Hungarian Children’s Chess Book Could Soon Be a Hit Worldwide

This year, the 60th Children’s Book fair in Bologna was held, and Hungary was represented at the event. Hungarian exhibitors said that a Hungarian publication called My first chess book (Az első sakk-könyvem) turned out to be quite a hit at the fair, generating huge interest.

There is only one Hungarian pavilion at the whole event, which has been represented every year for twenty years, and they were very popular again this year. That publisher is Szalay Könyvek, whose commercial director Gábor Balogh said that there is a lot to learn from such an expo for the book industry. “Now more than ever, the emphasis is on making books a lasting experience that engages our children,” he said.

The event attracted more than 1,500 exhibitors from almost 100 countries around the world and nearly 30,000 visitors. Even with such large numbers, however, the Hungarian pavilion was able to stand out with one of its books.

Our publication My first chess book proved to be very unique at the exhibition. It attracted so much interest that several countries bought the rights to publish it.

So it is quite possible that Turkish, Bulgarian, Polish, or Mexican children will learn to play chess this year from the work of Hungarian authors,” highlighted Balogh.

He added that a storybook of short, funny stories, the Unicorns’ Big Storybook (Unikornisok nagy mesekönyve), was also popular with visitors. He said that every second publisher who sat down for a meeting was interested in this book. “The popularity of Hungarian children’s books is unbroken, and we are doing our best to make publications for the youngest children more popular worldwide,” emphasized the sales director.

Featured photo via Facebook/Szalay Könyvek