The Reviewers

Ana Pavez is a Chilean publisher. She received her MA from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She lives in Santiago. She is an educational consultant for museums and institutions. In 2002 she founded Editorial Amanuta, publishing more than 150 illustrated children´s books. Amanuta has been recognized with multiple awards and distinctions. Among them are the Mentions in the Bologna Book Fair obtained in 2017 for Marwan´s road, in 2016 for No Stitch without thread and in 2014 for Little Red Riding Hood.

I am the co-founder and the publisher of Karadi Tales Company, a 25-year-old children's publishing house based in Chennai, India. I have steered the direction of the publishing house from audio books to award winning picture books. We create about 12- 15 picture books every year and have worked with several international illustrators and the best of Indian illustrators too. Our books have sold translation rights to several countries in Europe and South Asia and also have won several international awards.

I am Sigita Pūkienė, publishing director at small company "Aukso žuvys" (Lithuania). I have more than 12 years of publishing experience in creating original books for children and adults, discussing with authors and illustrators regarding the best creative solutions and organizing books' presentation events. Getting a life-changing books into the hands of thousands children is my calling and passion. So, I am very proud of one book by our publishing house - "Siberian haiku" (originally published in 2017) - that is already translated into 13 languages and won many national and international awards and nominations. Besides publishing I am a passionate traveller and communicator.

Arianna Squilloni is the founder of A buen paso, a Barcelona based publishing house that publishes illustrated books for girls, boys and other curious creatures. Together with the Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria, she organizes an international competition of illustrated books and picturebooks. She participates in conferences and debates - in April 2021 she was a speaker at the TEDxMálaga meeting - and also in international illustration juries.

Diana Chamma studied at the American University of Sharjah, where she got a degree in visual communication, as well as a minor in literature. She then completed a masters degree in literature and philosophy from the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. She got a job as a junior graphic designer when she landed back in the United Arab Emirates and worked for a year in the group buying website Cobone. Diana joined Kalimat in 2012 as a graphic designer and combined her favourite two things, books and design. She worked between design and publishing for 9 years and moved across various positions: junior graphic designer in production, senior graphic designer and moved to the position of Art Director in 2015. Travelling to BCBF became part of her role to collaborate with illustrators from all over the world. At the end of 2018, her interest in copyrights got her involved in foreign rights allowing for the opportunity to attend New York’s Children’s Book Salon in 2019, Frankfurt and London book fairs, as well as continuing to oversee the creative department. Diana is currently doing a Masters in Publishing at the University of Sydney and interning at Sydney University Press as part of her degree.

Publisher and consultant focused on literature and reference books for children and youth since 2000. With an academic background in Social Sciences, a Master in Political Science and a PhD in Economic History. She is a founding member and publisher of Emília Magazine since 2012, and president of Instituto Emília (www.revistaemilia.com.br) and Director of Laboratório Emília de Formação (http://laboratorioemilia.com/web/). She was Member of the Jury of The Hans Christian Andersen Awards and member of the Bologna Children Award in 2016, and member of the Chen Bochui Children’s Literature Award in 2019. Since 2018 she has been a consultant from Latin America for Bologna Children's Book Fair.

Ernesto Rodríguez Abad is a teacher at the University of La Laguna (Tenerife. Spain), theater director, writer and editor. In 2008, together with Cayetano Cordovés, he founded the publishing company Diego Pun Ediciones. A publishing company specialized in children's and youth literature and album book. His entire professional career has revolved around literature.

Jin Xiaojing is a Creative Director of Tal Education Group. And also an illustrator based in Beijing. Her book I Miss My Grandpa published in Little Brown US, has been selected as one of the New York Times 10 Best Book in 2019. She is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts, and the author of Here You Are and The Gift Falls Off, both published in China, as well as the winner of the Hsin-Yi Picture Book Award. She was also the first winner of the Little Brown Emerging Artist Award.

