Best children’s publishing houses of the year announced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair has announced the winners of its 10th annual Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year.10

22 Winners:

• Africa: New Africa Books, Republic of South Africa
• Asia: Samir Éditeur, Lebanon
• Central/South America: El Naranjo, Mexico
• Europe: Liels un mazs, Latvia
• North America: Monsieur Ed, Canada
• Oceania: Beatnik Publishing, New Zealand

Read more about the winners: 

AFRICA

For Africa, the winner is New Africa Books from South Africa. This publishing house consists of two brands. New Africa Books has published a catalogue of titles covering all the South African languages. They are particularly focused on the cultural development of children and youngsters.

New Africa Books is a small publishing house, which aims at discovering gaps in the book market and filling them with beautiful and meaningful works.

They also publish some of the luminaries of African and South African literature, including Nobel laureates Nadine Gordimer and Wole Soyinka, Guy Butler and Mongane Wally Serote.

ASIA

Samir Editeur, from Lebanon, became the winner for the Asian continent. Beirut’s Samir Editeur publishes children’s books in Arabic and French and distributes them not only in the Arab countries but world-wide, namely in France. 

Its catalogue is focused on books for children from 2 to 16 years old. Samir Editeur publishes mostly original content from authors and illustrators of different countries, and curated translations of international children’s literature such as Roald Dahl’s books. 

Moreover, Samir Editeur is the sole agent of Oxford University Press books in Lebanon. They also sell  books, periodicals, school and office stationery.

EUROPE

The European winner is Liels un mazs from Latvia. Since its foundation in 2004, the publishing house has strived to develop and enrich the Latvian children’s book industry and create an alternative in the book world, both in terms of book content (with high-quality texts and modern illustrations) and innovative design and printing solutions.

In 2021 this publishing house was on the shortlist for the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year in Europe for the fourth year in a row.

NORTH AMERICA

Canada’s Monsieur Ed is the 2022 winner for North America. Being an independent publishing house that specializes in children’s literature, Monsieur Ed has a strong inclination towards stories set in special worlds, where reality and fantasy meet. 

Although fiction lies at the heart of Monsieur Ed’s catalogue, they also publish non-fiction and graphic novels.

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

For Central and South America the winner is El Naranjo, from Mexico. Founded in 1994, the publishing house started publishing books for children and young people in 2003. 

El Naranjo has edited more than a hundred titles ranging from fiction, poetry and art to history, nature and classic literature. Its main goal is to build its own aesthetics in order to raise critical and creative readers, with the help of works that stimulate their sensitivity and interest, addressing topics they can relate or provoke their new reflections.

El Naranjo has been nominated for the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year for seven years in a row.

OCEANIA

For Oceania, the winner is Beatnik Publishing from New Zealand. As an independent publisher, Beatnik Publishing has been enriching New Zealand’s publishing realm for the past fifteen years with a keen eye for quality and beauty. The publishing house works closely with authors, poets, artists and local businesses to revive books with an exquisite design and rich content.

«We still believe the printed book has a place in the modern world, and ask people to treasure it, lend it and value it for the combined effort that has gone into its creation», – claims the publisher.

The Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year was established by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in cooperation with the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) and the International Publishers Association (IPA). The Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publishers of the Year awards children’s publishers world-wide.

What makes the award so special is that publishers are given the award by their peers for the creative and innovative nature of the editorial choices they have made.

As already been reported the Bologna Book Fair expresses their support for Ukrainian bookmakers and recalled the book «The War that changed Rondo» by the Art Studio Agrafka (Roman Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv), which received special mention at the Bologna Ragazzi Awards in 2015.

As you know, at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Ukraine has presented an empty stand-manifesto Stand with Ukraine.