The Bookseller - Features - Bologna Children's Book Fair 2025: packed halls but politics cast a shadow

Belinda Rasmussen, in her first Bologna as Walker Books' global president and publisher after moving over from Macmillan Children's Books last year, reported being "busier than ever", with "back-to-back meetings and lots of partnership conversations". She added: "I'm still seeing lots of beautiful and innovative picture books. Everybody's experimenting with graphic novels and there's lots of YA. It feels as if [interest from foreign publishers] is not concentrated, they're asking for everything. But people are a little worried about middle-grade and are looking for easier, more accessible, shorter, illustrated books because I think we're all concerned about this decline in reading for pleasure."

Hazel Holmes, publisher at UCLan Publishing, also noted "lots of talk about middle-grade in particular", which, says Holmes, "seems to be quite hard to sell at the moment", though she is noticing increased interest in horror titles for middle-grade readers.