Bologna Book Fair 2024 – stand of Ukraine

The first visitors to the Ukrainian stand

Ukrainian Book Institute

On Monday, March 8, the largest international children’s book fair began in Bologna. Ukraine will be represented at it by 20 publishing houses, reports the Ukrainian Book Institute (UIK).

Among the publishing houses at the national stand, in particular: Stary Lev Publishing House, Vivat, Publishing House Publishing House, Kalamar, Ranok, Mamino, Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and others.

“The Ukrainian Book Institute has been participating in the Bologna Children’s Book Fair since 2018. We are here to make our voices heard by as many people as possible in Europe and around the world. We are also here to show the incredible power of Ukrainian book publishing, which creates wonderful books for the youngest generations of readers, despite the terrible war.”– she said Oleksandra Kovaldirector of the Ukrainian Book Institute.

This year, the national stand was decorated in the style of the illustrator’s “quiet book”. Oleksandr Shatokhin “The Yellow Butterfly”. Previously, the book entered the international list of outstanding children’s publications of America and received the award “The best design” from Book Arsenal.

The space with yellow butterflies is complemented by leaflets with stories about children who died and were deported by Russia. They also talk about writers and translators who died in the war or because of the war, destroyed objects of cultural infrastructure.

Tales of EUkraine: intermediate results is planned as part of the fair’s program. Its speakers will be the deputy director of the Ukrainian Book Institute for International Cooperation Olena Odynoka and Deputy Director of the Federation of European Publishers Enrico Turrin.

The Bologna Book Fair will last from April 8 to 11.

About the children’s book fair in Bologna

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is a leading event in the book publishing industry, founded in 1964. Since then, the fair has become a creative hub for publishers, illustrators, designers, translators, librarians and other representatives of the publishing business.

Thanks to the exchange of experiences, children’s editions are spreading all over the world, and trends in the design and positioning of books are being formed.

More than 1,400 participants from more than 90 countries took part in the 2023 exhibition.