Welcome to the Virtual Exhibition of the Silent Book Contest 2025 – Gianni De Conno Award, the first international contest dedicated to illustrated books without words, now at its XII Edition. This year we have received 275 entries from 49 different countries of the world. The Jury of the Experts selected 16 of them to be the finalists.

THE 16 FINALISTS

Click on the covers to discover more about the stories and the authors. You’ll also find inside an extract of the illustrated pages of the books.

ALI DI CARTA

Giorgia Zanin, Marco Sergio Erculiani (Italy)

BIRD

Mania Eghrarian (Iran)

CLAIR DE LUNE

Giulia Gardelli (Italy)

FELICE

Silvia Biondi (Italy)

LOOK AT THE DEER!

Bi Li Ge (China)

MIA MAMMA È UN DINOSAURO

Riccardo Francaviglia, Margherita Sgarlata (Italy)

NEAR NEIGHBORS, FAR AWAY FRIENDS

Melina Lebel (Germany)

OUT OF THE VOID

Chaterine Suvorova (Russia)

PANCIA DELLA BALENA

Bealuz Villavicencio (Philippines)

ROCKY BOY'S SUNDAY

Dandin Espina (Philippines)

ROUTES

Iris Samartzi (Greece)

SAVE THE FOREST

Agnese Leone (Italy)

SHADOW

Zixiao Chang (UK)

THE FLOWER THIEF

Elizaveta Iakovleva (Russia)

THE INNER WORLD

Daria Gemma (Italy)

VERSO LA ROTTA DI IMMAGINARIA

Silvia Franchini, Lorena Scremin (Italy)

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION

Virtual Exhibition Project conceived by: Carthusia Edizioni, Costanza India De Conno

Contest organized and promoted by: Carthusia Edizioni

In collaboration with: Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Salone Internazionale del libro di Torino, Comune di Mulazzo, Associazione Montereggio Paese dei Librai, IOB International Organisation of Book Towns

With the patronage of: Ibby Italia

Contest under the auspices of: Centro per il libro e la lettura

With the contribution of: BPER Banca

Media Parteners: Rai Ragazzi, Rai Radio 3

Organizational Committee: Patrizia Zerbi, Costanza India De Conno, Francesco Zamboni