Each year, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair honors a half dozen publishers with the BOP – Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year. The award, created in collaboration with the Italian Publishers Association and the International Publishers Association, recognizes the best publishers from six regions worldwide: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, and Oceania.

The winners for 2025, the 13th edition of the award, were announced on Monday, March 31, at a ceremony at Palazzo Re Enzo, in Bologna’s historic Piazza Maggiore. The event included the presentation of the BolognaRagazzi Awards, with a special plaque given to Gallimard Jeunesse, founded by Pierre Marchand. The most awarded publisher in the 60 years of the prize, it has received 24 awards—10 winners and 14 special mentions—dating back to 1979.

“We are very grateful for this recognition, which highlights the values we share with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair: offering children the very best books, and fostering cultural exchanges,” said Hedwige Pasquet, chairman of Gallimard Jeunesse, in accepting the award. “Gallimard Jeunesse is committed to working with the best authors and illustrators to promote this great literature that is children’s literature.”

This year’s winners, with citations from the fair, are:

Africa: Imagnary House is a South Africa-based publisher and developer of children’s and YA IP, founded in 2015 to fill the dearth of “authentic and high-quality stories” for young readers in Africa.

Asia: Everafter Books, of Beijing Everafter Culture Development Co. Ltd., was founded in 2015 in China with a focus on publishing stories for children up to 12 years old and “nurturing them with exceptional content.” To date, the company has a catalogue of more than 600 titles, many of which have won national awards and other accolades.

Europe: Fatatrac was lauded for “the rigor of their content, attention to the quality of illustrations, and educational commitment,” paired with playful formats and paper engineering. Founded in 1979 in Florence, Italy by a group of a dozen up-and-coming illustrators, in 2011, Fatatrac became a brand of the Edizioni del Borgo group in Bologna.

North America: Candlewick Press, founded in 1992, is now part of a global publishing enterprise that spans three continents. The award committee deemed Candlewick “the world’s leading creatively led independent publisher of books and content for children today,” in all ages and formats.

Central, South America, and Caribbean: Brazil’s Companhia das Letras was founded as a literary publishing house in 1986 by husband-and-wife team Luiz Schwarcz Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. It has since expanded into 17 independent publishing units, across various age groups. After selling a majority stake to Penguin, Companhia das Letras is the country’s second largest book publisher.

Oceania: Mila’s Books of New Zealand is the world’s only all-Pasifika publishing team, “dedicated to creating stories that celebrate the languages, cultures, and identities of the Pacific.” Founded in 2019, it publishes books exclusively by Pasifika authors, illustrators, and creators. The company also partners with schools, libraries, and other organizations on literacy and cultural workshops, with an aim of promoting Pasifika storytelling worldwide.