From October 16 to 20, Frankfurter Children’s Book Fair (scheduled to take place in Bologna from March 31 to April 3, 2025) will be present at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the world’s leading event dedicated to professionals in the generalist book industry, where this year Italy is the Guest of Honor country; in fact, the event will have a booth dedicated to its International Grand Tour and the illustration exhibition “Young Pencils Between Illustration and Comics.”
The Grand Tour makes a stop in Germany
The German city in fact represents the second stop of the fourth edition of the Bologna Grand Tour, a traveling itinerary in collaboration with ICE-Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Through the tour, the Bologna fair brings to the world a showcase of the best of its initiatives, strengthening both the relationship with foreign operators and with Italian publishing in view of the next edition of the fair.
Once again for this edition, Frankfurter Children’s Book Fair is accompanied on its tour by BolognaBookPlus (BBPlus), the initiative aimed at generalist publishers realized in collaboration with AIE – Italian Publishers Association, and by Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids (BLTF/Kids), dedicated to the relationship between the publishing and licensing worlds.
Bcbf’s initiatives.
Among the initiatives scheduled at the Buchmesse, the exhibition “Ibby Italia 2024. A Selection of Italian Books,” a selection of 65 children’s books chosen by the Italian section of IBBY – International Board on Books for Young People, among the best published in Italy in the last two years (2023/24). On the occasion of Italy Guest of Honor in Frankfurt, the exhibition presents a special section of “books about books.” That is, a category designed for those interested in furthering the study and promotion of children’s literature.
Another major event at the Frankfurter Children’s Book Fair – https://www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/home/878.html – is “Matite giovani tra illustrazione e fumetto,” the only illustration exhibition in the Guest of Honor Country program, set up in the Italian Pavilion and dedicated to young talents in contemporary Italian illustration. A position matured thanks to more than sixty years of experience in the field of children’s and young people’s publishing, and through initiatives that have now become historical and appreciated all over the world.
Curated by Accademia Drosselmeier and organized at the BolognaFiere/Bologna Children’s Book Fair/BolognaBookPlus in collaboration with AIE, the exhibition stems from the desire to offer the world’s publishers gathered at Buchmesse a window on contemporary Italian illustration through the works of 30 young talents.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual magazine/catalog, a collection of texts, reflections and interviews with the illustrators, as well as a conversation between Ivan Canu – among the curators of the selection – and Lorenzo Mattotti (author, among others, of the poster for Italia Ospite d’Onore) that will be distributed free of charge to the Frankfurt audience.