This exhibition offers a valuable opportunity to engage with writings conceived for young readers, and fairy tales that provide an opportunity for shared adult/children reading time. It is also a significant medium for presenting children’s publishing to the world, a research-led space full of high-quality offerings, vital to the education of future generations.
This edition offers visitors a historical and geographical overview of one of the greatest interpreters of Italian literature, a man who turned words into images. From five hundred plus worldwide illustrators who took part, the event showcases thirty-one Italian creators, along with non-Italians and previously published works, plus a selection of thirty others identified by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Contest dedicated Illustrated Calvino jury.
The different exhibition sections - their titles conceived to underline the link between the written texts and their illustrations – form a visual itinerary through fairy tales, novels, adaptations, school texts, and new worlds.

Italian Excellence. Illustrations for Italo Calvino is curated by Accademia Drosselmeier/Cooperativa Giannino Stoppani and organized by Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Emilia-Romagna Region on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great Italian writer.