The savage truth about cannibalism

Though dietary habits are not a usual focus on this blog, we felt it an appropriate topic as we celebrate the publication of the wonderful Matt Whyman’s new book, THE SAVAGES . It follows the lives of the Savage family, their strange family tradition and, shall we say, interesting taste in people. For more about the novel, check out Matt’s intro video below and explore more content on the web site.

For me, the question was what started this bizarre family tradition? I found the answer in the novel, and a particularly horrific and devastating time in history…

The siege of Leningrad began in June 1941, when Stalin and the Soviet Union were attacked by their supposed ally, Nazi Germany. By the end of August the German forces has reached Leningrad (St Petersburg). By 8th September 1941, every road and rail line was cut with devastating air raids starting the next day and continuing for 17 months. The citizens of Leningrad were totally isolated – no one could enter or leave, let alone bring in basic supplies like food.

At the start of the siege  it was estimated that the city had enough flour for 35 days, cereals for 30 days, meat for 22 days and sugar for 60 days. The siege however, lasted until 27th January 1944 – that’s 827 days.

Ration cards were distributed, but these were dependent on status with the lowest category of dependent receiving only 125g of bread a day (3 thin slices); bread that contained a high proportion of nutritionless fillers like cottonseed. Queues lined the streets, while the weather dropped to -30 degrees, and people who managed to get their rations lived off 300 calories a day.

Desperately in need of food, the citizens of Leningrad did what they could. At first animals from the city zoo were eaten, followed by household pets (with reports that families swapped their pets with neighbours so they didn’t have to eat their own), and then wild rats and birds. Wallpaper paste was made from potatoes and so people scraped it off their walls. Grass and weeds were cooked, leather was boiled to produce a kind of edible jelly, and sheep’s intestines were boiled down with oil of clove to be used instead of milk. There are reports of men drinking oil from oil cans, eating grease from machines and joiner’s glue in their desperation.

One diarist noted ‘Hunger has changed almost everyone’, and perhaps it is unsurprising that these desperate, isolated citizens resorted to cannibalism. Police records from the time show that 2,000 people were arrested for cannibalism, while 586 of them were executed for murdering their victims, although the actual number could in fact be much higher. The Leningrad police formed a special division to combat cannibalism as these cases became more regular. Sadly, the majority of people arrested were women, as mothers resorted to desperate measures to feed their children.

When the siege finally ended it was estimated that over 750,00 people had died from starvation – between a quarter and a third of the original population.

I can remember a surprisingly substantial amount of the World War II history we learned for GCSE, but the siege of Leningrad was just another date stuffed in amongst the Beer Hall Putsch and Home Front propaganda posters – and I think that’s wrong. The dark, horrific history of the siege, and perhaps in particular the lengths people went to to get food, reveal so much about human nature and human need. Not only how far we will go when we’re desperate, but also what we will do to provide for and protect those we love.

There are some parts of history that are so dark and so terrible, it’s hard to comprehend how society could have permitted such terrifying human behavior. And oftentimes, the only way we can truly explore the reality of the people who experienced these terrible things is through fiction. Fiction allows us to ask questions and experience empathy in a way that non-fiction sometimes does not permit.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea, THE SAVAGES is not a dark exploration of World War II Russia. Instead, Matt delicately uses this horrible historical event as an anchor for the family’s behavior. It makes the family real. They don’t just have some strange desire for blood. They are a regular family with an unusual family tradition. A tradition that has been passed onto them, so they can appreciate all they have around them and never forget the past.

Philosophy made simple

Today’s blog is from Peter Clapp, who interned for us a few weeks ago. Peter studied Philosophy and Theology at Oxford University and then spent a few years acting, mainly in the back rooms of pubs but occasionally in exciting places like New York. Having realised the life of an actor probably wasn’t quite for him, he’s now hoping to pursue a career in another of his passions, children’s publishing. A career move his one year old brother is particularly excited about.

When people think of philosophy, they tend to think of dry, dense tomes that are full of more semicolons than sense. The sorts of books that are no doubt very important, that influenced society in some indefinably crucial way, but, y’know, you wouldn’t actually want to read them. And in many ways those people are right.

