The Bologna Children's Book Fair 2025

SCBWI hosted a booth at this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, and as their official Educational Parter, Hollins had a third of the booth.I love being so close to my SCBWI family again, it feels like coming home! Here's Dorothia during her portfolio review with our dear friend and head of SCBWI, Sarah Baker.      We were in an excellent location, right next to the Illustrators' Survival Corner, which is the gathering spot for all the illustrators from around the world who attended the Fair.This is the first year we've had such a strong presence at the Fair and it was quite exciting. Our marketing department did a bang up job on our decor!      In fact, I gave a workshop at the ISC this year on Understanding Color. It was sold old with folks standing around the edges - marvelous!SCBWI also did a Master Class panel led by Sarah and including Laurent Linn, who is a dear friend from way back. I also gave portfolio reviews at both the ISC and the SCBWI booths. I love doing those.
     Out of the 80,000 or so attendees at the Fair each year, thousands of them are aspiring children's book illustrators. The reason is that only big names in industry tend to attend the BCBF—it is Italy after all! And many of them offer free portfolio reviews while they are at the Fair. So, illustrators have the rare opportunity to show their portfolios to the very people who can give them their big breaks. Lines will oftentimes be 100 people long as they wait for their five minutes.
     Some of them like to make sure they're memorable and dress up in fun outfits. My fave was The Mad Hatter.
     For Hollins, that means that thousands of people who want to do exactly what we teach, all show up at the same place each year for four days of chaos and magic.
     But not only are there portfolio reviews, there are also about a dozen highly competitive art shows at the Fair each year. I was thrilled to see artwork by Lauren Paige Conrad featured in one of the shows. I reconnected with Lauren recently when I discovered that she had stepped into her mom's illustrator shoes, doing cut paper and using many of her mom's tools to create her own beautiful artwork. Her mom was Liz Conrad, my best friend who passed away in 2009. Talk about meaningful to see this in Italy! Liz would be so proud!      Illustrators also flock to Bologna to participate in the Illustrator Walls. These go on forever and they fill up in about 15 minutes when the Fair first opens.Here is Dorothia's artwork. She even had little fairy lights illuminating her shadow-box-like work. The elevator walls also fill up eventually, but Larissa got there first and popped our Hollins posters on there for some instant billboard appeal!Mary Jane Begin's cat illustration always grabs us tons of attention!
     Of course, there are plenty of reasons to wander around at the Fair as well. For instance, I got to say 'hi' to Mo Willems who was there celebrating his new publishing company. (We were supposed to be the guest author/illustrators sharing a dinner table at the Savannah Children's Book Festival years ago, but he was so popular even then, I got pushed from our table. He has stories of unruly fans and crowds!)I stopped by the Phillipines booth because they have a booming children's publishing industry. They were giving out shots of a popular purple liquor from their country. It sort of tasted like chocolate milk, with a serious kick! (They were very small cups - ha!)Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian booth was giving out tastes of their delicious coffee spiked with cardamom seeds - yummy!I also spoke with representatives from South Korea and hope to build relationships there. I also received a kind gift of a glass pomegranate from the Azerbaijan representatives. (Pomegranates are positive symbols in their culture.) Truly, the entire world is at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and they're all trying to make a good impression! You'll also see lots of products represented, and some of them are downright magical, like the Mouse Mansion.

     There are lots of food trucks and pop-up vendors for food at the Fair. I was sad my Thai truck wasn't there again this year. But there was a pop-up restaurant that searched roasted veggies that were delish!     And truly, having Dorothia and Larissa there was such a treat. We made a great team and represented Hollins WELL!And Dorothia's beau even helped carry out the collateral when it was time to leave!The entire event comes down as quickly as it goes up and everyone returns to their busy lives. But in Bologna, for four days each year, we come together as the children's publishign family that we are!

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AMAZING ADVENTURE!
SCBWI Party at Libreria Treme
An Italian Miracle
Italy with Students!

Party at Libreria Treme!

After our Italian Miracle, we were thrilled to be heading to the annual SCBWI party hosted at the lovely bookstore, Libreria Treme! You might recall that last year I made a thank-you card for the owner, after she helped me get HU brochures to Italy.
     It was a beautiful night, so the party that usually squeezes into the tiny shop, spilled into the street.The food was amazing, as usual, and everyone had a marvelous time! (This is Jim with Kim Turrisi.)Here I am with Martha Rago, Larissa, and Dorothia.Of course we had to tell everyone about our Italian Miracle - what a story! And see how happy Larissa is? Wouldn't you be? It was a fabulous night, filled with Italian magic!

An Italian Miracle!

