Sbagliar marito

La scorsa settimana, durante i quattro giorni della Bologna Children’s Book Fair, ho incontrato, conosciuto, salutato, abbracciato e baciato decine di illustratrici. Professioniste e aspiranti, giovani e mature, affermate ed esordienti. Con poche ho trovato il tempo di fare due chiacchiere. Solo con pochissime una conversazione più compiuta.

A nearly-lady

Cristina was born in Naples. It was at the end of the eighties and life appeared to be hard with the thread of camorra, earthquakes and nuclear explosions happening. But Cristina is so lively and creative that she can handle everything, all she needs is reading her most beloved comics, drawing, learning self-defence from her brother, telling her troubles to Diego Armando Maradona, writing to and receiving letters from Barbie.

Summer and everything else

Arianna is tiny, quiet, shy, but very curious and lively, she feels like an outsider. In her father’s family they’re all very talkative and speak even in their sleep. In her mother’s, they are totally workaholic. She likes listening to stories, instead, hiding in secret corners to observe life unnoticed. She’s eager to know what other people feel, wish and hope. Little by little, though, between sea and mountain adventures in her summer holidays, she finds the courage to leave her hideout and venture into the real world, with her usual humour and tenderness.

Ba's story

Tomi lives in a an African village which is just as old as the Earth, like Grandpa Ba is used to tell children under the Galam tree, where they gather to listen to his stories on the beginning of the world. He tells about a millet grain that started life and all creatures: men, animals, plants; and stories about tortoises and stars, which were once so close that children could play with them. The day Ba’s soul decides to return to its millet grain, Tomi realizes he must keep these stories alive so to preserve his people.

In a mice family

What happens everyday in a mice family? Many things: everything that happens in any family. They wake up, brush their teeth, go out, they either go to work, or to school, or mushroom hunting in autumn… Then they have lunch, they think, they play, meet new people, they argue, they dream, they come back home for dinner and set the table… They think about how different from one another they can be in a mice family, and how similar.