63rd edition 13- 16 April 2026 | Bologna - Italy
63rd edition 13- 16 April 2026 | Bologna - Italy
Title: Casey’s Cases: The Mysterious New Girl
English title: Casey’s Cases: The Mysterious New Girl
Author: Kay Healy
Art: Kay Healy
Publisher: Neal Porter Books (Holiday House Publishing)
Year: 2025
Country/Region: USA
Kay Healy’s debut graphic novel stars Casey, a red-jacketed girl who, armed with a magnifying glass and binoculars, cracks everyday cases. She uses her detective skills to solve ordinary mysteries like dealing with a bully at school (“Haha Casey, you look soooo weird!”) or overcoming her fears to befriend a new kid in school. Everyday problems in Casey’s world become cases to be solved. As each mystery is resolved, Casey exclaims triumphantly that the case is closed, only to be confronted with another mystery that requires her expertise. The minimalist charm of her drawings make this book easily accessible to young readers. Kay Healy has a distinctive and unique illustration style (her cone shaped characters have big eyes and no necks), and she uses a subtle color palette of pale pastel background colors with bold accent colors in red, green and blue. Healy’s style evokes the drawings of Crockett Johnson, but at the same time feels fresh, contemporary and visually compelling.
Title: Ão, ão!
English title: Bow Wow!
Author: Joana Estrela
Art: Joana Estrela
Publisher: Planeta Tangerina
Year: 2025
Country/Region: Portugal
In this delightful silent comic, Joana Estrela takes us on an animal farm with her young protagonist, her parents and their two city cats. With them is an affectionate and unrestrained dog who loves to run, sniff, chase, and bark. The simplicity of Estrela’s clean and minimal drawings, which characterize the entire book, make the dog irresistible, creating a “love at first sight” effect. This monochromatic narrative work – part of Planeta Tangerina’s “Mini-macro” series for early readers – substitutes traditional black lines with green, giving the book an uplifting tone. Estrela relies exclusively on images and sounds to tell the story, fully adhering to the syntax of sequential art. This book gives young readers an opportunity to “read” images, focusing their attention on the characters’ expressions and movements which, due to Estrela’s unique style, are poetic and perpetually flowing into the next panel.
