The Ukrainian project for refugees received a special award

The Ukrainian project was awarded a special award

Maria Kobyuk

The Better Time Stories project from Ukrainian developers received a special award at the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Awards 2024 in the category “Books and digital platforms”, reports the press service of the Ukrainian Book Institute.

This year, the Better Time Stories interactive platform was presented at national stand Bologna book fair for children’s books.

“I am amazed that Better Time Stories has been selected for the CrossMedia Awards 2024, especially in the “Books and digital platform” category. This means that we are doing an important thing that is relevant not only for Ukraine, but also for the international publishing market. Nowadays, people want not only to read a physical book, but also to listen to it, especially when it comes to children’s books. A special award from Bologna already helps when communicating with foreign publishing houses”, – shared the co-founder of the project Andrii Shmygelskyi.

Better Time Stories is a non-profit initiative to support Ukrainian children who were forced to leave their homes due to the war. Interactive books are created for children aged 3 to 7 and allow you to record audio versions of stories from family members who remain in Ukraine. Together with the printed edition, the family receives an application through which you can listen to the created recording.

According to the UIC, the initiative helps children overcome grief, integrate into the environment of the host country, and maintain contact with relatives who remained at home.

The princess of the Netherlands became the patron of the project Laurentien van Oranjethe first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenskathe first lady of Germany Elke Budenbender and the First Lady of Austria Doris Schmidauer.

Award of the Bologna Book Fair

Award BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Awards awarded by an international jury. Experts evaluate more than 100 projects from 30 countries every year.

The award, which is presented for the fourth time, consists of two categories – “Cross-media projects” and “Digital reading experience”. Special honors may also be awarded.

Celebrate the best publishing projects that have expanded their narrative universe by creating movies, TV shows, video games, apps and other interactive solutions. Also awarded for those projects that were reformatted into printed books.

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.