Good-Looking Children’s Books At Book Fair in Bologna By ESTELLE MANDEL, artists’ representative, New York City. Miss Mandel visited last April the first annual Bologna Book Fair for Children and Youth, and has prepared this report. Fair headquarters, at via del lavoro 67, Bologna, Italy, has just announced that the second annual fair will be held April 10-14, 1965 THE first of what is planned to be an an- nual Fiero Internazionale del Libro per l'In- fanzia e la Gioventu (international book fair for children and youth) was held April 4-12 in a 14th century palazzo in Bologna, one of Italy's. most beautiful cities. The fair held very few surprises for those familiar with our own books or for those who have attended the Frankurt Fair, but it had a charm and special character which made it a delight to attend. Firstly, it was rather small and easy to A partial view of the 14th century palazzo in Bologna where the first annual Book Fair for Children and Youth was held 66 see. Secondly, it concentrated on a special area of books. Frankfurt may have 1800 ex- hibitors’ booths; Bologna had only 200, and many shared a national group exhibit — the Children’s Book Group of the Publishers Association, London, the Association Na- tionale du Livre Francais, and groups in Belgium and Switzerland. The U.S. had only one exhibitor, Franklin Watts, Inc., since the committee did a bad job of publicizing the fair in the U.S., although it sent representa- tives to England, France and some other countries. The 200 exhbitors’ displays contained books solely for children and teen-agers those were trade books alone, no textbooks allowed. Physically, the fair was handsome— it was set in a great hall of the Palazzo del Podesta and in surrounding rooms—ceilings more than 20 feet high, rare crystal chande- liers, walls largely covered with 18th century frescoes. Each booth was provided with iden- tical sloping book stands, with panels of shelves, and identical electrified white glass signs with the exhibitors’ names. It was easy to browse from Spain to Brussels to Milan to Germany. A great deal of trading and ar- rangement for simultaneous publishing of this fall’s European books was consummated with the aid of uniformed interpreters. This hap- pened especially on the last days of the fair. My own special interest lay in the art and design. The fair gave a gold medal for gra- phics, and this was carried off by Czecho- slovakia for a book titled “V Sedman Nebi” (“From Seventh Heaven”), which is beauti- fully designed by Oldrich Hlavsa and illus- trated by Vladimir Fuka with a great variety of styling, of planning and of techniques shown within the 100-page book; the pub- lisher is SNDK, state-controlled monopoly, whose director ‘told me his organization is PUBLISHERS’ WEEKLYmost anxious to sell to the United States. The Czechoslovak display included some highly original pop-ups—birds shown in full color in their nests; a cardboard house painted in full color inside and out, with the characters and furniture; a horizontal book with pop-up stage sets, a small booklet pasted in at the left edge of the end-paper showing the characters in the plays, and at the back of the book a loose folio of scenes to be set up in the stage sets. My personal booby prize went to the Na- tional Central Library of the Republic of China (Taiwan) for books which didn’t even have the Oriental charm to redeem terrible art, paper, printing or binding. Beautiful books, only some of which have been taken for American publication, were shown by Fratelli Fabbri of Italy, with dozens of large, full-color, magnificently printed clas- sics and fables and histories illustrated by BOOKS IN THE MAKING Benvenuti, Santin, Nardini, Fontan, Maraja. Mursia, also of Italy, showed several hand- some books illustrated by Emanuele Luzzati, runner-up for the graphic arts medal; Mursia also showed one of the handsomest books of the fair, “Il Fagiano Gaetano,” illustrated by Giulio Cingoli and Giancarlo Carboni. Mon- dadori had a very beautiful full-color, six- volume ABC dictionary and a new group of taller-than-tall books by Piet Worm. It Was interesting to see, in many booths, in different languages, some of the Provensen Golden Books. There were many children’s paperbacks in full color, from France and other European countries. Almost no books in only one or two colors were seen at the fair, except books for older children. ‘A special delight: a full display of dozens of Pinocchio books, in all languages, and a showing of rare Italian first editions of chil- dren’s classics. CRAFT GUILD CONCEPT SEEN IN WORK OF DESIGN GROUP FOR the past ten years a group of artists, skilled in a wide variety of media and work- ing in and around New York City, has been somewhat informally organized as the Design Group, Inc. This year the group held its sixth exhibit and showed, among two to three dozen striking pieces of work, more than 20 hand- made books and games, using many processes —silk screen, woodcut and linoleum block printing, etching, stone lithography, offset and letterpress printing. Some of the books—all of which are in small editions—1000 copies or fewer, are printed on handmade papers and are bound by hand. In a statement about the unusual pub- lishing venture, a member, Harvey Freeman, graphic artist, says that the group, “at com- plete variance with the accepted 20th cen- tury methods of mass production, operates as a descendant of the craft guilds.” The group, he adds, “is the result of planning by Tonka Karasz, who is known for her wall murals, children’s books, New Yorker covers, and ceramic and textile designs. She works with artists and designers and students around a central idea from which all draw their in- spiration” for a number of different projects. The group centers around Miss Karasz’s own 68. New York headquarters at 153 East 61st Street. Two Design Group publications are illus- trated on page 70. One, 12% x 934 inches in size, is “Three Persian Parables,” with pictures by Diderica Elliott. The text is printed on a buff, laid paper, with the illus- trations tipped in; Harvey Freeman was the designer; printing was at the Ram Press, where 1000 copies were made. The book sells for $7. The other book is a lively little volume, produced by Mr. Freeman, called “The Shape of Things: A Picture Book of Geometry,” written and illustrated by Miss Karasz, also produced in an edition of 1000 copies, and selling at $7.50. Designed in the same spirit as was “Three Persian Parables” is another Persian story, in a very small edition on handmade paper, “A Donkey Tale,” with Rosemary Nott’s pic- tures hand-tipped on one page of each spread. In a similar vein is Elizabeth Retivov’s “Stories from an Eastern Coffeehouse.” Among other charming Design Group books, reflecting the recently emphasized Persian motif and other styles of design, are “Bilal,” a story set, printed and bound by Harvey Freeman, and “A Little Book of Sleep” by Jean Sulzberger. Work by Miss Karasz included pictures PUBLISHERS’ WEEKLY