The 17 Sustainability Development Goals

Children’s books capture the imagination, educate, and the can inspire communities to think and act in support of the SDGs. This session will look at the influence SDG book club has on raising awareness and the importance of adding new languages to drive local change and actions. Panelists will discuss how can books compel future generations of leaders to achieve sustainability and lasting change.

Sustainability Special Category winner: Art is a Voice, Art1st Enterprises, India, 2024. Text and Illustations by Kripa. Non-Fiction winner: Per mille camicette al giorno, Orecchio Acerbo, Italy, 2024. Text by Serena Ballista, Illustrations by Sonia Maria Luce Possentini.

Itabashi Art Museum Director Kiyoko Matsuoka and Art Director Masahiro Kakinohara will present the SDG SUGOROKU, an educational game created in collaboration with an artist from Itabashi, Picture Book City. Following this, there will be a presentation of Japanese SDG picture books selected by the city of Itabashi.

Remember when publishers started producing wonderful, reassuring, empowering, self-esteem-building books for girls? Today, professional sociological research shows that young men need that very same support from the book industry. Many younger boys are testing almost a grade level behind girls in English and arts studies. And many young men are struggling to finish school, earn college degrees, and become the supportive, loving fathers and husbands we know they can be. Much of this comes down to self-esteem and the need to signal that masculinity does not have to be "toxic." The publishing world can help male readers with books that offer healthy career options, loving and compassionate relationships, and the means to grow into great friends, lovers, spouses, and fathers. In this special session, expert speakers will be exploring the book industry's unique opportunity to help young men face their crises, just as it has faithfully done for girls.

SDGs can be successfully achieved if we start early. Reading promoters help children understand how our actions, both positive and negative, shape the world. What are the main challenges in the era of consumerism, AI and new technologies? And what are the key tools a reading promoter might need? Where does the book industry come into play?

A panel of esteemed authors, publishers, educators, and sexologists will discuss how children's books today can create space for authentic and inclusive stories that avoid stereotypes—while steering clear of writing books solely to address specific topics. Panelists will explore how gender representation is evolving in children’s books, including trans and queer experiences, in various countries around the world, and also discuss the use of gender-neutral language as well as the experiences of these works being translated (cultural expectations of local versus foreign works and identities about gender and expression).

In 1989, world leaders made a historic commitment to children by adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child—the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. While this agreement has helped improve the lives of millions, many children around the world are still denied their fundamental rights. To highlight the importance of protecting and promoting these rights, Bologna Children’s Book Fair hosts - in collaboration with the United Nations - a multilingual reading of the Convention, featuring 42 authors, illustrators, and publishers from across the globe. Each participant will read one of the 42 articles of the Convention in their native language, creating a powerful, collective voice for children’s rights.

80 years after the Liberation, a look at the ways in which reality comics have told the story of resistance, at different historical periods and latitudes. A look at the more political side of the graphic novel and the ability of this language to narrate global conflicts to a young audience.

Feminisms, gender and identity are now part of cultural discourse at all levels. A group of cartoonists and publishers who pay special attention to these issues discuss how they are influenced by political issues, and how to address these topics in fictional stories aimed at different age groups.

In the field of children's and young adult literature, new realities, voices, and languages are gaining prominence. This openness has brought tremendous richness, expanding genres and readership. As a result, new characters, settings, and territories are emerging in literature and illustrations, opening up the world to diversity and enriching imaginations