The Tea Box

Ana Juan

2011-06-19T00:08:00.002+11:00

I’ve been admiring Ana Juan’s work for a while now, most of all when she gets rid of colour and gives way to black and white shades, when the colour is just marginal and, because of that, vibrant. I love her light strokes, the fineness of her lines, the dark and explosive power of her images revealing hidden anxieties.

Above the video of Circus, published in Italy by Logos, below the video for Snowhite Secret Box, published by No Time Limited Editions.

I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Dans la Forêt du Paresseux - Video

2011-06-04T18:17:00.001+11:00

Hello everybody!

I'm sorry for this long silence, although unintentional, I shall soon be back with many news.

Meanwhile, for those who haven't seen it yet, let me signal this beautiful book-video by Hélium Publisher, from the book titled Dans la Forêt du Paresseux (the book was introduced by the publisher in this nice post):

The book has recently been published by the Brazilian Cosac Naify.

HAVE A NICE WEEKEND!

The Versatile Blogger Award

2011-05-19T21:02:00.040+11:00

I was really flattered when I received an e-mail from Zoe, at Playing by the Book Blog, informing me that she had selected my blog for The Versatile Blogger Award. THANK YOU ZOE!

The Rules of the Award are:

Thank the person who gave you the award.
Tell us seven things about yourself.
Award fifteen recently discovered bloggers.
Contact the blogs to let them know they received the award.

Here are seven things about me:

I'm sure you would never guess this one: my house is crowded with tea boxes, mugs, cups and tea pots! Aha! Though I do have quite a number of pebbles of all sorts: brown ones, reddish ones, and pink, green, grey, black, with patterns... but I have as well eggs of any kind, pieces of bark, funny little puppets I have found during my traveling, lots of greens, and two cats: Pukka and Minnie;
I love photography and I have established very strict rules for my own photographs: no digital, no reflex, only mechanical cameras and only BW pictures! Snobbish? Maybe but it makes me feel great to be able to choose all details while I take my pictures;
I used to play the flute... good thing I've stopped, but I still cannot live without music;
when I was a kid I was convinced I would die of consumption like Mimì, in Puccini's opera! Quite dramatic, yes! Though my favourite opera character is Tosca, still Puccini's.
I'm specialized in History of Theatre, together with English and French literature;
when I have time I making my own little books out of pictures and/or materials I collect when I walk around, be it in the countryside or at the sea;
after I started blogging, and getting some recognition here and there, my dad decided he wanted to have a T-shirt bearing the following sentence: "I'm the father of the genius!" with my picture at the bottom of it... Just in case I thought of taking myself too seriously!

And now, my personal selection of blogs, I have chosen them picking amid children's books authors, art and design experts and children's book experts. They are sorted in alphabetical order.

I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

Interview with Maurizio Quarello - (not exactly) Walking in Macerata

2011-05-19T07:10:00.001+11:00

I've already told you about Maurizio Quarello's books here and here, therefore you know I'm keen on his art.... though this was a special occasion for me: I got to interview him!

You can read the full lenghth interview at 7Imp, exactly here.

Here below a little sneak peak into his art...

Les Arbres Pleurent Aussi, Ed. Rouergue

Sketches for Barbe Bleue

Les Arbres Pleurent Aussi, Ed. Rouergue

Barbe Bleue, Copyright Milan Presse

Effets Secondaires, Editions Rouergue

Preview on the book about Rosa Parks, to be published by Orecchio Acerbo, courtesy of the publisher.

A big thank you goes to the publishers: Milan Presse, Editions du Rouergue e Orecchio Acerbo. To Maurizio Quarello a thank you for his kindness and availability.

L'Isola di Fuoco di Emilio Salgari

2011-05-15T22:56:00.077+11:00

L'Isola di Fuoco by Emilio Salgari, illustrated by Luca Caimmi, Orecchio Acerbo Editore, April 2011

Last April 25th was the 100th anniversary of Emilio Salgari’s death. Salgari claims fatherhood for many heroes that, during the decades, have populated the dreams of adults and children. Often downgraded to minor writer, because he was considered popular when not children’s book writer, with all the negative meaning those terms had, his work is for sure at the level of many other acclaimed adventure book writers. His books were, and still are, amid the more translated in the world, his most famous characters: from Sandokan to the Black Corsair, from Yanez to the charming Pearl of Labuan, just to mention some amid the ones from his most famous novels.

His production was wide and varied, in fact he wrote over 85 novels and an impressive number of tales, about 160, published both under his name or under different pen names heralding exotic adventures, such as Captain Guido Altieri, or Romero S.. For more in-depth on his production, if reading Italian, please visit this page.

As Mario Tropea explains, in this beautiful article I warmly recommend you to read (sorry but again

only for Italian readers): "... si può dire che le ragioni dell’interesse all’opera di Salgari derivano da

quella sua capacità di interpretare, a livello diretto e aideologico, da scrittore di razza e

istintivo,elementare”, appunto, e tanto più convincentemente per questo, tendenze e miti della realtà

dell’Ottocento, come l’esotismo, il sogno di conquista e di movimento, la diffusione mondiale,

l'appropriazione planetaria, la espansione del progresso (la rapina anche, e la prevaricazione) ad

opera dell’uomo occidentale nei confronti dell’intero globo. ..."*

And nonetheless, as Tropea reminds in the above mentioned article, Salgari is often inspired by news items, as it was the case with the island off the coast of Sicily, in the waters between Sciacca and Pantelleria, to whom L'Isola di Fuoco is inspired: it seems that, since the night of times, said island used to appear to then sink in a din of lapillus and ashes, and that it definitely disappeared in 1832.

