Bologna 2018

By Yvonne Gilbert

Some of the highlights from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair last year, 2018, which have inspired the three of us to return again this year. Always stimulating, always exciting (always exhausting!), it is the only arena where it is possible to see the entire world’s output of children’s publishing in one place, where the best writing and the best design and illustration shine off the stands and inspire the rest of us to work even harder.

 If you live in the world of book production as we do then you MUST go to the fair and judge for yourself what is good and what is even better; it’s the only opportunity most of us will ever have to see all of these books and if you’re lucky even buy some of them.

Of course Bologna itself is a magical place to go even without the book fair; ‘the stomach of Italy’ is renowned for its cuisine, medieval towers and porticoed streets. Art and culture is everywhere you look.

While you are in Bologna

We recommend a trip to the fabulous children’s book shop Libreria Giannino Stoppani in the Via Rizzoli. It is like no other and here you can buy some of the best books on offer at the Fair. If you are like us there is always enough room in the bottom of your carry-on for a volume or two.

Last year we bought the beautiful ‘Cattivi Come Noi’ by Clotilde Perrin and published by Franco Cosimo Panini; ISBN 978-88-570-11-40-0

Another must have

Was ‘Egittomania’ by Emma Giuliani and Carole Saturno published by Franco Cosimo Panini; ISBN 978-88-570-1269-8