Book Island wins Bologna Prize for children’s publishing

New Zealand publisher Book Island has won the Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in the Oceania category.

Book Island was chosen from a shortlist of three, which included Wilkins Farago and Berbay Publishing. Recent bestsellers for the publisher, which translates European books into English and Dutch, include The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc and The Umbrella by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert.

Publisher Greet Pauwelijn told Booksellers NZ the prize is ‘a great honour’ for a small publishing house such as Book Island. ‘We would like to pay tribute to the original publishers of the beautiful and meaningful picture books that we have translated into English and Dutch in the past four years,’ said Pauwelijn. ‘Without them, their illustrators and authors—and not to be forgotten—our translators and editors, there would be no Book Island. This award is a tremendous acknowledgement of our combined efforts.’

The prize was established in 2013 by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the Italian Publishers Association to ‘pay tribute to excellence in the world of children’s publishing’. Last year A&U won the Oceania category.

The winners were announced at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair. To see the full list of winners, click here.

Category: Junior Local news