The pleasure of a good book from childhood grows publishing and enhances public life
Caressing the wrinkles of grandparents, exploring the signs of time and deep traces of the joys and sorrows of a life lived intensely with curious and affectionate fingers, or reading those wrinkles if, due to the many situations that life can present, we find ourselves far away. David Grossman communicates this effectively, a writer capable of lending substance to feelings and ideas through words like few others, in the pages of a concise, essential book, appropriately entitled Every Wrinkle Has a Story, illustrated by Ninamasina and published in Italy as Rughe by Mondadori.
It’s a book for children aged eight and up. It exemplifies the quality that publishing for younger readers has now achieved, publishing which is far from being ‘minor’, instead representing an invaluable demonstration of how books can be produced well and find a space in a world of so-called “digital natives”. The play of well-written, carefully laid out words (as Bruno Munari and Gianni Rodari taught us, each in their own way) continues to attract attention and success, across the generations – from grandparents to grandchildren, staying with Grossman’s pages.
Once again, important confirmation comes from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, scheduled from 8 to 11 April. It was established in 1964, sixty years ago, and has grown over time, especially in the last twenty years: days packed with meetings, debates and awards, but also international copyright negotiations.
Attendance data indicates 1,500 exhibitors, who come from 100 different countries, and they reveal the vitality of a sector that concerns almost one in four of all the books published in Italy annually. In short, “the book saved by young people”, to borrow the effective title of the cover investigation of ‘Il Venerdì di Repubblica’ (5 April) written by Zita Dazzi: “Generation Z reads more and better than their parents: they welcome authors to the classroom, flock to book fairs and await the news of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.”
The Italian youth book market boasts 23.5 million copies sold in 2023, an increase of 3 million on 2019 and with a turnover of 291 million euros, 48 more than in 2019. It’s a real success, basically, if we also consider the fact that we’ve been undergoing a “demographic winter” for some time now, with populating not increasing and births decreasing: “The customer base is shrinking, but books are growing, especially those for early infancy”, affirms Giovanni Peresson, head of the Research Office of AIE, the Italian publishers association.
Young readers, strong readers. AIE also indicates (2023 data) that in the 4–14 age range, 96% of both sexes have read at least one non-school book in the last twelve months, compared to 75% in 2018. The general figure says that 74% of adults are in the same condition (figure calculated among people aged between 15 and 74). In the 0–3 age range, moreover, 70% of boys and girls were involved in reading aloud by parents and teachers and handling tactile, board, illustrated, animated and colouring books and other forms of pre-reading. It was 49% in 2018.
It’s a phenomenon with a clear explanation. Families, schools (also with school libraries) and also, when applicable, the libraries in companies that make room for a good number of children’s books (e.g. the Pirelli libraries in the Bicocca headquarters in Milan and the Settimo Torinese and Bollate factories) make a contribution.
It’s confirmed by the voices of those who work in the sector, in the investigation by la Repubblica. One example is Mariagrazia Mazzitelli, editorial director of Salani, a publishing house with a 162-year history, of the GeMS group, 140 new releases a year, a catalogue of bestsellers headed up by the Harry Potter saga: “People give books to very small children very early and they immediately fall in love with them. Then there’s a detachment in adolescence, but the most recent phenomena in romance win this audience back, making the book an object of desire.” Renata Gorgani, director of Castoro, adds the following: “Parents want their children to have illustrated books in their hands, which in some cases are toys too.” Similarly, Beatrice Masini, division director for Bompiani, an offshoot of the giant market leader Giunti: “As well as babies, there are young people in compulsory schooling, for whom books are a magical means of escape at an age when they’re at their most curious, with open eyes and ears. A novel takes you into other worlds, possibly even realistic ones, but ones that you don’t know yet, with true stories that really grab you and produce strong readers.”
Peresson, of AIE, provides a summary: “Young couples with children have become more aware of the role that books and reading have in child development from the earliest years. The second reason is that manga, superhero comics and other serial products that weren’t previously fully perceived as book reading now are, and this affects the responses. But we can also see the initial effects of campaigns promoting children’s reading such as #ioleggoperché [#ireadbecause].” This promotion has led to incentivising the giving of tens of thousands of books to school and nursery libraries.
What’s certain is that reading, starting from childhood, helps you discover the world and better understand its stories and characters. It opens the doors to an entertaining journey to original, distant locations. It offers the opportunity to travel easily through space and time, expanding our potential knowledge, and it helps us become familiar with presences that are essential to growth: the presence of others.
The most prestigious literary prizes also have an important and growing role, like the Strega Prize for young people and the Campiello Junior Prize. The latter is now in its third edition, with a technical jury chaired by Pino Boero that selects three titles for the 6–10 age range and three for 11–14s (about 100 titles are competing this year) and then submits them to voting by a panel of 240 girls and boys from all schools in Italy (also from children living abroad) to decide the two winners.
There’s an awareness in the common commitment of the Campiello Prize and the Pirelli Foundation, hosted by the City of Vicenza: stimulating and rewarding the writing of good books for children and promoting reading from the first years of primary school means increasing sensitivity to imagination, adventure and the journey of discovery. It means helping to experience new stories, to become passionate about new characters. In short, it means laying the foundations for better civil coexistence and a more balanced intersection of cultural and social relationships through the pleasure of words well written.
The pleasure of reading and a greater civil conscience, built in the family and at school, from an early age.
