A glimpse into the international activities of BCBF!

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) is an industry leading event that has succeeded in bringing together a unique and diverse global audience thanks to 61 years experience. The result is the world’s premium copyright exchange hub when it comes to publishing which also extends to current multimedia and licensing businesses for children’s stories, illustration, animation and related areas. The next BCBF is scheduled from March 31- April 3, 2025.

Here, Elena Pasoli, Director, Bologna Children’s Book Fair shares more about the international activities of BCBF. Excerpts.

AABP: What are the major events planned by BCBF for autumn 2024?

Elena: This year BCBF, with its sister fairs BolognaBookPlus and Bologna Licensing Trade Fair, is going on the Bologna Grand Tour. This is an initiative that we conceived in 2021 in collaboration with and with the financial support of the Italian Trade Agency: the aim was to go and meet the BCBF community in person, after the forced hiatus of the pandemic, taking a taste of our flagship features on tour. The initiative was so successful that we decided to repeat it every year, with some fixed stops and others that change from year to year depending on our projects and the geographical and thematic areas we want to know more about. This year’s edition of the Bologna Grand Tour will take us to the Cartoon Forum in Touluse (France), to the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Germany), to the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (we are the co-organisers of this fair and this year we bring a number of important initiatives in line with the objectives of the Grand Tour), to the FIL | Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (Mexico) and to the Festival International de la Bande Dessinéed’Angoulême (France).

At all these fairs we will bring book and illustration exhibitions, organise panels, master classes and meetings with agents and publishers. In particular, in Frankfurt we will also actively participate in the great programme of Italia Guest of Honour Country by presenting an exhibition of the best young Italian illustrators; at the Cartoon Forum we will bring a dozen excellent publishers for whom we are preparing a match-making plan with audiovisual producers for children, in line with the activities of the TV/FILM Rights Centre that we inaugurated at the last edition of BCBF; in Guadalajara we will set up an Illustrators Survival Corner, one of BCBF’s most successful initiatives, which we also proposed with excellent results at the New Delhi World Book Fair last February and which targets younger illustrators by offering training and portfolio review programmes; finally, in Angouleme we will present the very rich programme of our Comics Corner 2025, one of the most successful areas of development at the last editions of BCBF.

AABP: What does BCBF aim to achieve through these events?

Elena: For the past ten years or so, Bologna has been developing a remarkable activity abroad, moving from the concept of a traditional trade fair that meets its community once a year in its exhibition centre to a more dynamic idea of an event that moves, duplicates itself with the intention of taking its contents and especially the contents of its amazing exhibitors around the world. We are very proud that our community has understood and enthusiastically embraces this activity of ours. First of all, I would like to mention that from 2018 we are co-organisers of the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair, the Asian declination of BCBF, with the same flair as Bologna, the same quality of content and a very important international presence interested in copyright exchange with Chinese publishing. Then I am pleased to say that I was recently visiting the Tokyo-Itabashi public library, to which we have been sending the best titles among those participating in the BolognaRagazzi Award for many years. It was wonderful to see how our exhibitors’ books are the beating heart of this library, available to families and schools but also to scholars from all over Japan. I want to mention two important awards we received: in 2018 the Eric Carle Honors in the Bridge category and last year the admission to the International Publishers Association as a Patron Member. These are great satisfactions, which bring BCBF’s name and reputation to the top.

AABP: What events would be of interest to Indian publishing professionals?

Elena: Indian publishing plays an important role in BCBF; recently the publisher Wonder House Books received the BOP – Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year, BCBF’s most prestigious award, while Tara Books received several awards in our other important award, the BolognaRagazzi Award. This year, India was also the focus of BolognaBookPlus, the area dedicated to general publishing. Moreover, BolognaFiere, besides having the company BolognaFiere China in Shanghai, also has the company BolognaFiere India in Mumbai, which is ready to assist all Indian publishers wishing to participate in BCBF. So I would say that the ties between us are very strong, and I therefore believe that each of our initiatives can be of great interest to Indian publishing; I therefore suggest that all publishers, exhibitors and non-exhibitors alike, participate in the BolognaRagazzi Award with their best books, so that they can present the beauty and innovative character of Indian children’s books on the world stage of BCBF.

AABP: Anything else you would like to add: areas in which BCBF is focusing most.

Elena: First of all, I would like to mention BolognaBookPlus, an initiative dedicated precisely to general publishing that substantially expands BCBF’s reach. Linked to this initiative is the new format of the Rights Centre, which is also open to general publishing agents and scouts. Another area we are working intensively on is the Comics Corner, which we launched during the pandemic and which is growing in number year by year, demonstrating how strong the comics and graphic novel sector is worldwide. Another area we are strongly committed to is the TV/FILM Rights Centre, which was set up last year to facilitate dialogue between publishers and audiovisual producers. This year, this rights centre will be joined by the brand new Game Business Centre, which we have created in partnership with Frankfurter Buchmesse with the aim of exploring and facilitating the relationship between publishers and the world of video games.

IBBY International Congress…

IBBY International Congress in Trieste (Italy), is co-organised by BCBF at the end of August. Here,Elena Pasoli, also a member of the IBBY Reading Promotion Award Jury and the IBBY Project Subcomittee, as well as the IBBY Liaison for the International Publishers Association (IPA) Congress 2024, shares more about the IBBY International Congress.

AABP: What was the main theme of this year’s congress?

Elena: According to the title “JOIN THE REVOLUTION – Giving every child good books”, the congress focused mainly on the theme ‘Literature as a driver of change, guaranteeing all children the access to reading and enjoying good books’. This main topic was supported by a number of subthemes that were the subjects of the oral sessions held by many researchers, scholars and reading professionals who submitted their proposals: sea, frontiers, translation, multilingualism, science dissemination, non-fiction; poetry, picture books, silent books; academic research; schools, reading education, reading awareness and public policy, reading as a right, young readers, audience development; diversity, sustainability, inclusion, cultural diversity and social justice.

AABP: Who were the keynote speakers for the event?

Elena: The keynote speakers were Michael Rosen (UK), Stanislas Dehaene (France), Lynne Murray (UK), Kate Nation (UK), Telmo Pievani (Italy), Roberto Piumini (Italy).

AABP: How many sessions or workshops were conducted and what were the main topics covered in the sessions?

Elena: The programme included 31 Oral Sessions, 7 Poster Sessions, 11 Round Tables, 7 Keynote speeches and Lectures, 5 Workshops (2 of which dedicated to Young Readers attending the Congress), 3 Meetings (incl. Mamma Lingua project, IBBY Assembly and Bookbird).

Besides this, there were 3 Award ceremonies (Presentation of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards; IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award Ceremony; IBBY-iRead Awards Ceremony) accompanied by some round tables: a plenary Round Table on Reading Promotion with the participation of the IBBY-Asahi and IBBY-iRead Winners; a parallel Round Table on ‘Reading as a Right – IBBY-Asahi and IBBY-iRead winners present their projects’; the presentation of the IBBY International Honour List.

The congress also presented a number of special exhibitions: ‘Let us begin with children. Books as Bridges – a Tribute to Jella Lepman’; ‘Sailing across oceans of stories and pictures- 100 wonderful books from the BolognaRagazzi Award’; ‘The Italian winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Award: a tribute to Gianni Rodari (HCAA 1970) and Roberto Innocenti (HCAA 2008)’; ‘Join the revolution: the winning posters of the international contest’; ‘The Hans Christian Andersen Award winners’; ‘the IBBYHonour List’; ‘Silent Books: from Lampedusa and back’; ‘2023 Outstanding Books for young people with disabilities’