Julia Marshall is the founder and publisher of Gecko Press, publishers of curiously good children’s books from around the world since 2004. Julia also translates children’s books from Swedish to English. Gecko Press was awarded New Zealand Publisher of the Year in 2017 and Julia received the Margaret Mahy Award 2021 for a lifetime contribution to children's publishing in New Zealand. She is currently President of the Publishers Association of New Zealand Te Rau o Tākupu Gecko Press books are sold in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the USA.

Publisher of Grimm Press, K.T. Hao is the leading figure of Taiwan’s picture book for children. He was the youngest judge in the history of “Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition”, as well as the first jury from Asia to participate in this international event. He has been named who “Bridging the world by partnering locals with foreign illustrators” by Publisher Weekly. His boundless creativity, exceptional editing, planning, and integration capabilities, as well as his high standards for quality have won him multiple domestic and international awards. Under Hao’s leadership, Grimm Press is known as the publisher in rich experiences of editing stories as well as artwork of picture books for children. 2014 Grimm Press was selected “Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year”. KT believed "reading is the best game, and picture books are the best toys”. He always guided children to various aspects of life in imaginative storylines. He is also well known for his writing flair. The unique rhythms of his stories bring joy to young readers as they read his books out loud. His works including “One Pizza, One Penny”, “The Little Stone Buddha”, and “The Giant and the Spring”.

Lilly Gottwald is an Art Director from sunny Florida, currently living in (not quite as sunny) London, UK. She heads the fantastic design team at Nobrow and Flying Eye Books, working across their beautiful and award-winning illustrated list. She oversees the design and artwork on a huge range of titles, on everything from picture books to fascinating children’s nonfiction, all the way through to dazzling gift books and Nobrow’s eye-catching graphic novels. She is drawn to bold colours and artwork that has a strong point of view. She is always keen to discover fresh talent which is bursting with a combination of unique flair, texture, imagination and technical skill. In her spare time, you can find her creating ceramics for her ever-growing houseplant collection, catching up on podcasts and searching markets for her next perfectly impractical vintage piece.

Editor at Dwie Siostry Publishing (Warsaw, Poland), the 2018 winner of the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. Since 2008 he works with many artists whose creations are determining the shape of the Polish illustration and book design art today. A member of the jury of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition 2019 and Clairvoyants – international competition for an illustrated children’s book project. Occasionally, a children’s books author and translator.

She is Publisher at Petra Ediciones since 1990. Peggy has received several national and international awards and recognitions, among others: Juan Pablos Award for Editorial Merit 2017; FIL Editorial Merit Award 2015; Latin American Editorial Design Award 2016 by the Fundación del Libro, Buenos Aires Book Fair; Member of the D’Pictus jury of illustrators of the Frankfurt Fair sample and in 2018, jury of illustrators of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. She has be part of II and II Edition of Irudika, Festival of Illustration, Vitoria, Spain.

Pietro Corraini is a graphic designer. He graduated in Communication Design with a thesis by the name of “The noise is the massage”. His job is disassembling and reassembling visual and design communication. He has written “How to break the rules of brand design in 10+8 easy exercises” (Corraini), Giancarlo Iliprandi. “Sketch, Think, Draw” e “Mind, Maps and Infographics” (Moleskine). He also runs Un Sedicesimo magazine. He is currently professor at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and has fun organizing workshops (where no-one has been injured, so far).

Sahar Tarhandeh was born in Tehran in 1977. She holds a B.A in Visual Communication & Graphic Design and an M.A in Design: Multimedia and Graphics. She is a member of the Children’s Book Council of Iran and has translated several titles and written several reviews and articles on children’s books. She was also a member of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards jury in 2012 & 2014. Currently, Sahar is the director of TUTI Books, a prestigious publisher for children and YA in Iran.

Publisher of Sang Publishing house(www.sangbooks.com) & Course Reader of ‘Imagination Picturebook School’ in South Korea. (www.imagination.kr). Previous Careers: Vice President of KBBY, Art Director of CJ Picturebook Festival.

