Children’s book writer and poet Rian Visser and illustrator Janneke Ipenburg, both Dutch, created the 2025 International Children’s Book Day poster on behalf of this year’s chosen IBBY national chapter-sponsor the Netherlands, for April 2’s observance. The IBBY Netherlands 2025 theme is The Freedom of Imagination. Image: IBBY Netherlands. The text’s translation is by Laura Watkinson
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘The Freedom of Imagination’
There are a few things to do at the upcoming 62nd doing of Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3).
Here is the master program, to be read with bread crumbs to drop along the way, so you can find your way back out. (After three days, we look for you, Hansel.)
But we’d be remiss not to call to your attention the fact that International Children’s Book Day annually falls on or near Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday (April 2), and it falls each year to the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to name one of its national chapters as the international sponsor of the day.
You may recall the powerful statements IBBY has made in the last year on the crisis in Gaza and the unthinkable pressures placed on the children of that wartorn region.
It’s in such statements and gestures of concern that the organization has made it clear, repeatedly, that it’s not afraid to move into the dynamics of publishing and politics in its mission to protect and promote the well-being of children in the world.
Once a national chapter is named for International Children’s Book Day, IBBY then chooses a theme for the year and invites a high-profile author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world.
The program also chooses an illustrator to design a poster for the year. This is how the program comes to have the affecting poster and its text for this year’s Children’s Book Day, all based on the chosen theme The Freedom of Imagination.
Poet Visser and illustrator Ipenburg are drawing on the last verse of Visser’s poem, The Language of Pictures, to produce render the poem’s arresting final lines:
“Make pictures
“For my poem,
“And please feel free:
These words
“Belong to you
“Even though they came from me.”— From “Beeldtaal,” featured in the poetry collection Alle wensen van de wereld(Leopold, 2021)
You can find downloads of the IBBY 2025 International Children’s Book Day poster and triptych flyer here.
The intent of Visser and Ipenburg in choosing these words is to point out that when children read high-quality books, they explore their imaginations, develop their own creativity, and see the world in a new way. “Good books invite readers to interpret the words for themselves, making the story their own.”
And that, of course, is the top-line message of the new “Democracies Depend on Reading” program being spearheaded by the World Expression Forum (WEXFO in Norway, June 2 and 3) and its founding CEO Kristenn Einarsson, who is the International Publishers Association (IPA) freedom to publish chairman.
We will soon have more information for you on the “Dem-Read” program, with its associated energies from Madrid’s Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez (GSR); Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz; and Slovenia’s Škrateljc, and University of Ljubljana.
Events at Bologna Relative to IBBY
In the meantime, we’d like to point you to an event on April 1, one of several being created for this year’s International Children’s Book Day.
The Reading of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Children’s Version will be presented in association with UNICEF on April 1 from 4 to 4:40 p.m. on the central Illustrators Café stage at BolognaFiere. To stress what IBBY sees as “the importance of protecting and promoting these rights,” Bologna Children’s Book Fair hosts in collaboration with the United Nations will perform a multilingual reading of the convention.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with this “core instrument” of the World Body’s “Human Rights Instruments—a magisterial read—here is the text of the original convention, as adopted by the General Assembly in Resolution 44/25 on November 20, 1989.
In addition, the Ibby European Regional Conference: ‘Books Make a Difference’ is set for 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on April 3, the trade show’s closing day, in the Sala Concerto.
To quickly spot some of the programming at Bologna related to IBBY and International Children’s Book Day, go to the program pages, and put “IBBY” into the “Search in Panels” field.
A Programming Note
Join us at Bologna Children’s Book Fair when Publishing Perspectives moderates Where the Boys Are: The Right Books Can Make Them Heroes.
Bologna’s ‘Where the Boys Are’ panelists are, from left, Francesca Cavallo, Michiel Kolman, Maria Russo, and Jonathan Simcosky
April 1
11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Content Café (Hall 30 at BolognaFiere)
With:
- Francesca Cavallo, author of Stellar Stories for Future Boys, and Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls
- Michiel Kolman, senior vice-president of Elsevier and chair of the Inclusive Publishing and Literacy Committee of the International Publishers Association (IPA)
- Maria Russo, editor at large with Union Square Kids, and formerly editor of children’s books with The New York Times
- Jonathan Simcosky, Quarto/Quarry Books senior acquiring editor, publisher of Yes, Boys Can! Inspiring Stories of Men Who Changed the World
- Moderated by Porter Anderson, Publishing Perspectives‘ editor-in-chief
At a time when many boys and young men are struggling to finish school, earn a degree, develop a career, and become the loving, supportive husbands and fathers we know they can be, this panel will examine the unique opportunity the book industry has to help young men navigate their crises, just as it has consistently done for girls and young women.
Recent writings on Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025:
Bologna Book Plus: An Afternoon Forum on Audiobooks
Bologna’s 2025 Ragazzi Award Winners: 3,858 Entries
London to Bologna: Estonian Readers Ask for English
Bologna’s Licensing Fair Announces Its 2024 Programming
Bologna Licensing Awards Name Their 2025 Shortlists
Rights Edition: Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s Evolving Rights Hubs
At Bologna: Record Entries for Its 2025 Illustrators Exhibition
Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s ‘Grand Tour’ Heads to Angoulême
At BCBF, Bologna Book Plus 2025 Announces an ‘AI Summit’
Italy in India: Bologna Children’s Book Fair Is Honored at Chennai
Guadalajara Book Fair Opens With New Bologna Prize
Bologna Book Plus 2025 Has Another ‘Audio Forum’ and ‘Ambassador’
More from Publishing Perspectives on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more on Bologna Book Plus is here, more on children’s books is here, more on the Italian market is here, more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here, and more on the work of IBBY is here.