Bologna Children's Book Fair. An interview with Elena Pasoli
The motto of Italy Guest of Honour in Frankfurt 2024 is 'Roots in the future', a future that is in the hands of children and young people today. How have the tastes of today’s young people changed, seen from a privileged vantage like the Bologna Children’s Book Fair?
BCBF is a privileged vantage, especially thanks to the BolognaRagazzi Awards, aimed at highlighting the most beautiful and innovative illustrated books published internationally in the recent period, based on criteria such as graphic/editorial quality, innovation and the ability to engage with young readers. The awards are presented annually, before the Fair, by a changing international jury of publishing experts. Nominations come from around the world, not just from the publishers exhibiting in Bologna, and are showing continued growth, with a record 3,355 nominations this year. Through this overview of the world’s publishing – consisting of the titles of all publishers proposed by each participating publisher – the Fair is able to identify publishing trends and how they evolve over time. An example above all is sustainability. We have seen the ecological theme enter and evolve in children’s and young people's books for years, but in 2024 it has broken out like never before, with a change of perspective that puts man and nature in a new egalitarian relationship, spurred by a present situation that is raising a clear alarm. After the call to save the world in recent years, the books now call to save the world together. Or women: after years of telling stories about the female figures that made a difference, their role, and how they changed history, they now fill the pages of children’s stories organically, without having to appear as exceptions. Children’s books have always been big precursors to issues that are crucial to society.
Publishing saved by children: a success, but also a great responsibility?
The Fair has always seen its role as not just promoting the international exchange of publishing rights in the children’s and young people's sector, but as a real player on the world stage of children’s publishing. In this sense, in addition to its rights centres, BCBF organises a series of initiatives aimed at bringing the discussion around key topics of contemporary and future publishing to the forefront. This year in particular, conferences, roundtables and discussions took place around topics such as artificial intelligence, sustainability (also thanks to the new collaboration with the United Nations), the role of minorities (from indigenous to African and African-American communities), cultural diversity in the face of an increasingly globalised publishing market, the fundamental importance of childhood literature, and many more. The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is also a founding member of the Italian section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), the created after the end of the Second World War to promote reading and the best editorial content among children and young people, in the belief that the road to building a more inclusive and human-scaled society passes through books.
The Bologna Fair was born in 1964 through the will of publisher Sergio Giunti, who believed that children’s books were not considered enough at the Frankfurt Book Fair. What relationships exist today, after sixty years, between the two events?
The Bologna Fair was created in 1964 at the request of the then Autonomous Entity of the Bologna Fair (now BolognaFiere), at the suggestion of the publisher Giunti. The intention was to offer more space for the exchange of children’s and young people's book rights than was reserved as part of the Frankfurt Fair. Bologna already had a strong educational tradition at the time, and from the very beginning it was the ideal location – a winning gamble – because although there was still no airport at the time, but only a military runway, American editors were present from the first edition and Japanese editors from the second, as well as all the Europeans. Over 60 years of history, BCBF has always been committed to maintaining and expanding its international reach, offering space to more and more countries and cultures less represented on the world’s publishing landscape. It has thus established itself as a leader in the sector, and over the years it has also created the two 'sister' fairs, BolognaBookPlus – dedicated to adult literature and organised in collaboration with the Italian Publishers Association AIE – and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids – reserved for licensing content for children and young people.
In recent years, with the BolognaGrand Tour initiative, also made possible thanks to the support of the Agency for the Foreign Promotion and Internationalising of Italian Businesses (ICE) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the three Bologna fairs have brought even more content and relationships to Frankfurt, with a wonderful welcome. In addition, the Bologna Fair will showcase the most interesting young Italian illustrators as part of the Italy Guest of Honour programme at the Frankfurt Fair.
What are the most innovative publishing initiatives that emerged from this year’s Bologna Fair?
The new TV/Film Rights Centre is certainly one of the highlights of 2024, a space created to promote meetings between publishers and producers in the audiovisual sector, which has already been popular with BCBF exhibitors since this first edition. The publishers have launched a number of initiatives that testify to the reactive approach the publishing industry takes to embraces contemporaneity: from new challenges dictated by artificial intelligence to content that tries to respond to the ever faster demand for usable products dictated by social media. Numerous cross-media proposals have come in from publishers all over the world, making it increasingly clear how in publishing, especially for children and young people, that the plurality of media is essential and has now been integrated into the proposal. Again, many proposals have emerged that represent the publishers’ commitment to topics such as diversity, inclusion and accessibility of books.
Children's publishing is flourishing in numbers, but in people's imaginations, it always looks like it's in Serie B. Why is this the case? Is this an Italian phenomenon or does it also affect other countries? What initiatives could change this perception?
