Kirsten Sims

 

'Balthazar the Great' was the first book by Kirsten Sims, published 2017 by Orfeu Negro in Portugal.  ‘Balthazar the Great’ is a book about a violin-playing polar bear trying to find a safe place on the planet. He is freed from the circus by a group of activists and left in the middle of nowhere to find his own way home. Along the way he says goodbye to old friends and attempts to make new ones. He has to learn to fend for himself in a very big and often lonely world. Sometimes things work out well for him, but other times he gets overwhelmed by the journey.

Rocío Araya Gutiérrez III

 

'Las niñas o cómo suceden las cosas', (Girls or how things happen) a book of poetry by Mar Benegas, illustrated by  Rocío Araya with deliciously messy collage and oil pastel , gouache and scraping, adding layers of eye delight! Published Valencia: Litera Libros , 2017. Dedicated:

"For the girls who will never hold this book in their hands."

I love Bologna Children's Book Fair, it is a celebration, in the main, of the joy of creating for children or for the children still trapped in adults. I have not been able to go for years since the scourge of brexit and financial constraints clipped my wings and embarrassed me. 

When I used to go, I was aware of course of the big business of publishing there, cherry picking talent and shaping it for the industry. In the main it was refreshing for me to see the beauty and otherness of publishing of the world, out-with the British and American dominance.

I have been watching from outside for these last 9 years. This year there was a post published which I listened to horrified and then went to the comments, relieved that others were there and had said what I was thinking. The dumbing down that has been going on for decades of children's publishing in my mind is making the ideas and joy of children's books vanish. 

I am so tired of vacuous stories and overly produced digital finish to illustrations. Stories, poetry, language, illustrations should have power, should send shivers through the mind, tingling the excitement and joy of experience and learning, tasting strange words in the mouth, having a story that is long enough to loose yourself to,  to spark inquisitive thoughts and questions, not even just in the child but also the parent. 

Why did I go off on that tangent probably because this book published 9 years ago, is exactly what a children's book should be!

Cristina Sitja Rubio III

'A Helping Hand', by Cristina Sitja Rubio. Juancho and Panchita are two parakeets that are very busy with their various jobs, which they love. They are so busy they have no time to hang out with friends or just enjoy some quiet time, so they decide to hire an extra hand. After they put an advert in the paper, many candidates show up. This is story about balancing life and work, as well as taking care of friendships and always being open to new friendships. The idea of two parakeets busy gardening is delightful as are the pencil drawings. 

Linda de Canha I

 

Squawk went to Bologna as the graduation book of Linda De Canha, it is a fantastic book about belonging and place . . . told from the perspective of suspecting pigeons, who with the arrival of parakeets learn to deal with change. I hope it has found a publisher.

Carla Haslbauer

 

Lovely soft pastel illustrations by Carla Haslbauer in 'Where do Ideas Come From?' written by Bettina Obrecht, published by Kunstanstifter 2026. 

Windy Zhu

 

These are illustrations from a book called 'What Colour Am I', by Windy Zhu who has completed her Masters at Anglia Ruskin University. Her see life has great charm and humour and I love the way she has integrated the marine plants with the. sea creatures.

Maria Surducan

 

A biographical paper kaleidocycle (four page book) drawn in a linocut print style by Maria Surducan.

Jacques Hnizdovsky II

 

Jacques Hnizdovsky was born on January 27, 1915 in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine, Hnizdovsky, a member of a noble family. They were forced to flee to Poland during the 1917 Russian Revolution, and thus he went on to study at both the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland and the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia before immigrating to the United States in 1949, settling in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

He created illustrations for a number of books, including The Poems of John Keats (1964), Tree Trail of Central Park (1971), and Flora Exotica (1972). These illustrations are all from 'Ukranian Folk Tales', translated by Marie Halun Bloch and illustrated with woodcut prints by Jacques Hnizdovsky, published in 1964.