Most important children’s book award in the world for Jon Klassen

Constant rain in Bologna, so little spring was rare at the International Children’s Book Fair, the countdown is running in the “Illustrators Café”: 2:54 minutes left before this year’s winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, or ALMA for short, will be announced. 263 authors, illustrators and institutions that promote reading from 74 countries have been nominated for the most famous and richest prize that children’s and young adult literature has to offer and which is therefore also considered their Nobel Prize. The 2026 winner is Jon Klassen, Canadian illustrator and author of, among other things, the brilliant “Hat Triology”. It is a very good choice.