A highlight of the Bologna Book Fair is children’s book illustration. There is a wonderful Illustrator’s exhibition in the front hall, which will go on an international tour after the fair closes.

Slovakia was the Guest of Honor country at the illustrators’ exhibition. It was fascinating to see all the Slovakian children’s book illustrations.

Here is a section of the illustrator's wall (around the corner from the exhibition):

  
A close up of the wall.     
 

Illustrators post samples of their work on this long wall, which most people will walk by on their way to the exhibition halls.

A lot of illustrators come to the fair to show their illustrations. Many aspiring illustrators carried around their portfolios and showed their work to publishers. Some booths post hours for illustrators to drop by their samples. (Writers don’t pitch at this fair.)

I have to mention Korea, as their books are having a noticeable influence on the international world of children's literature. The Korean industry is a great example of how publishers work together (with the Korean Publisher's Association). They have a wonderful "collective stand." This year one of the things they did was collect books around themes and display the books thematically.
For example, one theme was tigers and they displayed dozens of books, from many publishers, with tigers on the covers.
Here is the front of a pamphlet they handed out at their stand. (Many stands hand out a flyer that promotes their books. Catalogs are also available.)


The inside of this accordion-folded pamphlet shows 18 pages/illustrations of tigers from different books (about 15 publishers.)  Because of potential copyright issues I won't show a photo of the inside.

I wish more Korean books (and books from other countries around the world) were available in the US. I also wish I had more time to share what I saw about books in different countries.

Which brings me to--
The International Youth Library (Internationale Jugendbibiothek) which had a booth. This is the largest library for international children’s literature in the world with almost 600,000 children's books. Sounds like heaven, doesn't it? They have a huge study library, where most of the books are. (You can apply for a scholarship to study at the library for a few months.) Their booth showed The White Ravens, 250 notable books from around the world which the library selects and showcases. What an incredible selection of books. This library had a must see booth. Plus, it was an easy way to get a view of international children’s books from last year.

(Publishers and writers send in their books--the whole collection is donated. So you might want to make sure your books are in this library. Maybe send them a copy of your book if they don't own it.)

I plan to visit this library while I live in Germany, as it is about 5 hours away in Munich.

Book sightings:

Library Lions (in Spanish, on the right) by Michelle Knudson in the Ediciones ekaré booth--they are a great publisher who is one of the first publishers of children’s books in Latin America.
(Michelle is donating money to her local library, the Brooklyn Public library, for every comment on her blog until midnight Saturday.)

Blessing’s Bead by Debby Dahl Edwardson

Three books on one shelf!
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt, Warriors in the Crossfire by Nancy Bo Flood, and What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman.
Edited to add the other two books by authors I don't know. They are Wiff and Dirty George by Steven Swinburne and According to Kit by Eugenie Doyle.

I want to thank Through the Tollbooth for having me as a guest this week. I’ve had a wonderful time. I'm glad I was able to share my experience at the Bologna Book Fair.

~Sarah

Sarah Blake Johnson

What does the fair look like?
The Bologna Book Fair is held in 5 large exhibition halls. There is also a very spacious entrance area where there are many special displays and events.

Some publishers have huge booths, filled with 20 or 30 small tables, like Penguin publishers. Other publishers have a small booth, about 4 by 4 meters. Sometimes publishers share a booth. For example, the Nordic countries set up a large group booth and each publisher has one area (a table or two in front of a wall where their books are displayed) for meeting buyers. As I've wandered I've seen constant meetings, and even seen a couple contracts signed. Here is a photo of some of the French booths.

        

Agents have a separate area, that is off the beaten track where they can meet with publishers or buyers.

In addition to the booths filled with books, events are constantly held. In the main area is the illustrator’s café, with a small amphitheater. Examples of few events: Shaun Tan, a play from Slovakia (the Guest of Honor Country), Leonard Marcus speaking about Margaret Wise Brown and picture books, and a talk about the development of European children’s literature. There is also an author’s café, a translator’s center, and several other areas where other presentations are held.