Children’s books are works, cultural products of authors, illustrators and communicators of extraordinary skill. The publishers who publish them express pedagogical thinking in the most noble sense of the term. Pedagogy accompanies the little ones of the human species as they grow to gradually discover the world through knowledge, the endless connections among branches of knowledge. Knowing that they are at the service of human ability to interpret, to acquire consciousness. That’s why girls’ and boys’ books go hand in hand with the highest level of awareness; they tell us what the problems are and prefigure answers to try to solve them. Thus, they often anticipate topics that then flow into adult literature. That’s why it’s a big mistake to consider them the 'Cinderella' of the world of books (quoted here by the great Professor Faeti), all the more so since the performance of this segment in the publishing market worldwide is excellent every year. However, I see a certain tendency for poor consideration not only in Italy... . It's a very interesting topic, which we will also discuss internationally at the IBBY World Congress, which will be held in Trieste, at the end of August. But things are changing, as demonstrated by the success of publishing initiatives such as the Corriere della Sera's 'Girls' and Boys' Reading', as well as the multiplication of literary awards dedicated to books for young readers and the many initiatives promoted by the Centre for Books and Reading. Giving the children’s and young people's sector the right emphasis in institutional spaces and communication, on a par with the generalist publishing, is also very important for increasing the number of readers in our country. As Rodari said, reading is a sixth sense that must be planted, cared for and watered.
How can we reconcile the need to deal with social issues that are challenging but important for young people – for example, bullying, eating disorders, racism, etc. - with the new dictates of sensitivity reading?
Although you sometimes find yourself feeling a bit 'uncomfortable' in the face of the countless calls that come from 'sensitivity reading', I believe that this attention is a great conquest of civilisation, and as such, I think it's an extremely important help and guidance even in dealing correctly with the most challenging social issues.
Booktoker: a transient phenomenon or a structural revolution in the promotion of children’s books?
The world of book promotion in new media is certainly an important topic for the publishing market. Publishers around the world have been confronted for years with these new voices – which have certainly been helpful in the launch of some new titles or grand classics that have resurfaced in the newer generations – and with new communication targets. BCBF, in its role as a catalyst for the international publishing debate, is attentive to the phenomenon in the knowledge that this (but also voices on social media in general) is subject to rapid and multiform evolution. Starting from a mere promotional role, Booktokers are taking on different roles in the publishing chain, imposing new ways of use, new forms and new content on publishing products.
Mandatory question: will the images created by artificial intelligence put illustrators’ work in crisis?
This is certainly a very important topic at this time. As Bologna Children’s Book Fair, we are used to asking crucial questions for the industry and the market, because, as I said, artificial intelligence was one of the main themes of the 2024 edition of BCBF and BolognaBookPlus, investigated from various perspectives: whether talking about marketing strategies and print and content creation processes to a deep dive into how AI is transforming various aspects of publishing, from innovative solutions to practical insights, both by thinking about copyright protection aspects within generative AI and finally trying to focus on new generations and how they interact differently than previous generations to AI and how new media can transform the printed page and redefine learning. I don't think that the art and creativity behind the work of the illustrator can really be undermined by artificial intelligence, but I do think there are big knots and big issues related to the issue of copyright that need to be worked on intensively at an international level.
The image of Italy Guest of Honour 2024 in Frankfurt was created by Lorenzo Mattotti; who are the other most popular Italian illustrators abroad?
With the series of exhibitions Eccellenze Italiane [Italian Excellence] exhibitions BCBF wanted to tell the world about the best of Italian illustration, which gave rise to a new face of the illustrated book for children and represents the best of Italian illustration for them. With Illustrazione per ragazzi. Eccellenze italiane [Illustration for Children. Italian Excellence] opened in Madrid in November 2015 and then toured the world. We have gathered many of these names: from Lorenzo Mattotti to Beatrice Alemagna, Anna and Elena Balbusso, Chiara Carrer, Mara Cerri, Sara Fanelli, Philip Giordano, Roberto Innocenti, Federico Maggioni, Giovanni Manna, Simona Mulazzani, Simone Rea, Sergio Ruzzier, Arianna Vairo, Alessandro Sanna, Guido Scarabottolo, Pia Valentinis, Olimpia Zagnoli.
BCBF always keeps a privileged eye and a special focus on national excellence. The 2024 edition of the Fair hosted several meetings aimed at highlighting the comparison between Italian and foreign markets through the experience of young illustrators who have met particular success abroad, from Matteo Berton to Bianca Bagnarelli, and from Sarah Mazzetti to Felicita Sala.
In view of Italy’s participation as Guest of Honour in Frankfurt, what are some suggestions for the best presentation of children’s publishing?
I believe that the success of our titles abroad is the best proof that we don't need any particular tactics to present ourselves in the best possible way. I am very pleased that the Italian programme in Frankfurt has an important space for children’s publishing, and I am sure that this very important event will open up new paths and light new sparks in the wonderful work that our editors do.