In how many ways can you inhabit a house? At least in thirty-nine different ways, as these short stories show. Their author is María José Ferrada, acclaimed poet and story teller. The illustrations are by Pep Carriò, a Spanish illustrator who spends his time drawing trees, islands and, of course, houses. A book to sneak into other people's places, to think about concepts such as inside-outside, useful-useless, or like "behaviour", "habit", "inhabit" and so on. [Text in Italian]
Fox & Chick are back with new, hilarious adventures. In the first story, Chick sneaks into Fox's house with his pillow, in the second he loses, finds and then loses again his beloved hammer, and in the third he tries to convince Fox to prepare him a surprise party without spoiling the surprise. Be prepared to laugh! [Text in Italian]
The title, Bestiario familiare, immediately brings to mind the medieval bestiaries, which used to describe animals with educational purpose. Hens, guinea hens, cats named after famous painters, dogs, blackbirds, robins, snails, hedgehogs, grandparents, grandparents' neighbours, a brother named Gorky, philosopher friends, aunts, very strict teachers, an English babysitter nicknamed Dracula, and little Lilith who tries to find her place in a world that sometimes is fierce and unfair, sometimes amazing and full of surprises. Just like those beasts and just like life.
After La luce, a delicate tale about the complexity of feelings, Chenxino is back with a lovely, fine book about children’s wishes. The little protagonist tells what she would like to be and what she would like to have. It’s not about objects though, her wishes rather recall an indefinite, metaphysical drive, which the synthesis and minimalism of illustrations perfectly match, giving way to multiple levels of reading. A small book in two languages (Italian and Chinese, the author’s mother tongue) to train our imagination.
Un ricordo d’infanzia, il giorno in cui ha nevicato in Senegal, si fa scrittura poetica e melanconica. Il canto della madre, il freddo che gela il corpo non preparato, il cadere lento dei fiocchi di neve, la luce, i frutti che emergono tra la neve... Le illustrazioni di Joanna Concejo narrano dettagli per fissare i ricordi come vere fotografie. Senegal ha vinto di recente il Grand Prix de l’illustration jeunesse di Moulins.
Mr Lepron is a beautiful hare, with a shiny fur and long ears. He has a nice, cosy lair, many children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren, and a passion for vegetables. Indeed, Mr. Lepron is the best soup cook in the world. All animals in the forest wander how his soup tastes so good and what his secret is. So one day, Mr Lepron opens a factory, where huge pots of his soup cook night and day before being canned and shipped all over the world. But his success is soon to be threatened...
Once upon a time there was a king who was crying. He had lost his best friend. [...] For seven days the king, Gilgamesh was his name, watched over his friend, Enkidu. And when he realised he would never wake up, he left to the end of the world. The story of Gilgamesh is the most ancient epic poem of mankind, the first written form ever found, which is over 4,000 years old. The exploits of this Sumerian hero, engraved on clay tablets, were discovered in Iraq, the ancient Mesopotamia, where human civilisation was born.
These poems by Bruno Tognolini are dedicated to turtles, camels, echidnas, elephants, zebras, lemurs, bees, even to microbes. He captures their look, their essence, their weirdness, their movement, their behaviour and takes them to a fictional ground. While the drawings convey the perfection of animals. On the other hand, turtles, camels, echidnas, zebras... are they not all a hymn to the “un-imaginable”? A new poetry book by a master of words, finely illustrated by Viola Niccolai. [Text in Italian]
Another book from Kitty Crowther’s lovely series for little ones: Poka & Mine, the adventures of a father and his daughter through the joys and troubles of daily life. In the fourth book, Mine found the perfect gift for her grandmother. “Will Grandma Dorée like it?”, she wonders. “She will. And she’ll be very happy that you’re thinking of her”, Poka answers. Mine goes to bed, feeling good. She’s into deep sleep, when a little voice wakes her up… [Text in Italian]
Another book from Kitty Crowther’s lovely series for little ones: Poka & Mine, the adventures of a father and his daughter through the joys and troubles of daily life. In the third book, Poka takes Mine to the cinema. “Two tickets, please”, he says at the counter. “Oh no, Poka, it’s not two, eight! It’s eight of us!”, Mine says. Readers will find out who else is going to the cinema with them. [Text in Italian]