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An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: BOLOGNA BOOK FAIR 2016 – TRENDS IN ILLUSTRATION

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splendid and highly recommended look back at this year’s Bologna by Dianne Hofmeyr

I couldn’t help but be struck by the vibe of Bologna. Art students flood the halls carrying portfolios and in the afternoons, it’s open house for them to show their work to publishers. Students line up in queues snaking through the halls, in the hope of being the next best discovery. How hard it must be for acquisition teams as they sift through the work and how hard for the students. But there’s hope! The picture book won’t die.

via An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: BOLOGNA BOOK FAIR 2016 – TRENDS IN ILLUSTRATION – Dianne Hofmeyr.

Bologna Children’s Book Fair, 4 – 7 April 2016

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The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the venue and the event in the calendar for all those working in children’s content today, and ACHUKA wishes all those attending next week a successful and enjoyable trip.

Chris Riddell has already sharpened his sketching pencils:

Ready for Bologna…

A photo posted by Chris Riddell (@chris_riddell) on


http://www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it/en/the-fair/bologna-childrens-book-fair-4-7-april-2016/5656.html

Early Impressions from a Busy, Sunny Bologna Book Fair

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Amid its warmest weather in years, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair got off to a strong start on Monday, with most of the agents, editors, and rights managers PW spoke with finding it to be a positive, active fair, though no single title had yet risen to be a “book of the fair.”

“The mood’s very good. The weather always helps,” said Jon Anderson, evp and publisher of children’s books at Simon & Schuster. “We’re seeing our fair share of ‘What is the next big thing that’s not like everything else?’ ” Holly Hunnicutt, deputy director of subsidiary rights at Macmillan Children’s Book Group, added, “Coming from the winter, the sun has just been so nice. Everyone is happy and cheerful, and I’m getting offers at the fair, so that’s always good.”

via Bologna 2015: Early Impressions from a Busy, Sunny Fair.

Charles Kim on Judging the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition

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Each year, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair hosts a highly competitive Illustrators Exhibition. More than 3,000 professional and amateur illustrators from sixty-two countries send in their art for consideration. A five-person jury consisitng of illustrators, academics, publishers, and editors, selects seventy-five to eighty artists to include in the exhibition.

I had never seen 15,000 original works on paper at once, and panicked slightly. I wasn’t the only juror to do so. But the exhibition managers, well versed in the art of dividing and conquering, had sorted the works into very helpful categories, such as the country of the submitting artist, or whether the artist was previously published or unpublished. Submissions made by art schools and publishers on behalf of their artists occupied separate areas on one side of the room.

Being one of the less than 2.5% of entrants chosen for the exhibition is not only an honor, it can change the illustrator’s life forever. Over the course of four days, 45,000 thousand people—publishers and editors, agents, authors, illustrators, students, and the public, young and old—roam the exhibition galleries, which sit in the middle of the enormous yet intimate fair. Hundreds of illustrators, some of them coming out of complete obscurity, leave the exhibition with book contracts.

via Charles Kim on Judging the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition.

All The Fun Of The Fair – Bologna 2014: Photos from the Fair from PW

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Children’s book publishers, agents, authors, and artists from around the world descended on Bologna, Italy, this week for the 51st annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair. While official attendance figures aren’t yet available, program director Roberta Chinni told PW that she was "very happy" with attendance and that the publishers she had spoken with were pleased with the number of appointments and overall energy of the fair. For those who couldn’t attend, here’s an overview of the fair in photos.

Click through for the gallery
via Bologna 2014: Photos from the Fair.

Bologna 2014: Realism Surging, Dystopia Declining

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Another report from Bogona on the ris of realism and the fall of dystopia:

I’ve been coming [to Bologna] for 12 to 15 years, and I’ve never had as many European publishers asking for middle-grade,” said Steven Chudney of the Chudney Agency. In terms of realistic YA fiction, one of Chudney’s major titles is Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay, which HarperCollins will publish in 2015; German rights to the project have sold.

