Bologna kids‑book market buzz
The 63rd Bologna Children’s Book Fair featured more than 1,500 exhibitors and roughly 500 events, with agents debating whether romantasy still dominates YA deals and whether middle‑grade is staging a comeback. ( ) Publishing players described an active international rights market as fairs wind down. (publishersweekly.com)
At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the biggest argument was not whether deals were happening, but which kinds of children’s books were selling fastest. (publishersweekly.com) The 63rd fair opened in Bologna on April 13 and runs through April 16, with more than 1,500 exhibitors and about 500 events across the fairgrounds. The official program also folded in BolognaBookPlus and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair for Kids alongside the children’s fair. (lanouvellevague.it) Publishers Weekly reported that agents, scouts, and rights directors on the floor were split on two questions: whether young adult “romantasy” still leads the market and whether middle-grade fiction is starting to recover. Several participants told the magazine that international rights trading remained active as the spring fair season moved from London into Bologna. (publishersweekly.com) That debate sits at the center of what Bologna is for: publishers and agents use the fair to buy and sell translation rights, scout illustrators, and test demand before lists are locked in for later seasons. The fair’s own preview described the event as a business hub built to create “new business opportunities” across children’s publishing and adjacent media. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Bologna has also widened beyond children’s books in recent years. BolognaBookPlus, now in its sixth edition, is the fair’s general trade arm and markets itself as a spring meeting point for translation, illustration, and rights trading in the wider publishing business. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The scale helps explain why trend-watching in Bologna carries weight outside Italy. Publishing Perspectives wrote that the 2025 fair drew 33,318 publishing professionals and 1,577 exhibitors from 95 countries, making the event a global checkpoint for children’s publishing. (publishingperspectives.com) This year’s fair also arrived with a broader rights-and-screen agenda. The official site said the 2026 lineup spans comics, television and film rights, and the video game industry, alongside illustration and licensing programs. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) So the mood in Bologna was less about a single runaway category than about how long recent favorites can hold and which age bands are reopening. With four days of meetings running through April 16, the fair is again serving as the place where children’s publishers compare notes before the next round of acquisitions. (publishersweekly.com)
