Ukraine will present a national stand at the jubilee 60th Bologna Children's Book Fair, which will be held from March 6 to 9 in Bologna, Italy.
The organizers of the fair provided free space and equipment for the Ukrainian stand (48 m²) to support Ukraine again, as last year, when the Bologna Children's Book Fair was one of the first to announce its support for Ukraine and did not allow Russia to participate in the fair.
The Bologna Children's Book Fair is one of the world's leading book fairs and the largest dedicated to children's books. About 1,400 participants gather here, and the number of professional visitors reaches 30,000.
Among the participants of the Ukrainian stand are 22 publishing houses: "Stary Lev Publishing House", "Ranok", "Time of Masters", "Yakabu", etc.
"The slogan of the Ukrainian stand is "Mother, I see war,'' which was shared with us by the charitable project of the same name, which started its activities from the first days of the full-scale invasion and collected more than 15,000 children's drawings. Designers Sofia Hupalovska and Daria Bila, in partnership and using the materials of the "Mom, I see war" project, developed a visual concept of the stand based on children's drawings to convey to visitors to the fair that our children have been seeing things they shouldn't for a year and to present children's literature written during Russia's devastating war against Ukraine. Children dream of peace, believe in justice, and continue to create, write, and draw to tell their story. They continue reading. Books give them a sense of security. And our children give us hope and strength for resilience. Our children are our future, and we are fighting for that. With our stand, we call on foreign publishers to translate and publish Ukrainian books. In this way, they will be able to help millions of people to learn the true value of life, and millions of children to overcome fear, reduce the pain of loss and overcome the horrors of war," comments the director of the Ukrainian Book Institute, Oleksandra Koval, on the concept of Ukraine's stand at the Bologna Children's Book Fair
