Bologna fair opens next week
The 63rd Bologna Children’s Book Fair is set to open April 13–16, marking the next major stop on the spring rights and illustration circuit. (Publishing Perspectives previews the fair and frames it as the event where children’s publishing and illustration take centre stage after the London trade buzz.) (publishingperspectives.com)
The children’s book business has its own version of a world market, and it opens in Bologna on Monday, April 13. The 63rd Bologna Children’s Book Fair runs through Thursday, April 16, at the Bologna Exhibition Centre in Italy. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) This is not a consumer book festival where families line up for signings. It is a trade fair where publishers, agents, scouts, illustrators, printers, and licensing teams buy and sell rights to stories that can later become books, cartoons, toys, and classroom editions in dozens of countries. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The scale is large enough to set the mood for the whole children’s market. In 2025, the fair drew 33,318 publishing professionals, 1,577 exhibitors, and delegates from 95 countries, according to Publishing Perspectives’ preview of this year’s event. (publishingperspectives.com) Bologna matters because children’s publishing works differently from adult publishing. A picture book can cross borders faster than a 500-page novel, so editors come to Bologna with catalogs, sample art, and translation pitches the way film sellers go to Cannes with trailers. (publishersweekly.com) Illustrators get unusually central billing here. The fair’s own preview says Bologna is built around scouting new visual talent, and Publishing Perspectives calls it the place where art directors look for the next illustration trend. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) (publishingperspectives.com) This year’s guest of honour is Norway, which means a national push rather than a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. The Norwegian organization NORLA says it is bringing exhibitions, workshops, and a citywide program to promote Norwegian children’s and young adult literature during the fair. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) (norla.no) The fair is also bigger than its name suggests now. Alongside the children’s fair, BolognaBookPlus runs on the same April 13 to 16 dates for general trade publishing, and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids brings in the companies that turn book characters into screen projects and branded products. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) (bolognaconventionbureau.it) That mix changes what gets negotiated in the halls. A successful property is no longer just a manuscript sold to one foreign publisher; it can be a package that includes translation rights, audio plans, animation interest, and licensing discussions around the same fairground. (bolognaconventionbureau.it) (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The 2026 program is also sprawling enough to show how much the event has expanded beyond dealmaking. Regional education officials in Emilia-Romagna say this year’s edition includes more than 500 events and about 1,500 publishers from around the world. (istruzioneer.gov.it) So when Bologna opens next week, the real story is not just that another fair is starting. It is that four days in one Italian venue will help decide which children’s books travel, which illustrators break out, and which characters get pushed from page to screen in 2026 and beyond. (publishingperspectives.com) (bolognachildrensbookfair.com)
