Waiting for the 59th Bologna Children’s Book Fair, from 21 to 24 March in the city’s exhibition center, there are over 2200 candidate titles from 62 countries and regions of the world for the BolognaRagazzi Award – BRAW 2022.
Finally back in attendance, together with the event, which brings the best of illustration and publishing trends for children and young people to Bologna, the new extension BolognaBookPlus will take place, aimed at generalist publishing and created in collaboration with AIE Associazione Italiana Editori , and at the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair / Kids.
The continent of Africa makes its debut
BRAW 2022 is an initiative that sees an increase of 365 books compared to 2020, the last pre-Covid edition of the award, and of 630 compared to 2021.
Numbers that confirm the importance of the scouting activity of the 59th Bologna Children’s Book Fair which always discovers new publishers, new authors and illustrators, new creatives.
In fact, the number of countries and regions participating in the award is also growing, 20 more than the 42 of the two previous editions. As evidence of how the difficulties of the pandemic have made this sector even more lively.
These include Denmark, Hong Kong (which stands out with 5 publishers), Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, the Philippines, Romania, and Africa. This continent is now arriving in Bologna for the first time with publishers from South Africa, Mozambique and Egypt.
Among the traditional categories into which the books in competition are divided: Fiction, Non Fiction, First Work (reserved for first-time authors), Comics and the special category dedicated this year, for the second time, to Poetry.
In particular, Opera Prima is growing, with over 150 titles, while Fiction is once again confirmed as the richest, with over 1200 proposals.
To complete the possibilities offered by the BolognaRagazzi Award also New Horizons, a special prize available to the jury for works that stand out for the innovative nature of the proposal.
On display the best proposals
For the first time in this edition, 59th Bologna Children’s Book Fair www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com, in addition to the traditional showcases of the winning and mentioned books, dedicates the exhibition The Braw Amazing Bookshelf to the best books nominated for the BolognaRagazzi Award. The aim is to offer a fair amount of visibility to the numerous worthy proposals.
100 titles will be selected from the finalists in the various categories (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Opera Prima, Comics, Poetry) that will be exhibited at the fair and available to be browsed, read and discovered by the professional public.