Bologna names 2024 Ragazzi Award winners

Among this year’s Ragazzi Award winners at Bologna are works from Spain, Latvia, Czechia, Hong Kong, Italy, France, and Brazil.

Illustrators whose work carries a notice of a Ragazzi Award speak of greater sales and notoriety for their work, which becomes known through the exhibition elements of this sprawling show’s layout.

There are five main categories used in the Ragazzi Awards:

• Fiction
• Nonfiction
• Opera Prima (debut works)
• Comics (with sub-categories of Early Reader and Middle Grade)
• Toddler (appropriate for its name, this is the newest permanent category)

Each year, a special sixth category is added and this year that’s “The Sea”—Il Mare. This special thematic prompt was chosen in part because the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is a partner in the preparations for the 39th International IBBY Congress, which is to be held in the eye-popping northeastern Italian seaport Trieste, the capital of the Fruili-Venezia Guilian autonomous region flanked by Slovenia on one side and Croatia on the other.

Bologna Ragazzi Award 2024 Winners

Fiction

Kintsugi (Literally ‘Golden Joinery,’ and metaphorically the concept of taking pride in the fragile imperfections of life), Issa Watanabe, Libros del Zorro Rojo, Spain;

Nonfiction

Myko, Jiří Dvořák, Daniela Olejníková, Baobab, Czech Republic;

Opera Prima (debut)

Ko darīt, ja esi kails pilsētā (What to Do If You Are Naked in a City?), Aleksandra Runde, Janis Roze Publishers, Latvia;

New Horizons

回憶見 (See You in Memories), Pen So, Pen So Artlab, Hong Kong;

Comics: Early Reader

Comment naissent les arbres (How Trees Are Born), Charles Berbérian, La Martinière Jeunesse, France;

Comics: Middle Grade

Les Pissenlits (Dandelions), Nina Six, Éditions Sarbacane, France;

Comics: YA

Il racconto della roccia (The Rock’s Tale), BeneDì (Benedetta D’Incau), Coconino Press, Italy;

Toddler (new permanent category)

Dia de Lua (Moon Day), Renato Moriconi, Jujuba Editora, Brazil;

The Sea (the 2024 special category)

Giù nel blu – Dalla superficie agli abissi: viaggio sottomarino sfogliabile (Down in the Blue – From the Surface to the Abyss: a Browsable Underwater Journey), Gianumberto Accinelli, Nomos Edizioni, Italy;

Extraordinary Award

Bambini nascosti (Hidden Children), Franco Matticchio, Vànvere edizioni, Italy.

Jurors for the 2024 Ragazzi Awards

Main Jury

• Tina Bilban
• Claudette S. McLinn
• Alice Nussbaum
• Beatriz Sanjuán

Comics Jury

• Mohammad Yousuf AlShaibani
• Enrico Fornaroli
• Joonas Sildre

‘The Sea’ and Nonfiction

• Giorgia Grilli
• Alessio Scaboro
• Henning Wiesner

More about all of this year’s awards, including special mentions, can be found here.

Sources: www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com, publishingperspectives.com (Porter Anderson)

Copy Editing: Terra Friedman King