Honours for Book Island from Raumati South

New Zealand publishing house Book Island from the Kapiti Coast has been nominated for the Bologna Prize 2016 for Best Children’s Publisher of Oceania by the International Children’s Book Fair in Bologna, Italy. This international award pays tribute to excellence in the world of children’s publishing. Children’s publishers and cultural institutions from all over the world nominated the small publishing house from Raumati South.

Book Island is one of only three publishers nominated across Australia and New Zealand, and is actually the only New Zealand publishing recognised in this way this year. The children’s publisher is well-known for its best-selling titles The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc and The Umbrella by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert. 

"For a small indie publishing house like Book Island it is a great honour to be nominated for the Bologna Prize for Oceania this year. We would like to pay tribute to the original publishers of the beautiful and meaningful picture books that we have translated into English and Dutch in the past four years. Without them, their illustrators and authors – and not to be forgotten – our translators and editors, there would be no Book Island. This award is a tremendous acknowledgement of our combined efforts,” says publisher Greet Pauwelijn, who will attend the award ceremony in Bologna on Monday 4 April.

Source Booksellers NZ

Previous winners of the award in this category were:

2013  Gecko Press

2014  Allen & Unwin

2015   Walker Books Australia and New Zealand

Greet at the launch of one of Book Island's first publications in 2012