Philosophy can be dense. It can be pretentious, and reading it can often feel like unpicking a knot with the lights turned off. But at its heart philosophy is none of those things. It’s not about overly complex language; it’s about incredibly powerful ideas that make you see the world in a completely different way. The trouble is, though the ideas may actually be quite simple, they’re really very hard to express.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m waffling on about philosophy on Hot Key’s blog. Well it’s because I think YA and children’s fiction can be a brilliant way of exploring these big, philosophical ideas.

Take Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials – an obvious example I know, but also a good one – over the course of the trilogy Pullman precisely questions the role and influence of religion. Now, a lot of people might say that’s all well and good, but you could explore those ideas much better by reading Paradise Lost and Richard Dawkins. But I’d argue they don’t offer an inherently better way, just a different one. All too often I think we’re guilty of thinking that ideas can only be weighty if they’re also heavy. Whereas in reality a fast-paced, gripping narrative can be just as good at exploring big ideas as something that’s considered more high brow.

Anyone who isn’t convinced should read Lois Lowry’s The Giver. It’s a brilliant dystopian thriller set in a society where everyone has chosen to repress their memories and limit their experiences in order to live a life free from pain. Unfortunately, it also means they’re pretty incapable of dealing with threats so they elect one person to receive the memories and experiences they lack and act as a leader.

The novel follows 12 year old Jonas as takes on this role and in the process finds his coddled life blown apart. But what’s really fascinating is that Jonas doesn’t just get more knowledgeable, rather his fundamental experience of life begins to change. In one particularly powerful section he starts to see colours he’s never experienced before. Lowry seems to be suggesting that our minds aren’t just blank slates that the world imprints on; instead they’re more like filters that influence our experiences. More than this, if you change that filter in some way – by providing new fundamental knowledge – then your basic experience of the world can change too. And, as Kant will happily tell you, that’s a deeply philosophical idea.

Now, if that last paragraph has left you scratching your head, then in a funny kind of way I think I’ve sort of proven my point. Expressing these ideas in an article or blog is hard and sometimes it’s far more effective to express them in a story. In my opinion YA and children’s literature does that brilliantly. It can take these big, bold ideas and create a story that is illuminating, unpretentious, gripping and fun. It proves the point that big ideas aren’t just for dusty old men in ivory towers – they’re for everyone.

Can you think of other examples of this in YA books published today? Or do you remember having any philosophical epiphanies after reading a particular title when you were growing up?

Want to know what teenagers want? Ask them!

This year, we have been working closely with the fantastic Platform youth hub in Islington to build a series of author-led creative writing classes for young people aged 13 to 19 called Write Ideas, which runs every Tuesday evening in term time.

As part of Word 2013, Islington’s month-long celebration of reading and writing, authors Sarah Mussi and Sara Grant have put together an event to showcase the young people’s writing from Write Ideas, and to chat about the books they enjoy reading and draw inspiration from for their own writing.

The event gives anybody interested in literature the opportunity to hear directly from young people about what inspires them and to engage in a lively and interactive discussion about teen reading habits. You’ll also get a chance to network a bit and meet other attendees. Here are the details:

Where: Platform, Hornsey Road Baths, 260 Hornsey Road, London, N7 7QT
Time: Tuesday 21 May 6.30 – 8pm
Ages: Everyone welcome
Price: free, just turn up.
More Info: http://www.platformislington.org.uk/express-yourself

Bank Holiday Reading

Happy May 6th Bank Holiday! We hope you are enjoying the weather (please no rain!), having a delicious meal, spending time with your favourite people, and finding time to enjoy a good book. Even though most of us spend the majority of our reading time pouring over our own books, we do manage, especially on these holiday weekends, to fit in a few titles outside our list. So, here’s what we’re reading this weekend:

Amy: I’m so close to finishing THE ACCURSED by Joyce Carol Oates, which I feel like has taken my brain and twisted it into an origami crane (or more appropriately, an origami vampire bat). It’s a completely bizarre and beautifully written story set in the early 20th century about a curse which descends upon the inhabitants of Princeton, New Jersey. Just read what Stephen King had to say about it. If I manage to finish that, I’ll move onto either LET’S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS by David Sedaris, or WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK by Nathan Englander. Decisions, decisions!

Sarah O: I’m reading a book called A HORA DA ESTRELA by Clarice Lispector. I’m reading it with my Portuguese teacher. In Portuguese! It’s the story of a young woman from the north east of Brasil who moves to Rio de Janeiro  for work and things dont go well for her. It was Clarice’s last published work, published posthumously, and exhibits all her courageous and innovative use of language and attitude to structure. Though she is one of Brazil’s greatest writers she is published a bit too little outside the country. Maybe that will change.