Book sightings: a couple books by authors I know.
 
The Crimson Cap by Ellen Howard. 

 
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry. Her book is in the middle shelf section, the middle book in the second shelf up. I wanted to show a typical wall--and this is fairly standard in many booths.
Also on this wall (far left, upper shelf) is The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner.

If I was a book buyer, I’d pick up the book Un Gran Sueño (A Big Dream) published by Kalandraka in Spain. I’m hoping an American publisher buys rights.

    

This book has great illustrations, the right amount of words, a fun story and is a wonderful picture book. I think it is one that American kids would really enjoy, plus I think it is one that would make money for the publisher. The author is Felipe Ugalde, from Mexico.
I've seen so many incredible books from all over the world. It is great to walk around and hear so many languages spoken and to see all the books for children.

I'll be back tomorrow and will wrap up the fair. I'll share a few more book sightings and will share what I've seen that this fair does for artists and illustration of books.

~Sarah

Sarah Blake Johnson

  

Entrance to the fair

I went to two international book award ceremonies yesterday!
IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) announced their 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award winners. David Almond won the author award and Jutta Bauer won the illustrator award. It was cool to see the ceremony. If you aren't familiar with IBBY go check out their website. They are an incredible organization who does a lot of projects throughout the world with literacy.

The prize-giving ceremony for the BolognaRagazzi Awards was held downtown in the Sala Borsa library. Talk about atmosphere.


This library is hundreds of years old. The presentation was held inside an arched room, with painted walls and a roof with curved glass panels. Downtown Bologna has a nice open area with two connected piazzas, surrounded by this library, an unfinished church and palaces.

Tomorrow another important award will be announced in Sweden: the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

These awards are some of the most important international awards given in children’s literature.

Also in the fair:
SCBWI has events planned continuously at their booth.

A popular one was the dueling illustrators with Doug Cushman and John Shelley. Text was read and they had 2 minutes to sketch that scene. Then another segment of text was read. They dueled for over half an hour.

I was able to walk through most of the exhibition halls the first day. They are organized mostly by language and country. I've made a few book sightings--books by authors I know. Though the booths are filled with books, some books, including some that were recently released or will be released soon are not in the publishers' booths because of the way rights work. In many cases agents are here (or have representatives here) and are working on selling rights to other countries.

I'll take more photos and show more of the fair tomorrow.

~Sarah
Sarah Blake Johnson
http://sarahblakejohnson.blogspot.com/

Monday was the SCBWI Bologna Symposium. (SCBWI is the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.) This was an international SCBWI conference which is held every other year in conjunction with the Bologna Book Fair.

There was a stellar line up of speakers, including Steve Mooser, one of the founders of SCBWI. Other speakers included Leonard Marcus, a children's book historian and author. He has served on several award committees, such as the National Book Award, and gave an interesting talk about children’s book awards.

This was my first time hearing Richard Peck speak. He is an incredible speaker! Wow. It was excellent.

 
Me and Richard Peck. We visited for about 20 minutes last night at an evening buffet in a bookstore in downtown Bologna.

Ellen Hopkins spoke to writers and did a workshop, while Frane Lessac did a workshop with the illustrators. There were also First Look and First Pages panels, where illustrations were shown and opening pages read. Agents and editors and art directors gave feedback. It was interesting to hear so many pages so quickly and to hear and see the agents' reactions.

A panel of seven publishers talked about publishing today, which was fascinating as they ranged from Gita Wolf of Tara Books whose company in India makes handmade books to Stephen Roxburgh of Namelos who has a new publishing model.

I got to meet Gita Wolf, a publisher, in person, which was nice as I did an interview with her for the conference about a month ago.

 

Her amazing book, Do!, received the prestigious
New Horizons BolognaRagazzi Award.
Do! is a work of art.



