One of the things I love about the international book fairs like Frankfurt and Bologna, aside from meeting with publishers, agents, and translators who might be interested in my own work, is getting a chance to see what is being written & illustrated from all around the world. I regularly stop by the national stands who are exhibiting, since they often produce annual guides of recommended children's titles, with descriptions or even brief samples in English translation.
So, when I was asked to chair a session on children's books from Czechia at the Frankfurt Book Fair, despite not speaking Czech or in any way being an expert on children's literature, I didn't panic. I realized that I could be a perfect guide for the audience, of how to find out about Czech children's literature despite not being a Czech speaker, as that is something I had already been doing myself.
And I would be moderating two speakers who were in fact experts on Czech children's books: the author, translator, actor and theater maker, and diplomat Marek Toman and literary critic Kamila Drahoňovská.
I had already known about some of Marek's own titles, as he often writes about the Jewish past of Prague, and I had seen both mention and excerpts already of his work, especially for his youth novel MY GOLEM which won a White Raven from the International Youth Library and was listed in their catalogue.
I was able to do a deeper dive in preparation for our conversation thanks to the compilation of extracts available at his agent's website.
And Kamila has the distinction of being almost the only regular critic dedicated to children's books, for the website iLiteratura.cz.
The three of us met to talk before the event, and both Marek and Kamila prepared wonderful resources of their idiosyncratic recommendations, which were shown during the talk. Both of them talked about and showed children's books from the socialist past to the present, and how those earlier references influenced both themselves (as young readers) and the authors and illustrators whose work they highlighted.
Here and above, some of the images shared during the presentation. |
Photo of the panel at the Frankfurt Book Fair, (l to r): Kamila Drahoňovská, Marek Toman, and Lawrence Schimel. Photo credit: Sherif Bakr |
The conversation with Marek explored whether or not there was something uniquely Czech to his work--obviously, the stories about the historical past of Prague do, but does his writing about pirates, when Czechia is a completely landlocked country, have something uniquely Bohemian--as well as the differences between educating a Czech audience about their own past and how these same stories are received abroad, when his work is published abroad in translation. (He also spoke about being a literal ambassador, as a diplomat, as well as a literary one, when his work is translated into other languages; and also how he loves the immediacy of seeing the audience react, during this theater work, which is so different from how his readers find his work when he is not present).
Kamila talked about the general lack of critical attention, still, for children's books in her country, and how her work is one of the few exceptions. Of course, her reviews are aimed at adults. She also runs a small library in Bohemian Paradise, and like Marek, talked about the wonder of children's immediate reactions to books, whether during storytimes at the library, or coming in and finding a new book by an author they had read and loved.
I was able to open the discussion by talking to the audience about my own search to find out more info about Czech kidlit, mentioning not just the Czech publishers and titles that have recently been winning awards internationally (this year Baobab not only won the Bologna Book Fair prize for Best European publisher but two titles also were honored for best fiction and non-fiction titles) but also letting people know about the resources offered by the CzechLit platform, including not just guides to recommended titles but also grants and other support available, especially in connection with Czechia being the Guest Country at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2026.
Kamila also supplied information on the national awards that recognize children's books, such as the Golden Ribbon Award from Czech IBBY, the Magnesia Litera Awards, or my favorite (because of its simple but eloquent name) the Most Beautiful Czech Books Award, as other sources people could rely on to find notable children's titles.
To wrap up, let me just mention two titles (which both Marek and Kamila highlighted in their presentations) both of which were honored by the Bologna Ragazzi Award this year:
Myko ("Myco") written by Jiří Dvořák and illustrated by Daniela Olejníková is a quirky non-fiction title about mushrooms, written as 10 issues of a magazine for and by mushrooms.
and
Já, chonotnice ("I, the octopus") written and illustrated by Magdalena Rutová is an octopus-eye view of humanity, extrapolated based on the trash dumped into the ocean by humans.
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Lawrence Schimel |
Lawrence Schimel is a multilingual author and literary translator, working primarily in and between Spanish and English. He has published over 130 books as an author, and has translated over 190 books. He has won a Crystal Kite twice, for his picture books Lucky Me, illustrated by Juan Camilo Mayorga (Orca) and Read a Book With Me, illustrated by Thiago Lopes (US: Beaming Books, Singapore: Epigram). His most recent children's book is HaiCuba/HaiKuba: Haikus about Cuba in Spanish and English, co-authored with Carlos Pintado, illustrated by Juan José Colsa (NorthSouth Books) which won a Eureka Honor from the California Reading Association and was chosen by the NYPL as a Best Books for Kids 2024.
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