Emily: For me it is BE AWESOME – Hadley Freeman’s alternative to HOW TO BE A WOMAN by Caitlin Moran.

Sarah B: I am reading, in chunks, (when I have time -  which I hope to be this bank hol!) – LITERARY ROGUES: A SCANDALOUS HISTORY OF WAYWARD AUTHORS which I picked up in New York. It’s the perfect read for a) a person in publishing and b) someone who lives with an author – just to watch out for the warning signs of bad behaviour! Each chapter is on a different author, period and their vices and normally, their tragic ends!

Cait: BAD PHARMA by Ben Goldacre – terrifying so far, I’m desperate to finish over the weekend!!

Naomi: THE CRANE WIFE by Patrick Ness. As a huge fan of Patrick Ness (although come on, who isn’t?! Even my severely dyslexic boyfriend who has only ever read the Harry Potter books and several Guns N’ Roses themed  autobiographies loved the CHAOS WALKING series!) as well as Japanese folklore, I was very excited to hear that he was releasing a new book for adults, based on a traditional Japanese fairytale. As I already know how the original story goes, I am pretty certain there will be no happy endings here, but it still looks like an amazing read and one I can’t wait to sink my teeth into. Also the cover is gorgeous! And I can (probably) exclusively reveal that the double-matte finish FEELS LIKE VELVET! (Not that I know this from repeatedly rubbing it on my face, of course.)

Sara OC: I’m reading THE END OF BIG by Nicco Mele on my Kobo app. Nicco is a friend of mine from high school and basically revolutionised the way presidential campaigns are run. He pioneered the grassroots social media fundraising as webmaster for Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign.

Emma: THE GREAT GATSBY – because it is a modern classic I have never read. And because the film is coming and I HATE seeing the film before I have read the book. Also WONDER – the story of a boy with severe facial disfigurement. I am reading this with my 9 year old. He is loving it and so am I.

Jan: Right now I’m plowing through my haul from the Stockholm International Comics Festival that I attended to last weekend. Most of all I’m looking forward to reading STORIES FROM ENGELFORS. It’s an interlude graphic novel, published between book two and three in the YA trilogy “The Circle” by Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mats Strandberg. It’s been making it’s way around the world for the past few years and since the co-writers and artists Kim W Andersson  (who also designed the trilogy covers), Lina Neidestam and Karl Johnsson are friends of mine I’m hoping this graphic novel gets the same treatment!

Another two beautiful finds that I’ll be ogling are Sigbjørn Lilleeng’s  GENERATOR which looks a bit Akira inspired, with a Paul Pope treatment – Norwegians really know their stuff when it comes to comics! So do Germans, and even though I won’t get as much of DAS INFERNO by Michael Meier it’s looking amazing!

Becca: Over the bank holiday  weekend I am reading THE LAST GIRLFRIEND ON EARTH by Simon Rich. My little sister sent it to me in the post because she loved it so much, and I definitely trust her judgement. So far so good, it’s a collection of quirky, surreal and hilarious short stories and sketches about love. My favourite so far involves an over-amorous goat and the grisly troll that ‘got away’. I’m excited to see where this goes….

Georgia: I’m reading THE LOST ART OF KEEPING SECRETS by Eva Rice – Emily’s copy via Becca! I’d never have picked this book up as it has the most dreary pastel cover and looks like godawful chick lit, but it’s a delight – a kind of pastiche of a 50s novel, full of wonderfully eccentric characters, fabulous period detail, written with great wit and warmth but also real poignancy. Utterly delicious and unputdownable!

What are you reading today? Tell us below!

The beautiful or the cursed?

In THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED by Page Morgan, gargoyles are far more than deliberately ugly stone statues attached to the side of churches, cathedrals and abbeys. Yes, some are troubled and have stone forms (some of the time) but they also act as the guardians of the buildings they decorate.

(And decorate they do – they’re also beautiful. As in, bizarre creature hot-beautiful. As in I may have a tiny bit of a book boy crush on a gargoyle. Never thought I’d write that).