We experienced a miracle while in Italy. Was the patron saint of lost things, St. Anthony really helping us out? You be the judge...
     Larissa and I left the Fair on the last day. She took her bus ticket out of her purse to pay for the bus. When we got off, we went to a pretty shoe store (I was on a mission!), then she gave her food to a homeless couple on the sidewalk because she was leaving the next day and couldn't take it with her. We then returned to our flat where she was going to hang out with us until it was time to go to the airport to catch her flight at 6:00am the next morning (leaving our flat at midnight or some such). But when we got back to the flat, Larissa made the terrible discovery that she no longer had her purse... the one with her passport and credit cards in it!
      We tried not to panic. First, we backtracked our steps, back to the homeless couple, and back to the shoe store. No luck. If she'd left it at the Fair, that would be a nightmare. But then, possibly worse, she remembered pulling her ticket from her purse on the bus. The "28" bus to be exact. Would it help to call the bus company, knowing full well that most people in Bologna don't speak English? No.
      Dorothia and Jim stayed at the flat repeating the prayer to St. Anthony: Tony, Tony, look around. something's lost that must be found.
     Obviously, you can't travel internationally without your passport and the nearest US consulate (we learned) is in Florence, a train ride away. What to do!? It was time to go to the police.
     The first location Google sent us to turned out to be closed and the woman on the door's speaker sent us elsewhere. We tried to stay in good spirits as we walked, but of course, Larissa was wondering if she should cancel her flight and all her credit cards and wondering how in the world she would get anywhere with the remaining cash she had. Meanwhile, I was worrying about the responsibility of the university. Did I need to cancel my flight and make sure she got to the consulate to get home?
     We made it to the correct police station where the very nice officer asked Larissa to fill out a detailed report. She did that and we talked about her options. We didn't know if the purse had been stolen or simply lost, so there wasn't anything more the police could do. We didn't want to leave, because it felt like giving up, or heading into much bigger challenges.
     Just then a woman walked into the building, looked at Larissa and asked, "Are you Ms. Powers? I have your purse."
     WHAT!!!???
     OMG!!! We fell apart, almost fainted, checked her for wings sprouting out of her back. Certainly, she had a halo!
     As it turned out, the purse ended up somehow on the seat of the woman's scooter. We have no idea how it got there, but thank goodness it did. Because this generous soul did not wait until the next day to do something about finding the purse, she went straight to the police station. If our walks had been off by five minutes, we would have missed her. A talented author couldn't have written a better scene. (Although a friend pointed out that noone would ever write a scene like that because it was too unbelievable.)
     I made sure Larissa got her name and contact info: Stella. Of course her name meant "Star" - star from above!
     Needless to say, we were ecstatic and greatly relieved. And ended up with one heck of a story to share!

Italy with my students!

Sadly, Jim left Monday to fly back to the states - through Istanbul, Turkey of all places! He took lots of photos. Meanwhile, I moved to yet another flat, a VRBO this time, with one of my students, Dorothia, and her friend, Jim-also! Another student, Larissa, also came along and the four of us hung out quite a bit. (This is at Trattoria Fantoni.)It was so lovely to have them both there to help with our Fair booth and hang out with around town! The flat we stayed in was a flashback to the Art Deco period—there were Mucha prints all over the apartment, and heavy, carved furniture. It was also very well located more on the north side of town. It was rather high up, so we were so grateful it had an elevator!It also had amazing views out the kitchen balcony. Walking out the front door, we were immediately in the thick of the covered walkways.Like my new Italy pants?We did quite a bit of wandering and discovered lovely new things. Of course, there's the obligatory pose mimicking the mermaids at the Neptune Fountain in the Piazza Maggiore. And these playful Satyrs. (Mimicking the poses is a thing!)But we also passed this fountain on our walks to and from the Fair.And somehow I'd not yet discovered the lovely Piazza Santo Stefano before! Flower shops spill their marvelous blooms - here's Dorothia in an ideal shot.Bologna is just so pretty! And so very OLD.We did a LOT of walking! Which was a good thing because we also ate a lot of pasta!We ate at the Gran Cafe., admired the restaurant across the street where they make their own pasta in the window (I ate there last year and it's very good too!).One restaurant I'd eaten at long ago with my SCBWI friends and must try again was the Trattoria Osteria. Next time! You simply can't eat it all in one trip, as I proved - HA!

Bologna - Pretty Pictures!

As I mentioned, all the children's book fairs like this one are held in destination cities - places where people love to visit. That's part of how they bring in all the big name players! So, of course, I have to share some of the awesomeness that is Bologna on my last day...forget the order, these are going to come in all higgeldy piggeldy...
     Bologna is beautiful and ancient.

The main plaza or piazza in Bologna is the Piazza Maggiore, home to the Neptune Fountain. It's being restored right now, so is roped off, but Hannah Sanguinetti (Scottish illustrator friend), Pilar García de Leániz (we did our MFA together), Amy Dover (new Graduate Program Director of Illustration at the University of Edinburgh) and I had to have a photo anyhow... The Piazza is the heart of the city. It hosted a bus strike on Thursday morning.Only to be followed by lovely music and happy crowds later in the day. Off of Piazza Maggiore are a gazillion little alleyways that host little shops and restaurants.

There was also a fishmonger selling fish to locals (we were totally in the way).But how in the world would you even try to eat something like this eel - it was about the size of a tire! I did a whole post years ago about the covered walkways of Bologna, which are a UNESCO historical site. Along all those walkways are stores galore! I was so bummed this shop wasn't open when I went by it, I so would have bought this shirt!But I treat myself to some nice leather gloves. (I bought some red leather gloves in Florence when I was a teenager on a student trip and I still have them!) While this bike wasn't new, it was new to me. I saw several parents with their kids in the back on bikes like these. As chance would have it, I ran into Pilar again and we had lunch. (Bologna is a surprisingly small town.) (We split a pasta ragu of course, hand-made pasta made by the woman in the window!) Amy caught up with us again and the three of us nailed THE table overlooking the Piazza. Amy pulled out her drawing pencils that she always has with her...and well, it was a table of illustrators. What do you think happened? We drew all over the menus of course! After a day of shopping and eating pasta, gelato, etc., I met up with another friend who I was so happy to run into from Scotland, Miriam Johnson and her friend Polly Silk. Miriam and I met up with Blythe Robertson earlier during the fair (you may remember their names from several posts when Stan and I lived in Scotland) - another wonderful surprise! We wandered from pub to pub because restaurants in Bologna don't even open until 8:00pm. But we finally had an amazing dinner, although I was ready to POP by then!
This was Polly's dish.Happily, all I had left to do was to roll into bed and get up at an ungodly hour to get to the airport and begin the long, several-legged flight home.
     Home. Ahhhhh. It's good to be back, but WOW, what an adventure I had!

Bologna Children's Book Fair:
01: To Bologna!
02: More Bologna!
03: Bologna - pretty pictures!