(Photo Getty Images)
Caressing the wrinkles of grandparents, exploring the signs of time and deep traces of the joys and sorrows of a life lived intensely with curious and affectionate fingers, or reading those wrinkles if, due to the many situations that life can present, we find ourselves far away. David Grossman communicates this effectively, a writer capable of lending substance to feelings and ideas through words like few others, in the pages of a concise, essential book, appropriately entitled Every Wrinkle Has a Story, illustrated by Ninamasina and published in Italy as Rughe by Mondadori.
It’s a book for children aged eight and up. It exemplifies the quality that publishing for younger readers has now achieved, publishing which is far from being ‘minor’, instead representing an invaluable demonstration of how books can be produced well and find a space in a world of so-called “digital natives”. The play of well-written, carefully laid out words (as Bruno Munari and Gianni Rodari taught us, each in their own way) continues to attract attention and success, across the generations – from grandparents to grandchildren, staying with Grossman’s pages.
Once again, important confirmation comes from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, scheduled from 8 to 11 April. It was established in 1964, sixty years ago, and has grown over time, especially in the last twenty years: days packed with meetings, debates and awards, but also international copyright negotiations.
Attendance data indicates 1,500 exhibitors, who come from 100 different countries, and they reveal the vitality of a sector that concerns almost one in four of all the books published in Italy annually. In short, “the book saved by young people”, to borrow the effective title of the cover investigation of ‘Il Venerdì di Repubblica’ (5 April) written by Zita Dazzi: “Generation Z reads more and better than their parents: they welcome authors to the classroom, flock to book fairs and await the news of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.”
The Italian youth book market boasts 23.5 million copies sold in 2023, an increase of 3 million on 2019 and with a turnover of 291 million euros, 48 more than in 2019. It’s a real success, basically, if we also consider the fact that we’ve been undergoing a “demographic winter” for some time now, with populating not increasing and births decreasing: “The customer base is shrinking, but books are growing, especially those for early infancy”, affirms Giovanni Peresson, head of the Research Office of AIE, the Italian publishers association.
Young readers, strong readers. AIE also indicates (2023 data) that in the 4–14 age range, 96% of both sexes have read at least one non-school book in the last twelve months, compared to 75% in 2018. The general figure says that 74% of adults are in the same condition (figure calculated among people aged between 15 and 74). In the 0–3 age range, moreover, 70% of boys and girls were involved in reading aloud by parents and teachers and handling tactile, board, illustrated, animated and colouring books and other forms of pre-reading. It was 49% in 2018.
It’s a phenomenon with a clear explanation. Families, schools (also with school libraries) and also, when applicable, the libraries in companies that make room for a good number of children’s books (e.g. the Pirelli libraries in the Bicocca headquarters in Milan and the Settimo Torinese and Bollate factories) make a contribution.
It’s confirmed by the voices of those who work in the sector, in the investigation by la Repubblica. One example is Mariagrazia Mazzitelli, editorial director of Salani, a publishing house with a 162-year history, of the GeMS group, 140 new releases a year, a catalogue of bestsellers headed up by the Harry Potter saga: “People give books to very small children very early and they immediately fall in love with them. Then there’s a detachment in adolescence, but the most recent phenomena in romance win this audience back, making the book an object of desire.” Renata Gorgani, director of Castoro, adds the following: “Parents want their children to have illustrated books in their hands, which in some cases are toys too.” Similarly, Beatrice Masini, division director for Bompiani, an offshoot of the giant market leader Giunti: “As well as babies, there are young people in compulsory schooling, for whom books are a magical means of escape at an age when they’re at their most curious, with open eyes and ears. A novel takes you into other worlds, possibly even realistic ones, but ones that you don’t know yet, with true stories that really grab you and produce strong readers.”
Peresson, of AIE, provides a summary: “Young couples with children have become more aware of the role that books and reading have in child development from the earliest years. The second reason is that manga, superhero comics and other serial products that weren’t previously fully perceived as book reading now are, and this affects the responses. But we can also see the initial effects of campaigns promoting children’s reading such as #ioleggoperché [#ireadbecause].” This promotion has led to incentivising the giving of tens of thousands of books to school and nursery libraries.
What’s certain is that reading, starting from childhood, helps you discover the world and better understand its stories and characters. It opens the doors to an entertaining journey to original, distant locations. It offers the opportunity to travel easily through space and time, expanding our potential knowledge, and it helps us become familiar with presences that are essential to growth: the presence of others.
The most prestigious literary prizes also have an important and growing role, like the Strega Prize for young people and the Campiello Junior Prize. The latter is now in its third edition, with a technical jury chaired by Pino Boero that selects three titles for the 6–10 age range and three for 11–14s (about 100 titles are competing this year) and then submits them to voting by a panel of 240 girls and boys from all schools in Italy (also from children living abroad) to decide the two winners.
There’s an awareness in the common commitment of the Campiello Prize and the Pirelli Foundation, hosted by the City of Vicenza: stimulating and rewarding the writing of good books for children and promoting reading from the first years of primary school means increasing sensitivity to imagination, adventure and the journey of discovery. It means helping to experience new stories, to become passionate about new characters. In short, it means laying the foundations for better civil coexistence and a more balanced intersection of cultural and social relationships through the pleasure of words well written.
The pleasure of reading and a greater civil conscience, built in the family and at school, from an early age.
(Photo Getty Images)