These fantastical stone beasts have fascinated Page Morgan ever since she first went to Paris and saw the famous gargoyles adorning Notre Dame:

Like this…

and this…(though he looks a bit bored)

It’s very difficult to separate gargoyles from their ecclesiastical setting (especially if you studied Theology) and so I have always thought that gargoyles were meant to symbolise the dangers of evil and sin, to act as a didactic, visual warning and deterrent to congregations. After all, isn’t there something eerily recognisable about them?  They are monstrous distortions of things we recognise: animals, emotions, our own faces even?

However, in THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED Page Morgan has created a cast of gargoyle characters who act as guardians and protectors of the buildings they adorn in their stone form, and the people who live within them. A little bit of internet procrastination later, and I’d discovered that actually, in a way, the fundamental role of a gargoyle was to protect – they’re super sophisticated-looking gutters that prevent rainwater eroding mortar and stone. They’re not screaming, but draining.  I honestly think this is one of the coolest things – just look at this example of a gargoyle from Wawel Cathedral in Krakow.

A gargoyle from Wawel Cathedral, Krakow

Moreover, many suggest that gargoyles do not act as a deterrent towards people, but towards evil itself. Just look at the images above of the Notre Dame gargoyles nestled over the city; there’s an alertness and battle-ready feeling to them. They’re up in the heavens, encircling the cathedral and the congregation therein; manning their particular look out post, almost taunting any evil forces stupid enough to come near. I look at them and think you’re strong, and strangely elegant, and I need some new gutters so you’re coming home with me to keep me safe, thanks.

Look out for THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED out this week at bookstores everywhere!

On First Love…

Do you remember your first love? I do. His name was Geoff – I was 12 years old and about a foot taller than him. But obviously that didn’t bother me at all because we were meant to be together…despite the height difference.

I’m thinking about first love as Dawn O’Porter’s novel Paper Aeroplanes comes out next week and we are EXCITED, as you can tell. A few weeks ago we had a chat with Dawn in front of the camera about various nostalgia moments from her own teen school years. And here’s the first one…On first love…

We’ll share more of the videos with you over the course of the week – coming soon…friends, frenemies, school, periods and the all important question of 90s food! Stay tuned for more and watch our twitter stream for the launch of Dawn’s new website…

Anyone brave enough to share their stories of first love?

Visiting other worlds to remember our own

Did you know that it’s Earth Day today? We hope you’re celebrating by doing simple things — remembering to turn off lights, unplugging “vampire” appliances when not in use, recycling more, wasting less, and of course…reading! Reading is actually a great way to save the planet, because the right book can completely change the way you think about the world. And after all, isn’t saving the planet really dependent on our ability to change the way we operate? So to get you started, here are a few recommended books for Earth Day:

The Cloud Hunters live in a world that is both familiar and very, very different to our own. They travel through the sky in boats, fighting flying whales and fearsome pirates so far, so different. At the heart of Alex Shearer’s story however is a lack of water. Something our world is becoming increasingly familiar with. Water is a commodity like gold and grain – and it’s only when it’s gone that you really understand how precious it is.

BOONIE takes you to a desert world, where the earth has been parched by an unyielding sun and water is society’s most precious resource. The desperate search for water has led to terrible abuses of power, and it is up to two brave children, JD and Aqua, to fight for the city’s childrens’ freedom.

THE LORAX is a classic tale of what goes wrong when we stop respecting our natural resources. You can even purchase it in a special recycled paper edition!

In THE GREAT PAPER CAPER, when trees start mysteriously disappearing from the forest, the forest creatures begin their search for answers. Could the abundance of paper aeroplanes littered about have something to do with this tragedy?

As the polar ice caps melt, polar bear sets off to look for a new place to live in THE JOURNEY HOME. Follow him as he meets a few other endangered species along the way…

This beautiful pop-up published by the Tate artfully illustrates the effects of deforestation.

Can you think of others? Add them to the list by posting them in the comments below. And let us know how you are celebrating Earth Day!

Of wrestling trolls and faces of the moon…

Last year, our first Bologna, we had five books to sell on the international rights front – not bad for a launch list of nine. It was exhilarating, scary, sobering, surprising – and enormous fun.  And now here we were again, one year on, with our shelves stacked with real finished books and with a few prizes and rights sales too.

