When the Scandinavian children’s book publishers attending the MGA meeting in Piran touched on the depressing fact that young boys were losing interest in reading books, Gunilla Olofsson (Natur och Kultur, Stockholm), Lotte Nyholm (Forum, Copenhagen) and Guri Vesaas (Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo) struck upon the idea of setting up a four-day children’s book seminar, and inviting three authors from each of the three countries to bring thirty pages of original text and an outline of the rest of the book they were working on for assessment by the experienced teachers and publishers taking part in the conference. The inducement to authors to participate was a unique opportunity to discuss their own text with colleagues and consultants, the guarantee that the book judged to be best from each country would be published simultaneously by the organising publishers in all three countries.

The well-attended seminar that took place at a Danish writers’ retreat was an unqualified success and the best possible evidence of the practical value of the Motovun Group encounters. Lotte Nyholm wrote later: ‘Not only the winners have been an asset. In Denmark, we were lucky to get a manuscript from Lene Kaaberbøl, a very well established author. She had written a fantasy novel – an excellent book – which is the first in a series of four. These books have been published in eleven other countries and the kids love them.

For over twenty-five-years the Motovun Children’s Book Group has also been holding regular meetings on the first evening of the Bologna Book Fair. This special interest group is made up of those members of the MGA who are involved exclusively or partly in publishing books for children and young people.

The children’s book publishers group looks forward to expanding its membership.