Date: 06 March 2025
Page: 9
Move over, Gruffalo: these are the world’s best picture books
Lucy Bannerman goes behind the scenes at the children’s book Olympics and finds UK publishers are lagging behind
How do you pick the world’s best picture book? Is it the most beautiful? The most groundbreaking? Perhaps it’s the one that is still requested every bedtime, even though it has been read a thousand times?
For two days every year, an international jury gather in the Italian city of Bologna to grapple with these questions as they decide the winners of one of the most prestigious prizes in global children’s publishing, the BolognaRagazzi awards. Think of it like the picture book Olympics. Almost 4,000 books, from almost 70 countries from Argentina to Vietnam, are up for consideration.
The five best will be celebrated at an awards ceremony at the end of March, kick-starting the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, where publishers, film and television executives hustle and hunt for the next beloved character to turn into a global brand.
So where does the UK — the country of Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Jan Pienkowski and Shirley Hughes — fit in? Despite our grand tradition of children’s literature, the word in Bologna is that British publishers have gained an international reputation as safe, corporate, risk-averse and — dare I say it — boring, especially at the picture book end of the market.
Consider the fact that one single author makes up about 25 per cent of our whole market. (Yes, it’s Julia Donaldson.) Browse the shelves of any supermarket or chain bookstore, and you’ll find a shrinking range of long-established classics (The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Dear Zoo) and big-brand spinoffs. Martin Salisbury, professor of illustration at the
Cambridge School of Art who designed the renowned MA course in children’s book illustration, calls them “the Turkey Twizzlers” of the picture book world, “pandering to the lowest levels of aesthetic taste”.
These days, the retail space for experimental books is vanishingly small. UK publishers are unapologetic about publishing massappeal crowd-pleasers. Bringing in books from abroad also means translation costs. But does it mean that British customers are missing out on the weird, wonderful projects from the rest of the world?
My peek behind the scenes would certainly suggest so. At the Salaborsa, a fabulous public library located on Bologna’s main square, thousands of books are laid out across long tables. I’m struck by how avant-garde many of them are. And how dark. There’s a Spanish book about dictatorship, which shows faceless Playmobil figures playing hide and seek during a conflict. “F***ing war”, says the text. There’s another (American nonfiction) story about the Salem witch trials that just happens to fall open at a page showing three women hanging from nooses. Gangsta Granny it is not.
Are there any topics that are out of bounds, I ask Marcella Terrusi, the chair of the judges. “Life is controversial. Life is inappropriate. Grown-ups are inappropriate,” she says. “A picture book is a safe place where children know that they can meet the world, but they can survive. They are also places where conversation starts, so they are great allies for grown-ups.”
The Bologna Ragazzi winner c a T H
House of Wisdom by Bodour Al Qasimi and Majid Zakeri Younesi (United Arab Emirates)
A cautionary tale about the House of Wisdom, the royal library in Baghdad that was a centre of learning during the Islamic golden age. When it was sacked by the Mongols, legend has it that so many precious books were thrown into the Tigris River, the water ran black with ink.
Special mention
Heatwave by Lauren Redniss (United States)
The words tell a simple story about a boy enduring a hot day on the beach. The pictures scream a very different story about rising temperatures across the planet. Colour does the heavy lifting here, with every page in alarm-bell red, and the smallest splash of blue rain at the end.
Ingen utom jag (Nobody but Me) by Sara Lundberg (Sweden)
Q ( A W th th s th th t r S H S T b T s a h ala a o I S T f t
This almost wordless picture book follows a young boy who is playing on the river with his mother. While she chats, he floats off on his inflatable ring and is swept into a magical, summery world of make-believe.
Boucle d’or en chemin (Let’s Go, Goldilocks!) by Caroline Gamon (France)
This retelling of Goldilocks has playful cut-out spaces, and pays homage to the art of cut-paper silhouettes. Peer through the keyhole and you’ll see the faces of three shocked bears.
Date: 06 March 2025
Page: 9
T , An illustration from Boucle d’or en chemin. Below: the covers of Ingen utom jag, Heatwave and House of Wisdom
Copyright material – reproduced under license.