The Russian programme was implemented by the Moscow International Book Fair (MIBF) with participation from The Museum Line and New Moscow International Children's Book Fair (New MICBF) projects and supported by the Federal Agency of Print and Mass Media.
Despite the difficult circumstances of the world wide coronavirus pandemic and the cancellation of large amounts of events, including book fairs, the Shanghai Book Fair took place not only online, but foremost of all in an offline and customary format. The organizers of the fair offered foreign exhibitors a special format - Book Showcase, in which, along with guests from 21 other countries, New MICBF took part, presenting new books from Russian children's publishing houses and museums.
The Russian Book Showcase was presented by the Focus on Russia exhibition, which consisted of three main sections:
Non-fiction for Children, Illustrated Books and Museum Line for Children. Non Fiction for Children Science journalists, museum experts (educators), sports commentators, film critics, music journalists, comic book writers were just some of the authors of Russian children's non-fiction who presented their books at the children's book fair in Shanghai. They spoke about ideas for their creations and discussed where the boundaries of the genre lie, how it differs from fiction and how to talk with children about science in an interesting, honest way without oversimplification.
On the Russian shelf in Shanghai such books were presented as:
"Why Birds Don't Fly" by Ilya Kolmanovsky "Peculiar Parasites" by Alena Basnetsova "The Ball in the Game" by Alexei Durovo, "Paleontologists and their Pets" by Anton Nelikhova, "The Big Book of the Human Body" by Sergei and Natalia Gordienko and others.
The section of
Illustrated books (as well as picture books, silent book and comics) presented the silent book
"Grasshopper" by Tatiana Ukhova, a participant of the "100 Outstanding Books" chosen by the professional community dPICTUS at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the comic book
"Sonya from the 7th Bleugh" , created in tandem by book designer
Tim Yarzhombek and writer
Alexei Oleinikov, as well as the book by
Helen Mallet "Mona Ohlala" with illustrations by the artist and comic book author
Varvara Pomidor.
In this section the following books were also presented:
"Hello, horse!" by Asi Kravchenko, "Music of my Woodpecker" by Anna Anisimova, "Irochka" by Yulia Kuznetsova alongside others.
Museum Line for Children The Museum Line presented in Shanghai a special section of books about art for children by leading Russian museums and publishers. Further details about the books in the
Museum Line can be found here:
http://mibf.info/museumline_ccbf2020.
The Museum Shelf contained books published by
The Pushkin Sate Museum of Fine Arts, The V-A-C Foundation of Contemporary Art and publisher
Alpina Children and also
"A Journey through the Hermitage. Tsaritsa of the Tulips" the museum comic book guide for children and adults by the
State Hermitage and publisher
"Arca" author
Dariya Agapova and artist
Varvara Pomidor. The new book series for children by V–A–C Press draws on the tradition of Soviet illustration and reflects contemporary artistic processes. The contemporary Russian artists who worked on the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll that are published in this series, are
Pavel Pepperstein, Svetlana Shuvaeva, Alexey Buldakov, and also designer
Tigran Avetisyan. The Book Series "Learning to Look" by The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts was created by
ABCdesign, one of the leading Russian design studios, in close collaboration with the museum. The books are not only a window into the museum's halls and collections of amazing items and ideas, but a guide for young researchers of artistic territories.
Publisher "Alpina Children" released two books that can be described as simple guides and guidebooks to the complex world of cinema and music. The book "
How to Watch a Movie" was written by renowned Russian film critic
Anton Dolin and illustrated by
Konstantin Bronzit, renowned animator and
Oscar nominated artist. The book by musician and journalist
Lyalya Kandaurova "How to Listen to Music" is illustrated by the young artist
Ellis Mugafarova.
Especially for the Shanghai Book Fair, the
New Moscow Children's Book Fair (New MICBF) has prepared an expanded virtual exhibition
Focus on Russia with detailed information on participating books and publishing houses.
Instead of live meetings at the Shanghai Fair the
New MICBF offered a programme of online interviews addressed to publishers, agents, editors, art directors, researchers, authors and artists from around the world. These talks were led by literary columnist Natalya Lomykina with science journalist and popularizer of science, author of the first children's science podcast in Russia, Ilya Kolmanovsky, and museum educator, international consultant Daria Agapova. In addition to this, the online program featured author's presentations from film critic Anton Dolin and musician and journalist Lyalya Kandaurova.
An important event was the
video presentation of four new publications, the "Focus on Russia. New publications of childrens books: From 0 to 5", which have been released in Russia in the last few years, the youngest of which was born in Moscow during the pandemic and lockdown. The Russian market for publishing children's literature demonstrates rapid development, in response to the challenges of our time, and following global trends it is growing not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively.
Stories of young Russian publishers taking their first steps towards the international children's book publishing market can be found
here.
What is the New MICBF? In 2021, the
New International Children's Book Fair (New MICBF 2021) will be held in Moscow. Russian-language children's literature, which has long been a serious player on the international professional scene, has shown outstanding progress in recent years: it is impossible to keep track of the number of new releases today, and the New MICBF is working to increase their number every year.
Children's literature is no longer one of the programs of an "adult" book fair, but an independent branch, where fiction and non-fiction, graphic novels and comics, book illustration and design, key players and new stars exist. The New MICBF 2021 will become a new place not only on the Russian map of children's literature, but also on the world map, a place where Russian and foreign writers will meet with readers, where literary agents will sign contracts for the publication of books with Russian and international publishing houses, where professionals around the world will discuss ethical and aesthetic issues of book publishing, exchange technologies and innovations.
http://micbf.mibf.info/ http://micbf.mibf.info/shanghai2020 https://www.facebook.com/new.micbf https://vk.com/micbf https://www.instagram.com/new_micbf
Curator of the NewMICBF programme at the Shanghai Children's Book Fair
Tatiana Ryabukhina +7 916 376 92 15
t.ryabukhina@mibf.info