“The Yulu Linen,” a book penned by Chinese author Cao Wenxuan and illustrated by South Korean artist Suzy Lee, recently won a special mention in the Fiction category of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF). This is the first time an original book published on the Chinese mainland has won an award at the prestigious book fair since it was initiated in 1964.

This year’s BCBF cancelled its on-site events but an online edition is being held between Monday and Thursday in the Italian city. The winners of the Bologna Ragazzi Award — the BCBF prize aimed at selecting the finest illustrated children’s books worldwide — were announced ahead of the online event.

A total of 1,577 books from 41 countries and regions competed for awards in four main categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Opera Prima (for debut authors and illustrators), and Comics. The jury is also asked to give a special New Horizons award to a particularly innovative book. In addition to the main permanent categories, every year the fair also features one or more special categories.

This year’s special category is dedicated to poetry. The winners were chosen by an international jury after considering the entries’ technical elements, artistic merit and the achieved delicate balance between text and images.

Cao and Lee’s book tells the story of a talented and hardworking girl who after a setback overcomes her self-doubts and picks up her paintbrush to paint again. The team “expertly conjures the storm within a child who is weighing her abilities for the first time,” the jury said of Cao and Lee’s work. “Lee moves away from the light colors that her earlier works favor and uses bold black ink and new ways of exploring textures, while keeping the child at the center of this powerful story.”

“The Yulu Linen,” a picture book dedicated to all children who stick to their dreams, tells the story of a girl who has a talent and passion for painting. Yulu comes across a quality painting canvas named Yulu Linen, who believes that it belongs to some famous painter and tries to sabotage Yulu’s efforts to paint on its surface. In the end, touched by the girl’s perseverance, the canvas accepts her and the girl finishes a beautiful self portrait.

“I imagined a pretty canvas in my mind while writing this book, and the illustrator did a great job representing the colors I have imagined,” Cao said.

The cooperation between Cao and Lee was initiated by Bai Bing, editor-in-chief of Jieli Publishing House, who met the editor of Bear Books from South Korea at the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair in 2015.

Coincidentally, both Cao and Lee were shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator of children’s books, in 2016. Cao won the award. The two met at BCBF that year and started brainstorming on the current project.

“It actually took me only three hours to pen the book,” Cao said, “because I’ve thought hours and hours about it. It’s a story of how miracles will happen when you don’t give up.”

After “Yulu Linen,” the Jieli Publishing House will next publish “Iparapa Yamooyamoo,” winner of the Comics for Early Readers category at BCBF by South Korean Lee Gee Eun, at the end of this year.

“One of a Kind” by Neil Packer won the Nonfiction category of the Bologna Ragazzi Award this year. That book was introduced to Chinese readers last year by the Jieli Publishing House as well.

(Li Dan)