 

“There will be room again in the market for realistic YA, especially with the Fault in Our Stars and If It Stay movies coming out later this year,” said agent Brenda Bowen of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. She added that she’s “pleased” with the picture book market, too. “We’re selling foreign rights, and people are still looking for them.”

Alexander Slater, foreign rights agent at Trident Media Group, also felt that “contemporary realism” is having a moment, with “international publishers moving away from fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal.” On the middle-grade side, Trident represents R.J. Palacio, and Slater said that the Wonder phenomenon continues to grow (rights have sold in 40 territories). Thus, he said there had been “definite interest” in the author’s follow-up book, 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Brown’s Book of Precepts, which is due out from Random House in late August.

And David Fickling has been there with his own special agenda:

British publisher David Fickling, whose company went independent last year, was back in Bologna after a three-year absence, with a backpack filled with books. “I’ve got five fantastic novels I’m shopping,” he said. He wants to publish for all age ranges, and one category he’s excited about publishing is nonfiction: “I want to bring the effort that people put into picture books into nonfiction,” he said.

via Bologna 2014: Realism Reigns.

Macmillan acquires Scheherazade novel at Bologna

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Venetia Gosling seals two-book deal in a six-figure sum for a “dark fantasy”:

Macmillan Children’s Books has paid a six-figure sum for the UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, of a new YA novel from E K Johnston, in a buy made at the Bologna Book Fair.
A Thousand Nights is a dark fantasy which tells the story of Scheherazade and was only sent out on submission in the UK last week.
Fiction publishing director Venetia Gosling made a pre-empt offer for the rights for two books to Caroline Walsh for David Higham, sub-agents for Adams Literary in the US.
“A Thousand Nights took me totally by surprise, it didn’t fit any of the obvious criteria I was looking for, but it just stood out a mile,” said Gosling.

via MCB acquires Scheherazade novel at Bologna | The Bookseller.

Bologna: ice-cream and middle-grade

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Charlotte Eyre reports from Bologna for The Bookseller – “hot middle-grade is still the dream acquisition” apparently…
oh, and its’ rather cold, but the ice cream is as good as ever:

So far in the fair (day two), no-one has struck a deal to match last year’s record-breaking Half Bad from Penguin, but most people have pointed out that the fair is as busy, if not busier, than last year. As one rights manager said to me, ‘Just look at the queues for the ladies loo.’
Many publishers have stressed the international reach of the fair, doing business with companies from Asia, America and South America. France, Germany and Brazil are still big buyers but some publishers said that countries which suffered a downturn in their publishing businesses, such as Italy and Greece, are now back making deals.
A hot middle-grade title is still the dream acquisition for many and Puffin is selling rights for its humorous middle-grade debut, The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones by Will Mabbitt, about a girl who finds herself on a pirate ship, all over the place. And Bloomsbury is really excited by Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp, which it had sold rights for in 10 languages before the show even began.
A lot of people are not quite so excited by YA, hinting that the market is quite saturated with teen books, but some YA deals are big enough to get excited about, such as Macmillan’s six-figure E K Johnston acquisition.
The buzz around single books would suggest that the trend for series fiction is declining and as a Random House US publisher has said, even if books nowadays are part of a series, they have to still read as standalone books.
There is little talk of digital from mainstream publishers – it’s not that digital isn’t important, but Bologna doesn’t seem to be the place where they want to explore it – but the presence of app developers and software creators, and the Digital Café, shows that innovation is still happening.

via Bologna: ice-cream and middle-grade | The Bookseller.

BolognaRagazzi Award 2014 winners

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2014 WINNERS OF THE “BolognaRagazzi Award”:

 

FICTION

Le Noël de Marguerite

Text by India Desjardins, illustrations by Pascal Blanchet

La Pastèque, Montreal, Canada, 2013

What the Jury said

Blanchet’s artwork draws on early to mid 20th Century Americana referencing advertising material and popular motifs of the period. Elegant and stylish, the book is consistent and integrated throughout in its visual language. Although executed with great technical skill, the visual narrative goes deeper than mere stylistic bravura. It is the artist’s exceptional command of light and atmosphere that takes the book beyond the merely fashionable. The story of loneliness and melancholy is developed through glimpses of interior and exterior worlds and the powerful visual resonance of everyday objects and empty spaces. The central character’s emotional journey is illuminated throughout by gentle shafts of light, both natural and man-made. The book exudes warmth without ever falling into sentimentality. The narrative takes place to a backdrop of silently falling snow that gradually fades away as we reach conclusion. Carefully considered patterned endpapers enclose and wrap the book, completing the understated Christmas message. The excellence of concept, design and execution convinced the Jury that this was the outstanding book in the Fiction category.