What happened in the interim?  Let’s take MAGGOT MOON.  We reckoned we had a bit of a winner there, but markets can be fickle (and the mood was pretty cautious) so you can never be quite sure.  That’s one of the thrills of the business – no two books work in the same way.  It’s a statement of the obvious, I know, but it makes life challenging and just a little bit dangerous.  The fair just reminds you of the amazing diversity of tastes (sometimes surprising, sometimes downright confounding), of ways of publishing, of national and cultural conventions.

MAGGOT MOON went down brilliantly at that first fair and has now sold in seventeen countries (it’s only the beginning) and has been published in three so far.  So, in seventeen places, the book has been similarly appreciated, loved and bought but just take a look at the jackets and differences immediately emerge.

Our edition

The American edition

American booksellers are colour-prejudiced – they abhor white jackets – so for the US edition our image has been cast on a cool shade of midnight blue.  In both the Italian and Spanish editions the title has changed (it is a bit of a difficult one) so it becomes THE THREE FACES OF THE MOON and STANDISH’S PLANET.  Take a look at the treatment – graphic and photographic – reflecting what the publisher feels will make it work in the local market.  Of course if you were to give the book to a handful of UK publishers you would get as many and various jackets but with translation you have the originating publisher’s vision first and foremost – to reject, accept or adapt.  I can’t wait to see the Chinese, Japanese and Thai versions…

The Italian edition

The Spanish edition

Interestingly the book has sold in southern European countries, the far east too, but NOT in Scandinavia.  It’s just a matter of time but it’s still curious – is it because of the subject, the politics, the genre, the state of the market, the fact that there are more books being published by local authors at the moment?  Hmmmmm.  I’ll let you know.

When we’re offering for a book, we consider what we think we can sell in translation, and it’s tricky.  Say we have a book on wrestling trolls, for instance.  Trolls are from Scandinavia so that should be fertile territory, although one Norwegian editor told me that her publisher absolutely hated trolls.

And what about wrestling? It’s hugely popular in Japan, Korea, the USA and of course Turkey where oil wrestling (when the participants are covered in olive oil…) is a national sport, but in Japan they are not so fond of huge hairy trolls (Moomintrolls are quite another matter).  There again the combination of the two is perhaps more than the sum of its parts. Basically, there is no science in this, no easy formula that can be worked out with a bit of research on google.  All I can say is that the mood of the fair was definitely receptive to the idea of wrestling trolls.  Hooray!  It’s all about the magic of the writing and the spell it casts over the reader.  And that’s the thrill of a book fair.  There’s nothing quite like seeing that glimmer in an editor’s eye – the excitement of a new idea, a challenging concept… a wrestling troll.

Girl meets Boy meets Books: Part 2

The great book swap continues! You might remember that as a January resolution the ‘boy’ and I decided to challenge each other with a book to broaden the mind. One book each month, something that the other one would never dream of picking up but that would give them a new perspective on great literature. Last time we got as far as debating language vs plot and cleverness vs intellect… recent events have proved that great works split opinion, and there are some things we will never agree on!

Getting stuck in…

 February (see here for our reasons behind the chosen titles)

I gave him WONDER by R.J. Palacio

He said –
While the message of the book is commendable and important, I feel that the author’s voice drowns out the child characters’ voices because she feels she has an important lesson for readers – but tells it in a manner which is purposefully childish. It came across as trite, preachy and patronising as a result. I hate to be a reviewer who negatively reviews a book which is so obviously not aimed at him, but I do feel that there is children’s literature out there which conveys a similar message but with a story and characters complex enough to leave more of a lasting impression. And without the infuriatingly-schmaltzy Hollywood ending. While it is a decent story relatively well told, I got the impression it’s the kind of story adults think children should be reading to turn them into sensible and sensitive people, rather than what children really want to read.

He gave me FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury

I said –
I absolutely loved this. It felt like reading THE HANDMAID’S TALE all over again, a stark warning about abandoning things which are crucial to humanity in favour of ‘progress’. The burning of books has been a symbol for centuries of the danger of knowledge, and the restriction of freedom. From the burning of Ashurbanipal in 612 BC, to the Nazi book burning campaign in 1933 where over 25,000 texts were destroyed, to set alight a book symbolises far more than flame on paper. Even today the burning of books is a regular occurrence. Whether that’s the Qu’ran in Florida or stacks of Harry Potter books, it is a statement of aggression, and violence that somehow transgresses a physical violation. Ray Bradbury’s story is one that will stay with me, his stark prose and vivid characters were excellent. And despite the dystopian world I thought he betrayed a sense of hope in Montag’s innate need for literature; for poetry, prose, history and society  devoured from paper. It made me wonder what this meant for eBooks – is there a danger that the transience of the digital word betrays the perpetuity of paper?

