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After a 2009 fair when many Americans stayed home over economic worries, the 2010 Bologna Children's Book Fair, which ran from March 23—26, proved a much more upbeat gathering. "There's a lot of activity, and everyone I'm talking to seems positive," said Andrew Smith, deputy publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. HarperCollins's children's rights director, Helen Boomer, said it was "great to see many of the publishers who skipped last year return this year." And Penguin Young Readers associate publisher Jennifer Haller reported, "People are chatting about what the year's going to hold. There are a lot of really good conversations."

The positive attitude at the fair stood out, according to Holiday House editor-in-chief Mary Cash, "mostly because it was conspicuously absent last year. I think the fact that there had been quite a bit of sales activity just before Bologna meant that people were already feeling good when they walked in the gate." Cash said she had seen fewer picture books from many European publishers, "but the quality of what I saw was high. I think that this recession has inspired many publishers to focus on their strongest talent."

HMH publisher Betsy Groban, who was looking at projects with Mary Wilcox, editorial director of franchise publishing, noted, "We saw lots of interesting things, especially on both ends of the spectrum, age-wise—novels and novelties." And she commented, as did many others, on the "abiding pleasure of doing business with like-minded colleagues the world over."

Physically, the fair looked much the same as in previous years. The agents' center is still an escalator ride up, above pavilions 25 and 26; agents praise the efficiency but miss the happenstance of running into people in the aisles. HarperCollins had a scaled-back stand this year; Penguin's stand was the same width, but seemed not as deep as in years past. Disney-Hyperion was back in the American hall, now separated from the traditional (and enormous) Disney stand formerly located with the Italian publishers, now relocated to the Bologna Congressi just outside the fairgrounds.

Teens on Top

Teen books were still unquestionably the hottest category at Bologna, with a number of big-ticket series announced in the run-up to the fair, and with many stands showcasing new YA offerings. "It all seemed to be about teen fiction this year," said Boomer at HarperCollins, "with an emphasis on the paranormal. Angels, demons, and dystopian novels appear to be in high demand." Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, and My Soul to Reap by Courtney Allison Moulton were three teen paranormal titles Boomer reported strong interest in.

As Random House's Beverly Horowitz pointed out, the trilogy is still king. "It's not as easy to find that single, powerful voice in one book," she said. "Everyone seems to be trying to write series." Or, as HMH's Betsy Groban put it, "The money is in multiples."

"There was a lot of energy behind YA, obviously," said Andrew Karre of Lerner Publishing. "I saw and heard about my share of interesting stuff and I'm sure there's rarified stuff I didn't hear about." While he called the high profile of YA "fantastic," Karre raised a cautionary note. "My concern is that we not forget that this is a genre that lives and dies by characters—teenage characters. I worry that we might get a little too wrapped up in big concepts—dystopia, paranormal, whatever else is next—and forget about young adult characters and young adult experience, especially with the rising specter of crossover appeal. If we do that, will we still have YA as we've come to love it, or do we just have a kind of popular trendy fiction?"

In Japan, in fact, the paranormal genre has not been as successful as elsewhere in the world, said Rei Uemura of Tokuma Shoten Publishing. "There are too many zombies, vampires, werewolves. I can't tell them apart anymore. I'm looking for something uplifting and positive, but I haven't seen many of those."

Several U.S. rights directors reported being told by editors that their teen lists were filled, and that they were seeking more middle-grade fiction. "Despite teen still being the big seller, middle-grade is starting to get more attention again," Boomer said. "I was specifically asked for either funny or solid commercial fantasy. I think publishers are seeing some holes on their list for this age group."

The consensus was that there's currently more demand for middle-grade than there are good projects to show. Penguin's Jen Haller said, "People are bringing a lot of teen fiction to sell, but they're looking for middle-grade." Horowitz had a theory about why the increased demand. "What's happening in YA [such as the proliferation of paranormal titles] always moves down. The younger kids want their own." In fact, Horowitz does have a forthcoming "otherworldly" middle-grade title; Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner is first in The Keepers trilogy pubbing in September, a "suspenseful, dystopian adventure" bought from agent Jill Grinberg and originally published by Allen & Unwin in Australia.

Angela Namoi, Allen & Unwin 's rights director, said that her company, along with other Australian publishers, is on the forefront of what she sees as a new trend in YA: the phenomenon of the crossover, with some of their books published as YA in some countries, and by adult imprints in other countries. "We have half a dozen titles on our list that don't fit comfortably into YA," she said, pointing to Mice by Gordon Reece, a psychological thriller bought by Kendra Harpster at Viking as an adult book ("it's gone to adult publishers everywhere"), which will be published by Macmillan in the U.K. first as an adult hardcover and then in simultaneous adult and YA paperback editions. Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, on the other hand, which Knopf published as a YA in the U.S. in 2008, was originally published by Allen & Unwin as an adult title.

