Serious reading going on at CCBF
Science fiction and fantasy is popular at the 2019 China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair.
The China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair began on Friday, with more publishers from 32 countries and regions taking part.
The Emirates Publishers Association from the United Arab Emirates has its own booth for the first time. "We are a non-profit organization and we help the publishers and the publishing industry to thrive in the UAE," said Mariam AI Obaidli, association corporate communication manager.
"It's our first time at the book fair with a stand, but it's the third time we've been to the fair," she told Shanghai Daily.
This year, they brought two children's book publishers with them. "One of them launched three books today, which are translated from Chinese to Arabic."
She said book fairs for children were a wonderful idea. Compared with what they saw in the past two years, this year's book year is much better, bigger and more international, she added.
Another new comer, the Australia Council for the Arts, is seeking cooperation with Chinese publishers.
The council's Wenona Byrne told Shanghai Daily that in Australia, the demand for children's books is very strong and occupying about 45 percent of the market. "For us, bringing children's books to China is a natural progression. It's also about building relationships in the region which is really important for Australian publishers, and also for Australian authors," she said.
"It's fantastic to come to a book fair that is dedicated to children's books. Children's books are a bit different —— they are quite specialized and have lots of different sub-categories and to come to a fair with only children's specialists at the fair means having really meaningful conversations and a lot of business is done."
A woman shows her publisher's books to domestic publishers.
A man shows some French books to a domestic publisher.
Xelo Perez Moreno with Spanish publisher Bromera is at the fair for the second time, the first time being five years ago. This time the section for Spain has seven publishers. She said that during the past five years, they had found Chinese readers like their books and more than 10 have been released.
Besides the new comers, there are also some old friends. Children's Books USA has been coming to the fair since it was founded. Victoria Sutherland said they had brought a lot of new books this year, including some award winners, books about global warming and those teaching children how to be brave in a world that is not easy.
Taiwan-based Chang-Tang International Publishing Co, also there from the very beginning, bought a new series of books called the History of Earth, which came from Bill Gates' idea of "Big History." This series chooses the points children often get interested in to explain natural history to them, said its manager Wang Pilan.
"Readers showed great interest in our books and one even bought each one, adding up to more than 700 volumes," she said.
An exhibition of pop-up books caught many visitors' attention with 130 delicate books chosen from Italian collector Massimo Missiroli's about collection. He and his partner Matteo Faglia came to know the CCBF from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy and decided to have an exhibition here.
A pop-up show was organized by Italian collector Massimo Missiroli and his partner Matteo Faglia at the book fair.
Pop-up books can be very intricate.
Beijing's Zebra English provides its artificial intelligence online English courses for children. Using AI technology, the system rates children's pronunciation, keeps records and chooses proper books for them.
Reading events are also going on at Jianqing Experimental School in Changning District, where the China Education Forum on Special Children's Reading is taking place. Liz Page, executive director of International Board on Books for Young People, said IBBY is doing a lot of work with special books for children who have disabilities. They also would like to promote the idea that people need to be more inclusive and make everybody join in the mission of bringing books and children together.
At the Yan Ji You Bookstore in Changning Raffles City, Austrian illustrator Lizbeth Zwerger shared her experiences and the stories behind her picture books.
A woman draws on a wall for current and future illustrators at the fair.
Children are playing games at a reading event provided at the book fair.
