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!

Even before going to the Bologna Book Fair I had heard of the book The Night Life of Trees, by Chennai-based Tara Publishing*, and knew that it had won the Bologna Ragazzi “New Horizons” Award (the first title from India to do so). The award spotlights the cultural heritage and innovative drive coming from children’s book publishing in the Arab world, Latin America, Asia and Africa, so I knew the book was bound to be a treat. But nothing could have prepared me for the jolt I experienced when I finally saw it.

When you flip through the book’s pages you understand why it has won a prestigious children’s book award even though it was originally created as an art book. The book rekindles one’s sense of wonder. Everything about it invites closer inspection: the wonderful ink smell; the texture of the handmade paper; the intricacy of the majestic trees inhabited by creatures; the myths and folktales accompanying them…

Tara Publishing’s website states that their books are “largely visual in nature – and radical, witty and informed in spirit.” The Night Life of Trees is, no doubt, one such book. Silk-screened and hand-bound, with its luminous trees jumping out of the pages’ black backdrop, this book offers a glimpse into the world views of three of the finest artists from the Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh, in Central India, namely, Ram Singh Urveti, Durga Bai and Bhajju Shyam.

The idea for the book, we learned from a presentation given by Tara founder Gita Wolf and editor Sirish Rao on the first day of the book fair, came out of one of Tara’s illustrators’ workshops. Participants from the Gond tribe kept including trees on every single one of their drawings. “When asked to draw a bird, they would draw a bird on a tree; when asked to draw a person, they would draw a person next to a tree; when asked to draw clouds, they would draw clouds over a tree, and so on,” (more…)

Ah, Bologna!

Aline and I have much to tell about our fantastic trip to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair at the beginning of this month. There really is no better event to take the pulse of the children’s book publishing world: and what a world that is!

We’ve met so many interesting people and enjoyed putting faces to names of organisations and publishers; we’ve attended inspiring presentations; and have been dazzled by the quality and endlessly varied styles of the illustrations we’ve come across, both in the books we have browsed through and as part of the fair’s special exhibits. The overall impression was of immense industry – people in deep discussion, buying and selling rights; looking through artists’ portfolios; rushing between presentations – what a buzz!

Over the next few weeks, Aline and I will be posting on a variety of topics. In the meantime, here are some of the highlights for us, in no particular order:

Looking at the proofs for Ed Young’s new book, Wabi Sabi (written by Mark Reibstein);
Meeting librarians from all over the world at a session organised by the IFLA (International Federation of Libraries Associations and Institutions) – so lively that we were asked to be quiet…! – and hearing IBBY President and Canadian Groundwood Books publisher, Patricia Aldana’s presentation entitled “Books as Mirrors”;
Attending the launch of the International Youth Library’s White Ravens 2008 catalog;
Listening to poets Michael Rosen (UK Children’s Laureate) and Jorge Lujan’s contributions to a panel titled “Poetry Break: Poetry in Children’s Books”;
Attending the award-presentation of the Bologna Raggazzi “New Horizons” Award to Chennai-based Tara Publishing, for the hand-made book The Nightlife of Trees, and watching how the book came into being;
Hearing illustrators Robert Ingpen and Paul O. Zelinsky talk about their contributions to the book Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art (the proceeds of which go to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.)…

Well, I could just keep going – and I will. And so will Aline: so keep coming back as the full picture unfolds…