Bologna is celebrating its golden anniversary, and although one of the joys of the fair is reconnecting with longtime colleagues and friends from around the world, there are also many firsts this year: new lists launching, first-time attendees taking it all in, and Bologna veterans returning in new roles.
Barbara Marcus is attending her first Bologna since taking over as president of Random House Children’s Books. She said she was seeing “some interesting things, some series and some single titles.” Since Random House’s large joint U.S./U.K. stand directly faces Penguin’s equally large joint stand, Marcus said that with the impending merger, people had been joking about next year’s fair, and how they could just build a bridge across the aisle.

In Marcus’s group, Frances Gilbert was at her first fair in her new role as editorial director of Doubleday Children’s Books, after coming over from Sterling Publishing last June, and she said she was enjoying some of the benefits of being part of such a large company. “Globally it’s immediately recognized,” she said. “It’s interesting to see things from a bigger perspective. And I’ve got my editor’s hat on again – I don’t have to unpack boxes.”

A debut author was creating a lot of excitement at Puffin U.K., for a book bought just before the fair by editorial director Ben Horslen, who’s been on the job for just eight weeks. Horslen bought world rights to Half Bad by Sally Green in a pre-empt from agent Claire Wilson of Rogers, Coleridge and White, and is auctioning U.S. rights at Bologna. “It came in on Tuesday, I bought it on Thursday, and we submitted it on Friday,” Horslen said. “It’s a debut voice with such confidence. I read 20 pages and knew I wanted it.” He calls the book “The Left Hand of God with a touch of Harry Potter, rewritten by Patrick Ness.” A film deal may be announced at the fair; more to come.

It was the first time back Bologna since 1987 for Tim Chadwick, who took over as chairman of the Quarto Group last November; back in the ’80s, he was founder and executive chairman of All Books for Children. Also attending her first Bologna in years was Sue Tarsky, newly appointed publisher of Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, part of the Quarto Group since 2011. Tarsky was looking to build her list at the fair, and also brought with her a dummy that her team had put together in just two weeks: Kaleidograph, by artist Norman Brosterman. It’s a book-plus-toy package, based on the principles of Friedrich Fröbel, who invented the concept of kindergarten; the book aims to show children how nature relates to their everyday lives. Tarsky has world rights, and reported strong interest from French and American publishers.

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