The past years’ most important children’s books in Bologna

The Petőfi Agency has been publishing the catalogue presenting the various genres and fields of Hungarian literature for three years. This year it is first shown to the audience in physical form since the Bologna book fair has been postponed for two consecutive years due to the covid pandemic. The series edited by Dániel Levente Pál has been granted two prestigious advertising awards in 2020. Its aim at the festival is to familiarize a number of foreign publishers with the best works and authors of Hungarian children’s literature.

During the selection of the 10 Hungarian authors and illustrators for the catalogue an important factor was to choose books of which the topic and imagery may be intriguing for foreign audiences and which cover every part of Hungarian children’s literature as well. Taboos, actualities, education for all age groups – in an exigent style and authentic imagery.

"Last year’s harvest that we selected from was luckily rich and varied. In prose a braver kind of experimenting with finding one’s own voice was detectable. We receive more and more fresh suggestions of adventure novels for tweens. Out of these we chose the dystopical-melancholic adventure novel of László Kolozsi named The Moon’s Memories. However, to draw the attention of foreign agents the calling and the topic are also important besides a characteristic voice. From such a viewpoint, the novel of 20-year-old Míra Haszán named Pointe/Plié could also be interesting with its tense, dynamic style describing the mentally and physically grinding world of ballet.

An example for the unique mixture of the excellent contemporary tale and the dissemination of knowledge is the work of Ferenc Tarr named Harmonia, the Empire of Music. The compact world of the book is nicely complemented by the work of András (b) Baranyai. From literary publications for smaller children we chose The Sandpiper due to its particularly inverted viewpoint and humour. The Kufli-series written and illustrated by András Dániel is worth the attention already for the 21th century implementation", says dr. Artemisz Harmath, one of the collectors of the catalogue and director of the Youth and Children’s Literatur Centre, about the selection process.

Besides this issue, at the Hungarian stand of the Bologna book fair the children’s books selections of the Petőfi Cultural Agency’s best of-series can be seen as well. Thus, audiences can put their hands on the 2020 and 2021 selections of the New Hungarian Childlit 10,0 Tales, the Best Hungarian Artists 11,1 Illustrators issue presenting 11 Hungarian illustrators, the catalogues named Children’s books from Hungary Publishers’ Selection including publishers’ suggestions as well as the suggested books and their publishers around the Hungarian booth.

"In this topic, the Bologna children’s book fair is the most prestigious meeting of the scene: all of the world’s children’s literature related publishers attend it. For this reason, it is important for us to draw attention to our literature and to present and mediate our values. The Hungarian booth operates with a strong publisher support: about 10 Hungarian publishers show up personally with a number of books in the course of these days", says the project manager of the Petőfi Cultural Agency, Zoltán Jeney.

The Bologna children’s book fair is the world’s biggest professional children’s book muster which bears with a past of 58 years. In 2021 and 2021 the fair was held online due to the pandemic but this year it awaits professionals and those interested in its usual old form. More that 30 000 visitors and 1400 exhibitors from 90 countries arrive in the Northern-Italian city for the four days between 21 and 24 March in order to present their own children’s literature at the countries’ booths or at one of the 240 programs. In the five arenas of the Bologna fair all segments of children’s literature can be found. Besides books, organisers traditionally emphasize the presentation of illustrators, translators, multimedia conent and also cartoon literature.

Works in the New Hungarian Childlit 10,2 Tales selection:

László Kolozsi: The Moon’s Memories (Pagony Publishing House, 2021)

Katalin Taki, Ilka Mészely (illustrator): The Sandpiper (Csimota Publishing House, 2021)

Samuel Allo, Hajnalka Szimonidesz (illustrator): Two Stars (Kisgombos Publishing House, 2021)

Lilla Turi: What I remember (Csimota Publishing House, 2020)

Mira Haszán: Pointe/Plié (Móra Publishing House, 2021)

Ferenc Tarr, András (b) Baranyai: Harmonia, the Empire of Music (Pagony Publishing House, 2021)

Jacqueline Molnár: Hide-and-Seek (Móra Publishing House, 2021)

András Gáspár Gáspár, Marcell Gulyás (illustrator): Lidless (Móra Publishing House, 2021)

Kornél Laboda, Juli Jásdi: Gavarin and the Dream Antenna (Pagony Publishing House, 2021)

András Dániel: Pagony Publishing House (Pagony Publishing House, 2013)

Editor in chief: Dániel Levente Pál

Editors: Gabi Both and Margit Garajszki

Selected by: Gabi Both and Artemisz Harmath

Introductions written by: Gabi Both, Margit Garajszki, Artemisz Harmath, Zoltán Jeney, Gyöngyi Veress

Design: L. Dániel Németh and Boglárka Técsi

English translation: Thomas Cooper

 New Hungarian Childlit 10,2 Tales free online version can be accessed here.

 Further issues of the best of series can be found here.