* The Bologna Children’s Book Fair runs until April 9. As well as multi-media events and exhibitions, there will be a special show of Illustration from Brazil. This year’s prizes include Sara Midda’s Growing Up and Other Vices, published by Jonathan Cape, which won the young adult fiction award.
* The British section of IBBY, the international children’s books organisation, has been re-established after a five-year absence. The official launch will be on June 21 at Young Book Trust, Wandsworth, south-west London, with a display of books by former winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Further details from Susan Hancock, Children’s Literature Research Centre, Roehampton Institute, London SW15 4HT.
* Young Book Trust has compiled booklists to mark International Children’s Book Day (April 2) on the themes of Refugees and Conflict, Immigrants’ Tales, Stories from Another Country, and Folktales of the World. For copies, send a sae to Young Book Trust, 45 East Hill, London SW18 2QZ or The Scottish Book Centre, 137 Dundee Street, Edinburgh EH11 lBG.
* Sharon Creech, an English teacher at TASIS England American School in Surrey, has won the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons (PiperPan Macmillan). The Medal is awarded to distinguished contributions to American literature for children.
* The winner of W H Smith’s Mind Boggling Books Award is Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien, by Maggie Prince, her first children’s book. (Orion Pounds 3.99) The award for a paperback for nine to 12-year-olds is selected by a panel of 10 children.
* The shortlist for the junior category of the Rhone-Poulenc prizes for science books includes Lucky Science - Accidental Discoveries from Gravity to Velcro by Royston M Roberts and Jeanie Roberts (John Wiley), Fire - Friend or Enemy? (Kingfisher), The Most Amazing Pop-up Science Book by Jay Young (Watts), The Robot Zoo by John Kelly (Hamlyn), Life by David Burnie (Dorling Kindersley) and The Egg and Sperm Race by Fran Balkwill and Mic Rolph (Collins). The winner will be announced on May 24.
* The winner of the 1995 Signal Poetry Award is Helen Dunmore for her collection, Secrets (The Bodley Head Pounds 7.99).
* Anne Frank in the World 1929 to 1945, an exhibition sponsored by the Anne Frank Educational Trust, Macmillan and Penguin children’s books, continues at St Paul’s Cathedral, London EC4 until May 1.