March

I gave him KIT’S WILDERNESS by David Almond
The reaction I got to WONDER made me certain that my next move had to be a good one. I wanted to prove that children’s literature can be hugely powerful, and scary, moving, and dangerous. The sense of uneasiness that Almond regularly creates in his writing has stayed with me beyond plot points and character details and I knew that it was a good book for a boy who loves powerful prose and sparse writing.

He said –
Read any work by David Almond and you immediately get a sense of someone who understands the complexity of young readers’ minds, what inspires them, what excites them and the type of story they can get lost in. Kit’s Wilderness is a perfect example. It deals with themes like friendship, belonging, rejection, redemption, and all with a subtlety of touch which gets under the skin and remains with you long after reading. There is nothing patronising in his style – he treats readers with respect and urges them to make up their own minds about complex issues like the relationship between Kit and Askew, the meaning of the Death game, the presence of ghosts. While SKELLIG is David Almond’s most famous novel, I feel that KIT’S WILDERNESS is the superior novel in many respects, and showcases an author at the height of his powers, providing a thrilling, utterly absorbing ride for his audience.

He gave me Woody Allen’s Complete Prose
I chose Woody Allen’s Collected Prose because I consider it to be among the best comic prose ever written. It stands alongside Wodehouse, Thurber and Perelman in its consistency of laughs, but with a range of stories and surreal edge which is for me superior to any of those. It is the ultimate ‘dip-in-and-out’ book, with almost every line providing a twist, a turn of phrase, a witty reversal, a master class in joke writing and one liners. Even the most worn stories in my copy, like The Kugelmass Episode and Death Knocks, still surprise me and make me laugh out loud. It is, without doubt, my desert island book.

I said –
Errr… I know that Woody Allen is your hero. I get that he is a comedy genius, and I can see the brilliance at work. But I just didn’t get it. Maybe I should have picked out stories rather than starting at the beginning and working my way through. I was never compelled to pick it up and abandon eating and sleeping to get to the end. I enjoyed it in a distant and slightly removed way, I would like to read more but I think that it will be the kind of book that I can pick up and put down easily, maybe with a few days or weeks in between. But not every book has to be like a blindfold over my consciousness – I’m never going to ‘wake up’ from Woody Allen and realise that I’ve been dribbling into my muesli for 3 hours.

Next Month…..

He’s giving me THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde
This was the first of Oscar Wilde’s works I ever came across and it hooked me from the first chapter on. His prose contains a musicality that transcends words on a page in a way I’ve never encountered anywhere else. Although the story of Dorian Gray is well known even by those who haven’t read it, the joy of Wilde’s wit makes it worth reading, again and again. I think you’ll get lost in the book and completely fall in love with the author.

I’m giving him WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT by Judith Kerr
This book is dog eared and well loved. It has my name (and age – 6) printed neatly in the corner. It was my book that I carried around with me, just looking at the cover and thinking that it was real, that it actually happened. That her daddy was just like my daddy, and it could have been me who had to disappear from my home and my friends. Judith Kerr’s book was my gateway to Anne Frank, to Alexander Solzhenitsyn and to Primo Levi. It was, and remains my favourite book. I know you will love it, and I know you will understand how important it is.

Are there any books that you are desperately trying to get other people to read? Which ones are you avoiding? Are there any books that have shaped how you read today? Any thoughts, let us know!

Visual Inspiration in Bologna

There’s a LOT to look at in Bologna. Giant glowing versions of book covers line walkways, book-covered shelves form the walls of each booth, signs dangle from the ceiling. Amidst all of this visual stimuli, our Art Director Jet found some visually stunning covers and artwork both at the fair and in Bologna bookshops!

Outside the main exhibition hall, there was a gallery of art by carefully selected children’s illustrators on display. Here are a few of Jet’s favourites:

By seesaw, Japan.

By Ha Yeon Jung, Korea.

Felt characters by Holman and Jack Wang, Canada.

By Violeta Lopiz, Spain.

And some special bookshop finds: