Heading for dreams together at the summertime book fair

On August 16, as the 2023 Shanghai Book Fair opened at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, Chen Bochui Children’s Book House was present to meet with readers as a participant publisher of the 7-day event. An important brand activity of the Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award (CICLA), the Book House takes “innocence, dream, and creativity” as the theme, actively disseminates and promotes the concept of “love reading, love life” in efforts to bring more excellent children’s literature works to young readers. It has become a dazzling “star” at the book fair since its inception in 2015.

This year, the Book House takes “encounter” as the theme and invites readers to find the most beautiful “encounters” that resonate in their minds. To do that, it sets up a wonderful library space with various creative interaction activities featuring attractive children’s stories made alive by technology.

Six highlights of Chen Bochui Children’s Book House at the 2023 Shanghai Book Fair

Visual design speaking the brand concept

The overall design of Chen Bochui Children’s Book House at the Book Fair is closely related to literature and reading, while the dominant color of fresh mint green brings a cool touch to the hot summer day. The door head poster depicts several pencils in the most popular “dopamine” colors, which symbolizes both the original intention of Chen Bochui to write “Great Literature for Children” and the colorful world of children’s literature.

On the right is the “encounter” theme poster created by Niu Zhe, a young Chinese illustrator and prize-winner of the 2022 CICLA Original Illustration Exhibition. The scene of a girl paddling a boat to the deeper forest in the picture leads visitors into the Book House to seek “encounters” with innocence and dreams in this children’s literature world.

The “empty seat” at the left side of the Book House exit, which is set the same every year as an embodiment of the CICLA, is also full of creativity. A seat in a shell shape is placed on an “open book”, while the background wallpaper shows the distant blue sea and sky as well as a lighthouse in a pen shape, signifying picking up treasures in a “book sea” and books leading the way for children.

The “most beautiful” bookshelf

Every year, the Book House strives to build a “most beautiful” bookshelf at the book fair. This year, the theme bookshelf has been further expanded, displaying 87 prize-winning works from 9 previous sessions of CICLA. These books are the literary treasures that the Book House is most proud of, and each book is worth a good reading. Readers can freely read the books they are interested in at the site, or make purchases on-site or through the online book purchase platform. In this way, the Book House aims to provide readers with more convenient purchase experiences.

AI painting

Focusing on integration with technology, the Book House this year launches the interactive project “Encounter with AI: Painting Together”. Visitors can describe the content and style of the illustration they want to AI through a “phone call”, and in just a few minutes, the AI robot will generate the unique illustration works in visitors’ minds on screen. Through this interactive item, visitors can get to know more about the open and creative painting creation of AI, whose style can range from classical to abstract, and realistic to dreamy, and explore the collision and integration of art and technology.

Technology-empowered upgrading of reading methods

Since its establishment, the Book House has been committed to presenting high-quality content in innovative ways using leading technologies, thus upgrading the way of reading in terms of children’s literature, and allowing readers, especially children, to read various award-winning works in a multi-sensory and immersive manner.

The interactive wall

The Truth About Old People, a 2020 CICLA prize winner, is presented on an interactive wall by the Book House. The original book depicts the wonderful life of grandparents in their later years and the colorful activities they attend such as skating and yoga, breaking readers’ stereotypes of elderly people in its storytelling. Young readers can “read” the stories showcasing the vitality of elderly people such as grandparents riding on a roller coaster by touching the light-emitting wall with their hands.

Reading in projected books

Direito (First Floor Right) and A Piece of the Sky are winners of 2020 and 2022 CICLA respectively, as the former is characterized by suspense, and the latter is full of fun. The Book House uses light and shadow projection technologies to produce interactive, animated picture books with Chinese dubbing, so that readers can have a glimpse of these two award-winning picture books that have yet to be introduced in China.

Poetic creation of video and audio fusion

The Snow Comes Around, a 2020 award-winning work by Mei Zihan, a famous Chinese children’s literature writer, is a high-quality picture book with beautiful images and poetic words. The Book House creates a dedicated interactive area “reading with heart” which features a combination of video and audio effects. The item vividly presents the moving, poetic picture book stories, bringing readers into a world of snow. At the same time, readers can participate in the dubbing-making process, and generate and forward audio and video works to enjoy the charm of children’s literature together with their family members and friends.

Game playing

The 2022 award-winning work Different “1”s is a picture book of both knowledge and fun and enjoys wide popularity among young readers. The Book House designs three interactive games based on the content of this book: Spot the Difference, Spot the Same, and Make a Match, aiming to let young readers get an idea of the interesting stories of this picture book through playful games.

Incubation program lighting up writing dreams

As a regular exhibit item of the Book House, the CICLA Original Illustration Exhibition Wall this year presents eminent works from the illustration exhibition from 2020 to 2022, adding an artistic atmosphere to the Book House. A Red Dress, the first picture book incubated by the illustration exhibition and published by China Welfare Institute Publishing House, made its offline debut in the wall space. The book is co-written by Italian illustrator Christina Lanotte, who has participated in the illustration exhibition four times, and Chinese author Wu Wenman, and represents a very beneficial exploration of the illustration exhibition to promote exchanges and cooperation, illustration creation, publishing, education, research and popularization in the fields of children’s literature.

Featured DIY cultural and creative products

In the cultural and creative products area, popular products such as canvas bags, enamel cups, plates, group fans, umbrellas, notebooks and T-shirts featuring elements of the winning works of the original illustration exhibition add a sense of artistic flavor to life. In addition, a new interactive experience project—illustration image bag DIY printing—was added this year. Readers can print a variety of fun illustration stickers on the bag, making their own unique fashion bag and experiencing the fun of DIY.

If you are already attracted to all these activities, come and visit Chen Bochui Children’s Book House at the Fair!