Allyn Johnston is VP & Publisher of Beach Lane Books, a San Diego-based children's-book imprint of Simon & Schuster that she founded on April Fool's Day, 2008. Among the authors and illustrators with whom she works are Mem Fox, Lois Ehlert, Marla Frazee, Jeanette Winter, Jonah Winter, Mark Teague, Linda Davick, Cynthia Rylant, Arthur Howard, Debra Frasier, Jan Thomas, Lauren Stringer, Mary Lyn Ray, Amy Schwartz, and K. L. Going.

Mariagrazia Mazzitelli graduated in Russian language and literature at Cattolica University in Milan. In 1985 she started working at Electa and then moved on to Elemond's school division. Since 1995 she has been at Salani, which she has directed since 2000.

Margrete Lamond is an author, editor, publisher, curator and researcher. She has had over 20 of her own works published, most notably The Sorry Tale of Fox and Bear, which was short-listed for the prestigious NSW Premier’s Literary Award. Margrete began her publishing career at Scholastic Press in 2002, was publisher at Little Hare Books from 2006 to 2017, and is now Publishing and Art Director at Dirt Lane Press. Dozens of the books she has commissioned have won awards, and she launched the careers of several top-selling author-illustrators. Margrete also runs a story-coach service, a publishing support service, and has launched online courses with a science-based approach to visual narrative for picture-book illustrators. Margrete holds a Master’s degree in children’s literature, and her special interest is biological approaches to the aesthetics of visual narrative.

Holly Tonks has worked in children’s publishing for over 10 years – commissioning picture books, gift books, novelty and fiction for some of the UK’s largest publishers, including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. She currently works as a Lecturer at Bath Spa University, and as Editor-in-Chief the independent picture book publisher, Lantana, who specialise in producing high-quality, diverse and inclusive picture books, and seek to ensure that every child has the opportunity to see themselves in the books on our shelves.

Arthorn Techatada is currently the Managing Director of Praphansarn Publishing Co., Ltd. and CEO of Elite Creative Co., Ltd. He has over 30 years of experience in Book Publishing working in Praphansarn Publishing and acting as literary agents in the name of Elite Creative Literary Agency. He acted as the executive committee of the Publishers and Bookseller Association of Thailand before and continue his career within the publishing industry.

He’s the founder of Lilla Piratförlaget, an independent publisher of children's books in Sweden. Since 2011 they publish high quality books and collaborate with authors and illustrators such as Anna Höglund, Kitty Crowther, Emma Virke and Anete Melece, among many others. Lilla Piratförlaget is looking for the fun, the unexpected, the quirky and the unruly. Eirk Titusson è il fondatore di Lilla Piratförlaget, una casa editrice indipendente svedese di libri per bambini. Dal 2011 pubblica libri di alta qualità e collabora con autori e illustratori tra i quali Anna Höglund, Kitty Crowther, Emma Virke e Anete Melece. Lilla Piratförlaget cerca il divertimento, l'inaspettato, l'eccentrico e il ribelle.

Holder of a McGill baccalaureate in education, Simon taught from 1986 to 1997 in the Lower North Shore, in Nunavik, then in Montreal. He also acts as an educational consultant in cooperative learning for two years. From 1997 to 2009, he worked in large publishing houses, such as Beauchemin, Duval and Nelson. From 2009 to 2011, he was Vice-President Education at De Marque, where he managed relations with French-language school partners, in Canada and in Europe. With more than 30 years of experience in education and publishing, Simon de Jocas continues his commitment in these spheres today by leading the management of Les Éditions Les 400 coups, which he became owner in February 2013, as well as the roles of president of the Quebec edition committee that he has occupied since September 2016. His work has always been guided by the desire to serve youth, education and the French language. He is the father of three children.

Naoko Takano began her career in the Bronze Publishing house as an editor in 1996. Later she specialized in the acquisition of rights, working especially with North America and Europe. These include the Gaspard et Lisa series published by Hachette Livre, which sold over 2 million copies in Japan. In 2003 she became director of the international division of Bronze Publishing and thanks to her work over 200 titles have been exported all over the world and translated into 19 languages. With her extensive experience, Naoko now works as an editorial consultant supporting Asian publishers and holding seminars in Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia.