Bologna Children’s Book Fair is our favourite event abroad – delicious food (including superb ice cream), warm weather and wonderful children’s and YA books are the best ingredients for a fun (yet busy) time. We believe that anyone who visited the book fairs in Bologna, London or Frankfurt, will agree that the Italian event has the best ambience.

Visitors were in a rather positive mood and were looking for a wide range of books – this may suggest that a year without a clear trend/topic is ahead of us. We don’t have anything against it, as we like diversity, because it’s not easy to get bored. And thanks to our careful selection of the clients that we represent into Poland, we can too offer a wide range of titles for every age group, area of interest or artistic taste. For example, Bloomsbury have magnificent picture books on their list (like Along Came a Different by Tom McLaughlin with subtle illustrations and lyrical text about the importance of diversity, inclusiveness and friendship), Spanish IMC Agency have tons of interesting non-fiction titles (chess for children or ideas for fun playing games that enhance children’s cognitive abilities), Egmont showed us a stunning Lifesize (children can compare their different body parts with those of various animals). Of course, there was also an abundance of middle grade novels, like the detective series from Bloomsbury Fabio: The World’s Greatest Flamingo Detective or The Day World Turned Upside Down by Eva Moreno Villalby – a novel from IMC Agency that describes what the world would look like if parents started acting like their children. We also have a very strong representation of YA novels, from fast-paced fantasy in Wren Hunt from Bloomsbury or Amber&Dusk from Curtis Brown New York, to crime story in And Then There Were Four (CB NY), about teens that are almost sure their parents are out there to kill them and to contemporary novels – like the ones Steven Chudney was asked about the most – Tiny Infinities or The Last Thing You Said. You can’t also miss Bad Girl With Perfect Faces because the author – Lynn Weingarten – has not only a talent for catchy titles (her previous book was Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls), but also catchy covers (check them out here: click1 & click2).

During our book fair meetings we also visitied Institut Ramon Llull’s stand to discuss Catalan literature, which was also Guest of Honour at this year’s Bologna Book Fair. We strongly urge Polish publishers to read more about their grant program, which can cover not only the translation costs, but also illustrations fees, promotional expenses and many more click click. We’re proud to represent a great selection of Catalan literature (for both adults and children) and are always happy to show our offer to those interested.

To finish our Italian trip well, we decided to hop on a regional train to Venice and spend 2.5 hours there – needless to say that even we could spend only such a short period of time in the city of Casanova, we returned madly in love (in the place, that is).

We wait for the Bologna Book Fair for the whole year and we never return disappointed. It offers a perfect mix of interesting books, great weather and delicious food – a dream come true for all literary agents.