Oratia Books Catalogue 2024 out now

The Oratia Books Catalogue 2024 is out now in print and digital form.

This year we're delighted to profile 16 books alongside a growing backlist, as the introduction below outlines.

Thanks once more to Cheryl Smith for the catalogue design, and Simon and team at Haysom Print for the print job. 

Click here to view or download the PDF, or to request a print copy please email info@oratia.co.nz

Welcome to this catalogue for Oratia Books’ new titles for 2024 and our growing backlist of published works. 

Here are authors, illustrators and stories that resonate wherever you read. To take a sample: Richard Wolfe traces the culture of ‘kiwi’ and ‘Kiwi’, Melanie Drewery and Suzanne Simpson share Nanny Mihi’s gardening wisdom, while Jeff Szusterman and Ant Sang serve up a graphic novel with a message. 

Diverse views speak from our first release — the ebullient Rere Atu Taku Poi! Let My Poi Fly! — through to the landmark Ngāi Tahu history of the West Coast, Poutini (an image from that book features on the cover). 

From our base in Oratia we continue to explore internationally. Two additions to the bestselling New Bum! series are publishing globally as well as Down Under, while the Moana Oceania series brings content in Fijian and Samoan as well as English. 

Bilingual te reo Māori and English is the standard for many books, including the new language resource Ngā Hapa Reo. 

Thanks for reading on.

Bologna Children's Book Fair 2024 expands international reach for Oratia authors and illustrators

What an outstanding four days it has been at the Bologna Children's Book Fair 2024. 

Oratia Books again joined colleagues from around Aotearoa on the New Zealand collective stand in Hall 25 of this major meeting ground for children's books — alongside over 1500 other exhibitors from around the world.

Bologna, the bustling capital of Italy's prosperous Emilia-Romagna region, turned on great weather for all but one day, accompanied by its superlative food and wine for business dinners late into the evenings.

The Bologna fairgrounds were packed, especially on Tuesday 9th, and the Aotearoa NZ stand led by PANZ member services manager Katherine Shanks was a busy scene of enquiries and encounters. 

The Aotearoa New Zealand stand, ably managed by PANZ's Katherine Shanks (at work at bottom right)

Stand set-up and social meetings occupied the weekend, with the fair proper running from Monday to Thursday.

Our experience confirmed the Bologna Children's Book Fair (BCBF) analysis, that the fair and the children's book trade are back to levels not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic. 

There were 31,735 professional visitors across the four days, an increase of 10% on last year (this video gives a snapshot of the busy, global traffic on the opening morning).

For Oratia Books I completed about 40 meetings during the fair days (helped by organisational whizz Juliet Dreaver), with most of our major partners, agents and suppliers covered plus some exciting new discoveries. 

It was also a thrill to walk the halls with Maria Leonardi, the Rome-based publishing expert who is now helping Oratia with its international rights activity. 

With Maria Leonardi – a great publishing friend and, like me, a dual Italian and New Zealand citizen

Slovenia was this year's guest of honour, showcasing on its children's authors and also (following the fair's traditional focus on illustration) with a major exhibition of art in the main lobby. 

There is no substitute for meeting face-to-face to make and renew business relationships, and no better way to present books (a 3D, tactile product in which content is but one factor) than around a table. 

It's gratifying to see how with fair attendance each year, our authors, illustrators and creative team gain more recognition internationally, and sales potential expands.

Clockwise from top left: celebrating the success of Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird’s New Bum series with our US partners, Patty Sullivan (left) and Betina Cochran of Dover Publications; with querido amigo and our Latin American agent Pablo de la Vega; catching up with Latvian illustrator Elīna Braslina and US-Spanish author and translator Lawrence Schimel, creators of our board books Bedtime, Not Playme and Early One Morning; and meeting one of the courageous Ukrainian contingent, Olha Pisotska (centre) of Ranok Publishing, alongside New Zealand’s Juliet Dreaver. 

Now to the weeks of following up with exchange of materials and ideas, and the months of exchanges and negotiations that will be approaching conclusion by the time of the next big event on the publishing fair calendar, the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. 

Arrivederci Bologna, until next year

— Peter Dowling, Publisher