The Bologna Children’s Book Fair: Day One – Exhibits

The General Rule for Bologna: There is gelato, but the magical stand that sells it will never appear when you truly want/need it. It’s like the anti-Room of Requirement.

There is a reason the Bologna Book Fair lasts for a number of days. To cram everything into a single one would be madness (or, at the very least, incredibly exhausting). Having spent my first day split between booths, exhibits, and panel discussions, I’m opting to begin today with a look at one or two of the ongoing exhibits.

First and foremost, if you do ever intend to attend Bologna’s Book Festival, come early. I had a marvelous time with this first exhibit thanks in large part to having the whole space to myself first thing.

The first exhibit I’d like to introduce you to is the Illustrators Exhibit. This is a massive collection of art, carefully selected, from all around the world. This exhibit tends to leave Bologna after the fair to go to museums across Japan, South Korea, and finally into China where it’s presented in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.

Please understand that this is just a small selection of what’s on display:

I was able to flip through a copy of ON THE UNFORTUNATE LIFE OF WORMS later that day and discovered that it was a small size with a large page count. Would not have assumed that from the size of the art.

Now here’s a different exhibit, but also really neat. In 2021, artist Pei-Hsin Cho was the winner of Bologna’s 2021 International Award for Illustration out of 3,200 submissions. The accolade was established in 2009 for illustrators who are younger than 35 and comes with a $10,000 purse and a publishing contract. Since Cho won in 2021, she got to have a full display this year.

As you might imagine, there is a LOT going on, and I’m having a hard time keeping up. So from here on in, I’ll try doing smaller micro posts to keep things moving. More soon!

Filed under: Bologna Children's Book Fair