Organized By BCBF within the framework of the 2019 BolognaRagazzi Award special category dedicated to books for toddlers, this international conference (2 April, Sala Concerto, 10.30 am) looks at books for zero-three-year-olds with the participation of scholars, authors, illustrators and publishers from different countries.
A toddler is a young child who is learning to walk and still "staggers". At that age, however, a child has already discovered a great deal: though still staggering, he or she embarks on a journey through new paths of knowledge, with all senses engaged. The books designed for these children, based on educational imprinting to encourage reading, are now at the centre of this international meeting. The conversation will be coordinated by Silvana Sola, teacher of History of Illustration and expert in children's books; Giorgio Tamburlini, Co-founder of the Nati per Leggere (NpL) programme and President of the non-profit Centre for Child Health
(Italy); Joanna Bartosik, author and illustrator (Poland); Xavier Deneux, author and illustrator (France); Agnese Baruzzi, author and illustrator (Italy); Evelio Cabrejo Parra, psychologist and psycholinguist (Colombia/France); Maria Vedenyapina, director of the Russian State Children's Library in Moscow (Russia); Brigitte Morel, publisher of Les Grandes Personnes (France); Paloma Valdivia, illustrator and publisher of Ediciones Liebre (Chile).
The investigation of this crucial age will also develop in the exhibition Absolute Beginners. Staggering, the first steps between the pages, staged at Salaborsa, the Library of Bologna, promoted by the Municipality of Bologna and curated by Giannino Stoppani Cooperativa Culturale: a special children-friendly exhibition of international books, inviting young readers to discover all the wonders of this editorial category.