 

NON-FICTION

MajnAlefBeif

Text byJehoszueKamiński, illustrations byUrszulaPalusińska

ZydowskieStowarz y Szenieczulent, Krakow, Poland, 2012

What the Jury said

A stunningly produced alphabet of Yiddish poems, this book instantly united the Jury as the outright winner for the Non-Fiction category. The strikingly muscular imagery is executed in a manner that is reminiscent of woodblock printing, featuring bold, flat colour and crude surface texture. Each spread is beautifully designed in terms of weight and distribution of shapes on the page. This is a striking, graphically literate work that is both modern and traditional in feel. The large scale of the book perfectly accommodates the drama of its contents and every aspect of its production has been given the utmost attention.

 

NEW HORIZONS

La chica de polvo

Text and illustrations byJung Yumi

ReyNaranjoEditores – Bogota, Colombia

Produced by Culture Platform, Seoul, South Korea

 

What the Jury said

This powerful, silent visual sequence is in the form of the book version of an animated film. Its compelling black and white imagery quietly tells the story of an apparently ordinary life in intense detail. Tiny moments in time are described across numerous pages, slowed down almost to a standstill with scrupulous attention to the most apparently insignificant of everyday objects. The author sustains the same level of intense focus throughout this epic journey, convincing the Jury that this is a work of exceptional creative ambition.

 

OPERA PRIMA

HalensHistorie

Text byYulia Horst, illustrations byDaria Rychkova

CappelenDamm – Oslo, Norway, 2013

What the Jury said

The Jury felt that this was an astonishingly mature and culturally literate debut. The book explores the proposal, ‘what would the world be like if we all had tails?’ Every aspect of life and relationships is explored in relation to this theme. Lovers gently and coyly entwine their tails, athletes build up their tail muscles in the gym while punks carefully groom theirs into the requisite spikey shapes. The artist skips between colour and black and white, drawing with an eye for anecdotal detail human interaction.

 

2014 SPECIAL MENTIONS OF THE “BolognaRagazzi Award”:

 

FICTION

The promise

Text byNicola Davies, illustrations byLaura Carlin

Walker Books Ltd., London, United Kingdom, 2013

What the Jury said

The Promise describes a journey from dark to light, from urban to organic. Laura Carlin’s illustrations take us from the darkest urban landscape into a world of radiant colour and hope, all the time finding pattern and rhythm in the visual. A deeply lyrical and poetic book in which harmony comes to the fore both literally and metaphorically.

 

Die Katzen von Kopenhagen

Text byJames Joyce, illustrations byWolf Erlbruch

Carl HanserVerlag GmbH & Co. KG,Munich,Germany,2013  

What the Jury said

Taking James Joyce’s anecdotal observations of Copenhagen as the starting point, Wolf Erlbruch’s raw, expressive drawings lead us through a world of cycling, smoking fish, pickpockets, indolent policemen and thieving cats. These superficially childlike but highly visually literate drawings perfectly complement the text.

 

L’ombre de chacun

Text and illustrations byMélanieRutten

Editions MeMo, Nantes, France, 2013 

 

What the Jury said

A flowing, expressive line and delicate transparent washes characterize Rutten’s highly individual visual language. She creates a world of anthropomorphic creatures and walking books that are somehow immediately convincing as they lead us into their bizarre world, a world that is nevertheless full of warmth and friendship.

