4th April 2025
Round-up
Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025: packed halls as politics casts a shadow
Despite concern over the decline in reading for pleasure and political uncertainty, this year’s BCBF was a “buzzy”, upbeat fair that reflected a growing desire for shorter works as well as a hunger for a wide range of titles. Caroline Carpenter and Tom Tivnan report
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n “upbeat” and busy Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) 2025 saw a marked appetite for shorter and illustrated works – despite there being no runaway
book of the fair – though the grim state of geopolitics dimmed many fairgoers’ moods. The crisis in reading for pleasure among
children dominated discussions going into the fair, with Cally Poplak, managing director and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books and Farshore, warning: “This year, I don’t think we can ignore the reading crisis in our market... I’m looking forward to discussing with publish- ers worldwide solutions to these challenges.” Selling highly illustrated titles for younger readers was a key focus for the Hachette Children’s Group’s (HCG) rights team, as group rights director Tracy Phillips explained: “In response to declining literacy rates across the world, our customers have been asking us for lower word counts and more highly illustrated books, often in full colour.” It was a sentiment echoed by Claire Wilson ( 1), RCW agent and president of the UK
Association of Authors’ Agents, who said: “The message I am hearing is that for readers of any age, meeting them where they are is the key. If attention spans are shorter and reading confidence has dropped, it is our job to create books that will appeal in that context.” Big announcements at this BCBF included
Magic Cat moving into the pre-school space with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on a series of interactive board books illustrated by Adrian Johnson. Simon & Schuster Children’s Books unveiled an imprint focusing on early years, Little Simon UK, while Puffin revealed the launch list for its literary middle-grade imprint Puffin Press. As the fair kicked off, Belinda Ioni
Rasmussen, in her first Bologna as Walker Books’ global president and publisher after moving over from Macmillan Children’s Books last year, reported being “busier than ever”, with “back-to-back meetings and lots of part- nership conversations”. She added: “I’m still seeing lots of beautiful and innovative picture books. Everybody’s experimenting with graphic novels and there’s lots of YA. It
News
Bologna Round-up
BCBF
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