BCBF

BBPLUS

BLTF

CCBF

OPERA PRIMA

WINNER 2018 EDITION

Section dedicated to publications from the Arab countries, Latin America, Asia and Africa whose focus on local resources, culture and illustrator talent gives an innovative thrust to publishing in general

 

Candlewick Press, Somerville, USA

 

Julian Is a Mermaid

 

Text and illustrations by Jessica Love

 

What the Jury said:

Fired by real life encounters and make-believe, a child plays at being a mermaid, making a costume from a curtain and the leaves of a house plant. Grandma lends a hand with a necklace and the two go off to a joyful sea-inspired parade. The jury appreciated the maturity of the graphic work from the front to the endpapers, the overall visual concept and artwork as well as the author’s narrative skill and expert pacing. The characters show delicate feelings and affection, the scenes have a balanced simplicity and economy of composition rendered in a mix of watercolours and gouache. An astonishingly accomplished work for a new creative. 

 

Bandal, Paju-si, South Korea

 

A shadow

 

Text and illustrations by Chae Seung-yeon

 

What the Jury said:

A child playing on a beach during the silent slow midday heat, a time when wooden animal toys come to life and an umbrella becomes a tree. The tenderness of by the child moving his toys out of the shifting sun is subtly intimated, never directly shown. The artist inventively gives a sense of the passing of time with light and shadow in a rarefied atmosphere made of airy empty spaces and images – an original figuration between cartoonist and realistic lines – in a picturebook that gives an unusual poetic insight into the secret realm of play. 

  

Flying Eye Books, London, UK

 

Everest

 

Text by Sangma Francis, illustrations by Lisk Feng

 

What the Jury said:

 A work of masterful graphic design, this picturebook combines modern typography and images that reference styles from the past in the colouring, sfumato drawing, and printing. This story of the geography, culture, geology and exploration history of Mount Everest is told in double page spreads where pictures and text interplay.