Bookstorm boosts Nigerian illustration

A Nigerian children’s-book project started with 10 weeks of online illustration classes, and two of its artists ended up at the world’s biggest fair for children’s publishing in Italy in April 2025. The project is called Bookstorm, and it grew out of conversations between Nigerian publisher Lola Shoneyin and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. (publishingperspectives.com) Bookstorm was launched by the Book Buzz Foundation in 2023 and formally introduced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2024. Its stated job is simple: train Nigerian writers and illustrators to make children’s books rooted in Nigerian life instead of imported defaults. (bookstorm.ng) The Bologna Children’s Book Fair matters here because it is not a local festival but a global rights market where publishers, illustrators, and agents buy, sell, and scout children’s books. The 2026 fair runs from April 13 to April 16 and describes itself as the world’s leading trade fair for the children’s publishing industry. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Shoneyin’s pitch was to turn a fair connection into a pipeline back home. According to Publishing Perspectives, Bologna fair director Elena Pasoli backed a partnership with Mimaster Illustrazione in Milan to teach 16 Nigerian artists through a 10-week course. (publishingperspectives.com) Those 16 artists built portfolios around one story, Zizah is Different, about a neurodivergent Nigerian boy and his family. That detail matters because the training was not abstract studio practice; it was tied to a book with a specific Nigerian setting, family, and child at its center. (bookbuzzfoundation.org) Two illustrators, Barbara Chiamaka Chukwu and Kayode R. Onimole, were picked to showcase their work at Bologna in 2025. Shoneyin’s Tanja imprint at Ouida Books then published the book with Chukwu’s illustrations, turning a training exercise into an actual title. (publishingperspectives.com) Bookstorm’s target is bigger than one course or one book. Publishing Perspectives reports that the initiative wants to produce 100 children’s books by 2027 that reflect “the realities, cultures, and dreams of Nigerian children,” with backing from the European Union, Sterling Bank, the Book Buzz Foundation, and the International Board on Books for Young People Africa. (publishingperspectives.com) The project has already widened from a classroom into an event circuit. In September 2025, Bookstorm staged the Lagos International Festival of Illustrations for 45 Nigerian artists, with nine international illustrators running workshops, panel discussions, live drawing sessions, and portfolio clinics. (bookstorm.ng) That is the part of the story book fairs usually hide: the visible event is four days in Bologna, but the useful part can be what happens 3,000 miles away after everyone flies home. In this case, a fair known for rights deals and illustrator scouting helped seed a Nigeria-led effort to build local talent, local books, and eventually a local catalog. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com)