Armadillos editor and technical editor were both at the Bologna Childrens Books Rights Fair this April; it was my 8th and her 4th fair so we both felt we were getting the hang of it. I remember at my first fair in 1993 being so daunted by the sheer size of the halls and the vast numbers of publishers and titles that I felt like running away. And its certainly still true that Bologna is not the most encouraging place for an author.
But I dont think Ive ever before found it so depressing for the kind of books on offer. There was a really stifling sense of a search for øproperties" rather than literature. Stand after over-elaborate stand vied to produce variations on pink, glitter, fairies, dragons, rainbows and Disney-eyed pre-pubertal princesses, spies and girl gangs.
Rainbow Magic was everywhere ¨ its new marketing company claimed that øDaisy Meadows" is the second best-selling childrens author after J. K. Rowling. Macmillan was covered in ads for the ghastly-looking Ugenia Lavender series by ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and Transworld has the equally repellent Perfect Ponies series from Katie Price (Jordan).
The catalogue shows you the way the wind is blowing, with one of the first ads being for a company who call themselves øThe leader in collectables" [sic]. Then many more for licensing. Big in the catalogue too are ads for another category of ølookalike titles" which I would characterise as a sort of C. S. Tolkien or J.R.R.Lewis subgenre of young fantasy. First is the Italian La Chiave dellAlchemista (The alchemists key) by Cristina Brambilla (Mondadori).
Then there is the Fairy Oak series by Elisabetta Gnone, who created the W.I.T.C.H. series idea for Disney. The synopsis for this new trilogy is the usual tosh about the battle between Dark and Light, told through twin witches and a bunch of fairies. The jackets show a pair of cutesified red-haired nymphets. It appears to be published by øFairy Oak Management" and the author is Editor-in-Chief of the Barbie magazines for Mattel. See what I mean? Say no more.
More C.S.Tolkien on the stands: Penguin USA had Faeries of Dreamdark by Laini Taylor and The Discovery of Dragons by Graeme Base. Random House had Runemarks by Joanne Harris ¨ which might well be better than the common run - and Michael Scotts The Alchemyst. Even Alessandro Cotugnos Angus McOliver e la Spada (Sword) di Esdira for the Italian Kollemata publisher has a jacket in this same fantasy mould.
There is still a shortage of good fiction for 8-12s and scout Natasha Farrant remarked, øEveryone is struggling to find distinctive stories for eights-to-twelves that arent 'orphan boy discovers secret powers and saves the world."
There were of course exceptions, often on the more modest stands. Templar, for example, who have had such a hit with their ø-ology" series (of which the latest øMythology" will be out in the autumn and reviewed in the next Armadillo). They have a new picture book from Carol Ann Duffy, The Princess Blankets and Helen Wards Varmints.
And Philip Pullman was at the fair for the first time, in conversation with an Italian fantasy writer Silvana de Mari, whose LUltimo Elfo is published by Bloomsbury as The Last Elf.
Oxford University Press began the first of its centenary celebrations at the fair. Publisher Kate Harris reminded guests at the party of the achievements of the past hundred years from Tom Browns Schooldays published in 1907, through Toms Midnight Garden The Eagle of the Ninth to todays stars like Tim Bowler, Gillian Cross and the peerless Geraldine McCaughrean, who was present.
It was the 44th fair and it coincided with the result of a survey in Italy that showed Italian children read 20% more than their parents. Most reports seem to agree that picturebooks are at last coming out of the doldrums and there was more foreign interest in British illustrated titles than in the last couple of years.
Maybe some tiny green shoots then among the synthetic greener than green grass-type producté that carpeted so much of the fair.
The first picture taken at the Shogakukan stand is of Tatsuko Nagasawa, President; Mary Hoffman; Rhiannon Lassiter; Mitsuo Tabei, Executive Manager
The second picture is of the HIT Rainbow Magic display
The third picture is of the illustrator's cafe.