What's behind this development? "We've been doing YA for 20 years," Namoi postulated, "and our readership still wants what we gave them as teenagers, and what they don't get from adult books. Authors like Sonya Hartnett, Melina Marchetta—people of all ages are reading them. We've created an audience for that." And it's not just an Australian readership, she added, pointing out that several German publishers, such as Fischer, are currently setting up crossover lists.

Roaring Brook publisher Simon Boughton corroborated Namoi's theory, reflecting on the amount of material he was shown at the fair containing "murder and mayhem." He added, "At least two publishers have told me about a book and said, ‘It's Stieg Larsson for teens.' The books are pushing the teen thriller boundary. A number of books we've seen, we've wondered, is this teen or is this adult?"

Hot Topics

As noted in last week's report from Bologna, there were several big sales right on the eve of the fair, most notably Knopf's preempt of The Emerald Atlas, first in a middle-grade trilogy by John Stephens, sold by Simon Lipskar of Writers House. Jill Grinberg Literary had Troubletwisters, a new Garth Nix fantasy series, co-written with Sean Williams (sold pre-Bologna to the U.S., U.K., and Australia) and Halo, first in a YA trilogy by 18-year-old Australian wunderkind Alexandra Adornetto (Feiwel and Friends is pubbing the book this fall).

But there were other tales to be told at the fair. Damon Ross at DreamWorks noted the general categories that seemed big to him (in no particular order) were zombies, comedic alien invasion stories, and Pegasus stories. Christina Biamonte, sub rights manager at HMH, said her "sexy goblin" book, Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton, had provided "a good antidote to vampire fatigue," saying that the book had "enough of a hook that I could convince about everyone I met with to read it. Even people who said they had enough fantasy were willing to take a look."

Walker Books publisher Denise Johnstone-Burt gave word of one of the projects nearest to her heart. It's an untitled novel begun by Siobhan Dowd, who died of cancer in 2007. Johnstone-Burt contracted the book back in 2005; it was only about 15% completed, and she has asked author Patrick Ness to step in and finish it. Ness, whose forthcoming Monsters of Men will conclude his much-praised Chaos Walking trilogy, never met Dowd (though they were always up against each other for the same prizes, Johnstone-Burt said). The book, which centers on the healing powers of the yew tree, tells of a boy whose mother is ill, and who is able to come to terms with her death through the tree. Walker has world rights and will publish in May 2011; Candlewick is the U.S. publisher.

In a fiction-dominated fair, one picture book did capture some of the buzz of days gone by: Un Livre by Hervé Tullet. Published this past January by Editions Bayard in France, the book was "the hit of the fair for us," said Bayard's Sibylle Le Maire. "Coming from a picture book we have not seen that for years!" The book is already being reprinted in France, and was sold before Bologna into Germany, Japan, Korea, and the Netherlands. Bayard is about to hold an auction among the 10 U.S. and U.K. publishers that Le Maire said were "strongly interested" at the fair, with offers at 30,000 copies for English-language rights.

Robbe Rogge, publishing manager for special publication at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said this was her "best Bologna in many years," noting that she was hearing quantities quoted to her that "we hadn't heard in years—35,000, 50,000. People are very price-conscious, but I think we're going to be back to business. I'm feeling very optimistic."

Elsewhere in the News

Two major prizes were given out during the fair: the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Awards, given to British author David Almond and German illustrator Jutta Bauer, the field's most prestigious international award; and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's largest prize for children's literature, which went to Belgian author-illustrator Kitty Crowther.

Longtime Lemniscaat publisher Jean Christophe Boele van Hensbroek, based in Rotterdam, gave word of a new American venture called Lemniscaat USA, which he'll be unveiling at BEA this year. Lerner will distribute Lemniscaat's picture books, which Boele van Hensbroek hopes to market in a different way: selling a group of Lemniscaat titles and asking bookstores to display them together. Stephen Roxburgh will serve as editorial advisor, and Ellen Myrick is handling publicity and marketing. Boele van Hensbroek also hopes to bring his company's title Plastic Soup, a lengthy and visually arresting look at the "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean, to a U.S. audience with his first list.

Catching up on other news, Hardie Grant Egmont bought children's publisher Little Hare Books back in January, making HGE the largest Australian-owned children's book publisher. And French publisher Jacques Binsztok has resurfaced following the liquidation of Editions du Panama, now heading his own imprint, called JBZ, within the group Hugo & Cie.

Lori Benton, at the fair in her new job at Capstone Books, hadn't been to Bologna in eight years, said she had missed the espresso most of all. Working for a smaller company now, she said, "I'm looking for different things than when I was here before, so I'm having different kinds of meetings. But it's been a good fair and it's great to be back."

First-timer Kathy Dawson, who recently returned to Penguin, said she found the fair "the perfect mix of business intensity and total relaxation. It was impossible to have a bad meal, and so much fun to walk everywhere and see people that I hadn't seen in a while. And yet it was really, really busy."

Good conversations, good books, and good food—no wonder everyone wants to come to Bologna. Next year's dates: Monday, March 28 through Thursday, March 31.

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