The 35th annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair takes place April 2 to 5 in Bologna, Italy, at the Exhibition Centre, Piazza Costituzione.

Attendees last year numbered 25,000. Of these, 4,30 attendees were from countries other than Italy. The fair also hosted 1,345 publishing firms from 80 different countries.

The fair is divided into three main areas: books for children and young adults, text books and multimedia publishing. It also features an illustrators exhibition and a literary agents center. Some products exhibited at the fair include activity books, board books, calendars, comics, computer software, dictionaries, hobby books, coloring books, picture books, posters and pop-up books.

Prizes at the fair include the Bologna New Media Prize, which is awarded to the best multimedia titles for children, and the BolognaRagazzi, which is awarded to the best overall publishing projects.

The 1997 fair occupied 244,590 square feet of space.

For more information,

call 39-51-282-111,

fax 39-51-282-333,

e-mail dir.com@bolognafiere.it or visit the Web site at www.bolognafiere.it/BookFair/welcome.html.