover of the Illustrators Annual 2024, the Fair’s 2024 Visual Identity, and winner of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair - Fundación SM International Award for Illustration) and Mauro Evangelista. Visions. Illustrations 1991 | 2024, dedicated to the recently deceased artist and founder of the School of Illustration.
A new feature is the first edition of the exhibition Chinese Excellence in Children’s Illustration, which brings the best of Chinese illustration to the attention of the publishing world gathered at BCBF; for the first time The Original Art award, presented by the Society of Illustrators of New York will be featuring with the exhibition The Original Art. Celebrating The Fine Art Of Children’s Book Illustration; the collection of the best publishing projects nominated for the BRAW, The BRAW Amazing Bookshelf, plus And then what happens?, an exhibition of the best of contemporary Slovenian illustration, organised by the 2024 Guest of Honour Country; Reading for a Healthy Planet: Inspiring Children’s Books to Help Achieve a Sustainable Future, a selection of books on the theme of sustainability, to draw attention to this crucial issue in collaboration with the United Nations and the International Publishers Association; When Everything Matters, a tribute to Ukrainian illustration, in collaboration with Pictoric and International Book Arsenal Festival; the established Silent Book Contest - Gianni De Conno Award, ending with the BolognaBookPlus exhibition Jackets Off, dedicated to the different interpretations of the cover of War and Peace that have been published around the world.