The symposium was a fairly intimate conference, which made it easy to meet and visit with all those who presented (authors, agents, editors) as well as all the other writers and illustrators. I’d estimate about 100 people or so were in attendance. Writers and illustrators came from all over the world, from places as far away as South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, and Brazil.

In the comments yesterday olmue  asked about how it works to buy a book in a foreign language and if ARCs (advanced reader copies of the book) are read at the fair. I'm sure each publisher and editor and scout does it a little different, but if a book is "hot" and competition is intense, they will take the ARC back to their hotel room and read at night. Many books are taken home and read later.

As to books in foreign languages--there are summaries available, plus the agent or publisher will pitch the book to the publishers or buyers. Often there are book summaries/pitches on flyers or in catalogs. For a picture book, the publisher will sometimes tape the English words in the book. I saw this at the Frankfurt Book Fair with some Thai books.

Tomorrow--Day One of the fair:
I'll explore the fair and spend some time at the SCBWI booth, which is a place for those at the conference to gather, as well as a place to showcase SCBWI authors and illustrators. The next conference is in two years. Coming to Bologna is a good way to attend a great SCBWI conference as well as visit the Bologna Fair. If you are a writer or illustrator, consider coming in 2012.

I arrived in Bologna yesterday evening. After meeting some members of SCBWI (who I'd never met before) in downtown Bologna I headed to my hotel to check in.

This is what I saw:
                                                         

I was  recently asked, what is the Bologna Book Fair? 
Who attends?
What does it mean to readers and authors all over the world?

The Bologna Fair is all about kids’ books.
Other fairs such as Frankfurt and London show the whole range of books. But Bologna is unique. It focuses on books and other media for children.

This fair is a rights fair. That means Bologna is where those involved in publishing come and look at each other’s books and buy and sell. A lot of deals are signed the week before the fair and many more deals happen during the fair. Publishers, editors, agents, authors, illustrators, and others come here from all over the world.

Last year people came from 67 countries. The Bologna Book Fair says it is the “most important international event dedicated to the children’s publishing and multimedia industry.”

For those in the United States and Canada, the Bologna Fair means that publishers will buy books from countries all over the world, translate them into English and bring them to your bookstore. This is exciting to me. It means I’ll be able to buy a book written by someone in China or Brazil or Finland or another country and see the world from their perspective. It also means some of our favorite books in the US will be translated into foreign languages and will be read by children in many countries.

I visited the Frankfurt Book Fair last fall and was eyeing many books that I wanted to read in English. (I wished I was able to acquire books--there were a few that I felt would do really well in the American market.) At Frankfurt the children’s publishers were scattered. They won’t be here in Bologna. I plan to walk through the entire fair, but I also made a list of some publishing companies I don’t want to miss. 

Today, I'll be busy at the conference all day. At some point I need to go out and buy an Italian adaptor for my Mac--so I can use my computer all week, check my e-mail and come to the Tollbooth.

Tomorrow, I’ll share highlights from the SCBWI Symposium which is being held today. I hope to have a few more photos to share, more than the one in the post today. Today is also the day publishers are setting up their booths.

Hope you are able to join me.

~Sarah
Sarah Blake Johnson

 

Tomorrow is the SCBWI Bologna Symposium- with children's editors, agents, and experts from around the world speaking and critiquing (including my fabulous agent Sarah Davies from The Greenhouse Agency. The Bologna Children's Book Fair starts Tuesday and runs through the week.

And special contributor Sarah Blake Johnson be blogging for the Tollbooth live from the fair!

In the meantime, how about a nice dish of pasta Bolognese, recipe courtesy of Mario Batali!

~tami lewis brown

Hi. I’m Sarah Blake Johnson.
I’ll be in the Tollbooth next week blogging about the Bologna Book Fair and the SCBWI Bologna Symposium.
I want to thank Through The Tollbooth for having me here as their guest.

I plan to post photos, share info about the fair, highlight some publishers in the international community, discover some new authors and illustrators, and explore Bologna.

I’m excited to share my experience with you.

Join me next week while I look at the international scene of kids’ books.