Embracing the Future.
In 2025, ARPress reached a new milestone by joining the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF), one of the Asia-Pacific region’s leading events dedicated to children’s and young adult content. Held from 14 to 16 November at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, the fair reinforced our mission to champion diverse voices and cross-cultural storytelling. With a history of participating in major global book fairs, ARPress welcomed the opportunity to engage with CCBF’s vibrant international community.
Approved by the Shanghai Press & Publication Administration and organized by major Chinese publishing groups, with Ronbo BolognaFiere Shanghai Ltd. as co-organizer, CCBF has been a cornerstone of global children’s publishing since 2013. Its partnership with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair reflects China’s “going global and bringing in” strategy, promoting international exchange and introducing outstanding global titles to Chinese readers. The 2025 edition hosted around 500 exhibitors from more than 35 countries across its 25,000-square-meter venue, drawing tens of thousands of visitors and showcasing thousands of new titles, artworks, and multimedia projects.
The fair featured two main zones: a Copyright Zone focused on rights trading and a Hybrid Zone blending publishing, marketing, and retail. ARPress was honored to exhibit in the Copyright Zone at Booth 2A17, presenting curated fiction, nonfiction, and poetry collections. CCBF’s renowned programming continued in 2025, with the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition receiving over 15,000 submissions, the Illustrators Survival Corner offering masterclasses and portfolio reviews, the Children Plus – COMICS exhibition highlighting nearly 200 international comic titles, and the expanded Cross-Media Lounge spotlighting innovative global projects.
Across forums and seminars, international experts explored topics such as AI in education, inclusive storytelling, and global reading promotion, further strengthening CCBF’s role as a hub for cultural exchange. For ARPress, participating in this event deepened our connections across the Asia-Pacific region, enabled meaningful engagement with authors and illustrators worldwide, and affirmed our commitment to stories that transcend borders. As we welcomed partners and book lovers to our booth, we left inspired to continue nurturing global collaboration and advancing imaginative, empathetic, and diverse storytelling for young readers.
A few books were only featured in this globally reached book fair. One of the masterpieces featured is Your Army of Dollars, which is a clever, visually engaging children’s financial-literacy book that uses the metaphor of an “army of dollars” to equip young readers with the concepts of earning, saving, budgeting, and responsible spending. The text presents money as “soldier dollars” and the reader as the “commander” who gives orders to those dollars, teaching early how financial decisions can shape future freedom.
Author Luisa Tennant is the oldest of eleven children and served as a kind of second mother in her large family, a role that cultivated her interest in guiding young people. Early in her life she worked as a camp counselor in Michigan and Wisconsin, and part of her role involved helping children balance camp checkbooks, a formative experience for the financial-education theme. With Your Army of Dollars, Tennant brings both life-experience and a playful approach, seeking to empower children with money-sense long before many standard curricula engage them.
Her impetus for writing the book emerges from her own childhood and educational experiences; seeing how early lessons about money, saving and responsibility made a difference. Her camp-counselor background and her role in a large family placed her in situations where guiding young people in practical life skills mattered. She recognised the value of presenting financial education in a fun, accessible way; so, children don’t just memorize but live the ideas by being the “commander” of their army of dollars.
This book stands out because it tackles a subject many avoid teaching children about money, with creativity and intention. Instead of a dry manual, it offers an interactive, imaginative experience that parents, educators, and children can share. The metaphor of dollars as soldiers turns abstract financial concepts into tangible “missions” for kids, helping them internalize the idea that they are in charge of their money, not the other way around. The visually engaging layout, with colouring pages and space for kids to engage actively, enhances learning.
Your Army of Dollars is a warm, intelligent, and playful resource for introducing children to financial literacy, long before they face real-world money decisions. Luisa Tennant’s experience working with children, her generous metaphor of the dollar “army,” and the interactive layout combine to make this book more than a lesson; it’s an invitation. For parents and educators seeking to provide foundational money-skills in a fun, age-appropriate way, this book offers a strong starting point. It turns financial education into a game of command, choices, and growth, giving children both agency and understanding.
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