If you know me, you know I love books. I love illustrators. I love beautiful illustrations. I love stories. I love book fairs. I love festivals, I love libraries. I love book shops. I love meeting authors. I love learning from authors and illustrators. I love listening to origin stories of stories. I love putting beautiful books into children’s hands. I love watching children become readers. I love allowing children to read whatever they want to read. I love reading.

So, you can imagine how thrilled I am to find myself at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the largest book fair for children in the world. You can visualise how excited I am to be here on the day the largest literary award in the world, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is announced.

The Bologna Book Fair has been everything I expected it to be. While it IS my first time here, it’s not my first time being at this sort of thing. While I’ve never been to the American Library Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibition, I clearly remember my first NCTE conference in Atlanta, Georgia. All those authors, all those books, all those signatures. Then the excitement (and stress) at the end of the conference when you realise many of those books were now up for grabs, for FREE, if you could make it through the mayhem.

Having attended a couple of those, and the American Association of School Librarian’s Conference in Tampa Florida back in 2023, I no longer join the fray scrambling for freebies, and while I still love a good autograph and author photograph, I’m not going to line up for hours (mmmm, minutes?) to get it. I am lucky to have worked at a very well-resourced school for a long time, and I know for some of the teachers and librarians at these conferences, getting those free books, and making those connections with authors and illustrators, can be a lifeline to a more literate environment for their students.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the two very full conference days so far. Sessions learning from Sergio Ruzzier, Beatrice Alemagna, Felicita Sala, Chris Haughton and Jeff Kinney have been inspiring and interesting. Attending panels on starting a laureate program, giving more power to graphic novels, reaching boys through good books and trans rights have all had me nodding and taking copious notes. However it has been the interpersonal discussions with people that I’ve valued the most at the Fair. Meeting people and taking the time to listen to them, and learn about their process and their story has found me so grateful.

I loved meeting the team at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture exhibit for Greece. Authors and illustrators there were so welcoming and they had a really engaging activity where the illustrator Costas Theoharis invited people to add words to the wordless picture book “Crack” I was thoroughly engaged.

I also had a lovely half hour with the team from Toppan Excel Printing, a global company that print out of Dongguan China. Alice and Catherine were really friendly and their team showed me a fantastic video of the printing process; it would be an amazing place to take kids on a field trip!

On Day 1 I had a wonderful conversation with the team from Sofia Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Book Organisation. I was attracted to their exhibit, lovely framed prints, around 22 this year, their 2nd year, at the Book Fair. I walked in and inadvertently picked up the only book in English they had there, Beyond the Fence by Maria Gulemetova, a Bulgarian born author illustrator who now lives in Oregon. Her book was a universal story, and charming. We discussed the book and then I was introduced to their friend Katrin Eftimova, a Bulgarian illustrator who now works in Vienna. This lovely woman took the time to read through the book she’d illustrated and explain the references to the illustrations and text that I could not have worked out alone. How good are people, seriously? What a kind and generous thing to do. I was so impressed with the story, her art and the history behind it. When was the last time someone read YOU a story?

On Day 2, I had another incredible encounter that left me feeling emotional and grateful for the opportunity. I was just walking along, and passed the same spot I’d seen a guy painting yesterday, I was kind of bummed I’d missed the start of the project, and so thought about not engaging…but…you know me, I’m an engager!!!

Ed Oner is a talented graffiti artist from Morocco who has made a name for himself on the international street art scene with his impressive murals and unique style. Ed put down his paintbrush and filled my curious bucket for 30 mins as I asked him question after question and he told me story after story, including reading THE amazing story about two brothers separated by unfortunate events that happen EVERY SINGLE DAY in many parts of the world. He was telling the story of the book he’d illustrated, as he showed me through the book, the book full of his incredible art. This art was the same art that he was painting for the wonderful mural in the massive hall 30. The book, Buscando a Ahmed, written by Jesus Ballaz, is available in Catalan and Spanish, which sadly, are no good for me, so having Ed TELL me the story, wow, and wow.

These two conversations, had many similarities. These illustrators have other careers and professions, and these were the first books they’d illustrated. They were both grateful to the authors for choosing them, and both authors had been very impressed by their skills and their visions for the stories and trusted them completely. Both illustrators took time out of their busy day to READ.ME.THEIR.BOOKS in MY language; their 2nd or 3rd language. I was just a stranger, and they were so kind. I was moved.

Experiences like this make me so happy, and grateful and bring an experience like the Bologna Book Fair to a whole different level. Thank you Ed and Katrin for making my first trip to BCBF so special.