 

IssunBôshi

Text and illustrations byIcinori

ActesSud Junior, Paris, France, 2013

 

What the Jury said

Bold, brash colours are layered in woodcut style in this story of a tiny person in a world of giants. Beautifully designed with well-considered use of white space to highlight extremes of scale, the book present a highly theatrical ancient Japanese aesthetic. This is a sumptuously rich, abundant book that teems with life.

 

NON-FICTION

Josephine

Text byPatricia Hruby Powell, illustrations byChristian Robinson

Chronicle Books, San Francisco,United States of America,2014

What the Jury said

The exotic story of Josephine Baker is told in suitably rich, painterly visual style. The artist’s vibrant use of colour and texture is used as a backdrop to an extensive text. Playful brushstrokes create vibrant movement, shapes and period motifs that evoke the jazz era in all its colour and drama.

 

Dottoko Zoo

Illustrations by Norio Nakamura

FukuinkanShoten Publishers, Inc.– Tokyo, Japan, 2012

What the Jury said

This is a graphically witty walk through the zoo, an experiment in the abstraction of shapes into the fewest number of pixels possible to allow identification. A highly sophisticated graphic puzzle, a tour de force of composition and minimalism designed to stretch the mind and the eye.

 

Mar

Text byRicardo Henriques, illustrations by André Letria

PatoLógicoEdicões – Lisbon, Portugal, 2012

What the Jury said

The design and illustration of this book echoes perfectly its nautical theme. Type and image are beautifully integrated across the page using only black and a second colour, blue. The artist exploits contrasts of scale effectively. Huge sea creatures do battle with tiny vessels. Lighthouses send out their beams of light across the page. The culture of the sea is covered in all its many aspects, including facts, figures and folklore in this highly satisfying graphic experience.

 

 

NEW HORIZONS

Do not open this book!

Text byFatima Sharafeddine, illustrations byFereshtehNajafi

Kalimat – Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

What the Jury said

This richly decorative, unfolding concertina book from the United Arab Emirates presents two sides of a child’s consciousness. On one side we follow his uneventful, everyday experience whilst on the other, rich hot colours lead us into his alternative world of fantasy and imagination. The artist demonstrates a strong personal visual vocabulary of heavily textured brushwork and distinctive, confident use of colour.

 

CollccíonPoesíaIllustrada

EditorialAmanuta, Santiago, Chile, 2012 

What the Jury said

This distinctive series of picturebooks from Chile features a well-integrated approach to design and illustration, employing a range of illustrative idioms that are unified by a strong overall sense of design and ‘brand’. A well-considered and sensitive approach to typography is flexible and adaptable to the varying illustrative styles. The uncoated cardboard covers are printed with rich screen print inks that glow against the coarse surface. The jury agreed that this was a series of books of clear graphic distinction.

 

OPERA PRIMA

Voir le jour

Text and illustrations byEmma Giuliani

Editions des GrandesPersonnes – Paris, France, 2013

 

What the Jury said

This elegantly simple, unfolding concertina book invites us to look beyond the monochrome to find the hidden colours of everyday life. A book full of little surprises that reveal and illuminate the cycle of life in an understated yet highly effective manner.

 

The hair

Text and illustrations bySooyoung Kim

Somebooks – Seoul, South Korea, 2013

What the Jury said

Sooyung Kim creates an intense and disturbing world in this handcrafted production. The book explores themes of alienation and ‘difference’. The suffering and pain of the central character in transition is described with powerful drama and intensity. A strong left to right linear dynamic heightens the sense of the character’s physical and metaphorical journey. Disturbing and enigmatic, this is a highly compelling debut.

 

Зіркиімаковізернята (Stars and Poppy Seeds)

Text and illustrations byRomanaRomanyshynandAndriyLesiv

VydavnytastvoStarogo Leva (The Old Lion Publishing House) – Lviv, Ukraine, 2013

What the Jury said

The theme of mathematics is explored in this narrative of a girl’s desire to count everything in the world. Each page becomes a pattern of numbers and shapes, dots and symbols in a flowing collage of the visual accoutrements of scientific knowledge. The central character playfully interacts with the objects of her obsession across the pages. The medium of digital collage is used with assurance, successfully integrating found graphic material and hand-rendered marks.

 

http://www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=2234