The BolognaRagazzi Awards 2010 have just been announced over on the Bologna Book Fair website. For us at PaperTigers, two books stand out immediately:

Do! by Gita Wolf, illustrated by Ramesh Hengadi & Shantaram Dhadpe (Tara Books, 2009), winner of the New Horizons Award

What the jury said:

Bursting with bright clarity, this book illustrated by Ramesh Hengadi and Shantaram Dhadpe employs an extremely refined use of colour. Paper and figures are embroidered with a lace like precision. There is a wealth of narrative in the details that beg to be explored at length. The exceptional elegance of the ochre and white colour palette together with its multi-facetted narrative potential makes this an exquisitely crafted, eminently readable book.

and The Drum Calls Softly by David Bouchard and Shelley Willier, illustrated by Jim Poitras, music by Northern Cree (Red Deer Press, 2008), Non-Fiction Mention

What the jury said:

The joyful yet complex style of Jim Poitras is the vehicle for an enjoyable lesson in cultural anthropology. The clear contours of the foreground figures dialogue effortlessly with the landscapes in the background whose colourful, complex and material quality is rendered almost tangible. This novel illustration technique is particularly suited as a book for children since it highlights to great effect how man’s customs, lifestyles and traditions take on significance only when seen against the backdrop of the skies, hills, rivers and natural world that gave rise to them.

The winning books come from all over the world and it does indeed look like an absolutely stunning selection. And this seems the perfect moment to let everyone know that Aline, Corinne and I will be at the Bologna Book Fair this year (yippee!) so we will be among the lucky ones to see all these books in one and the same place.

If you are going to be there too and would like to meet up, then do drop us a line. And if you can’t be there, keep an eye here on our blog as we will be posting regularly, to share some of our highlights with you all straightaway!

Posted by: Marjorie | This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 10:24 am and is filed under Canada, Eventful World, India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Tags: 2010 Bologna Children's Book Fair, BolognaRagazzi Award, David Bouchard, Do, Gita Wolf, Jim Poitras, Northern Cree, Ramesh Hengadi, Shantaram Dhadpe, Shelley Willier, Tara Books, Tara Publishing, The Drum Calls Softly