This year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair saw a 10% increase in foreign visitors, with 1,200 exhibitors attending from 77 countries. In all, attendance increased more than 15% over 2014’s fair, with more than 35,000 total attendees. While the fair is open to industry professionals only, this year it was preceded by a Weekend for Young Readers, in which more than 22,000 children and their families participated in 32 workshops and events, and were able to see the illustrator’s exhibition, and tens of thousands were able to see the exclusive exhibitions, including a retrospective of Alice in Wonderland, celebrating its 150th year in print.
The workshops, classes, author events, and industry seminars hosted 12,000 participants. Next year’s fair will take place from April 4 to 7. A new award, the Strega Ragazzi Prize, will honor a book in the 6-16 age group; the guest country will be Germany.
See our final wrap-up of the news from Bologna in this Thursday’s issue of Children’s Bookshelf.