L'Isola di Fuoco isn’t amid Salgari’s best known tales, and nonetheless publisher Orecchio Acerbo selected it to celebrate the most productive, and more berated, writer of the 19^th century. This is no obvious choice, on the contrary, and to be honest it’s exactly what I expected from them, if ever, it’s an emblematic choice, assuming a highly symbolic meaning thanks to the interpretation illustrator and publisher together decided to give this story.

The tale written by Salgari is set in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and it tells, as I was saying above, of a boat that, almost at destination, bumps into a strange phenomenon: an island that sinks in a fire thunder. When the story starts the journey is almost over, it’s a dazzling story, extremely short, narrated in first person by a seaman who embarked to join New Zeland.

He’ll be the first person to spot the fire at a distance and to alert Mr Watt, the ship’s captain. Up to that moment, writing and image narration proceed at the same rate. Though, starting with the 5^th table, we start to understand that something is wrong. In the map Captain Watt is examining, we realize we're not looking at the Pacific Ocean, at its place we see the Gulf of Mexico: a sombre spot, marked with a red cross, stains the map. From this moment on, the mystery is slowly revealed.

We’re not looking at an island anymore but a burning oil platform.

Waters are dangerously warming up, the boat suffers a mechanical damage and is forced to unfurl its sails hoping that the wind would finally blow. Salgari has the gift of transporting us into the stories he tells and thus, the connection between the facts he tells and the more recent ones from the Gulf of Mexico, that inspired the images, result into an even more excruciating impact.

This juxtaposition between the story written by Salgari and the recent Gulf of Mexico facts, more than being a very clever and innovative idea, results deeply respectful of the philosophy that is the grounds of Salgari’s narrative in matters of getting inspiration from current affairs, and in matters of representing technological expansionism carried out regardlessly, a trend that, as it seems, hasn’t stopped with the end of the 19^th century.

It also has credit for actualizing the story, to bring it nearer in all its unlikeliness to a reality we know far too well, leaving intact Salgari’s taste for danger and adventure.

I believe it was a consciously risky choice, dictated by a strong civic and environmental feeling , it’s by the way an effective way to let young people approach the consequences of what Tropea calls: "...la espansione del progresso (la rapina anche, e la prevaricazione) ad opera dell’uomo occidentale..."*

Caimmi’s wonderful watercolours fill the pages with vigour and awareness. The wave that slowly takes shape and then almost entirely floods the page, premonition of imminent disasters, seems to obscure every surface: sky, sea, ship, men reduced to mere shadows melting in the light of the fire. But the morning comes, the island has disappeared in the depths of the ocean, and the fire is all over...

Everything seems to gain back its original shape, its consistency, the night in its sinisterly sparked mantle leaves place to reality with all its tragic truth.

Bitter words resound:

“...Una fortuna da raccogliere, e gli isolani non si lasceranno certo scappare una così bella occasione!” ***

even bitter when the fortune they can get is a staining and suffocating oil spot. In the text Salgari refers to the fish that died because of the heat of the waters as a consequence of the island burning, while in the images Caimmi has painted make us think of a sad, though concrete, paradox: the black gold, source of wars, of political and economical strategies, gets out of control and invades nature, dragging away precious balances, while common men are left with a desperate and meticulous fishing in the effort to reduce damages as much as possible.

The picture book ends with this wonderful image, no words are needed to describe such a scene:

An extremely well done book, as in the tradition of this publishing house, the careful use of graphics enhances the connection between words and images. A priceless lesson for those who want to teach to their sons (or students) the due respect for environment.

Luca Caimmi, is al illustrator from Marche, he has received several recognitions amid which the Prize titled to Andrea Pazienza, he was selected as well at the Bologna Book Fair in 1998 and 1999. He has published several titles amid which, La Nave by Antonio Koch, in 2009 with Topipittori and, in 2010, he took part to the collective exhibit titled Banchi di Nebbia, Orecchio Acerbo has published the catalogue. Here is his blog: http://lucacaimmi.blogspot.com/

* Mario Tropea, Emilio Salgari, un "classico" della letteratura italiana, Agorà VII (a. II, Ottobre-Dicembre 2001)

"... we can as well affirm that the reasons of the interest in Salgari’s works derives from that ability of his to interpret, at a direct and aideological level - as the pedigreed and instinctive author he was, “elementary”, exactly, and far more convincing for this - the tendencies and myths of reality in the 1800, as exoticism, or the dream of conquest and motion, worldwide diffusion, planetary appropriation, the expansion of progress (its robbery as well, and prevarication) that western men imposed on the rest of the world. ..."

** "...the expansion of progress (the robbery as well, and the abuse of power) operated by western men...", Ibidem.

*** “... A fortune to harvest, the people from the islands won't certainly miss such a good occasion!"

Et Pourquoi Pas Toi? - Editions Notari

2011-04-26T20:50:00.037+11:00

Et Pourquoi Pas Toi? by Madalena Matoso, Editions Notari, 2011

Hello everybody !

Today I shall tell you about a beautiful picture book for younger children even if, if I think of it better, it’s a book for all ages. It’s one of Notari's last publications, I discovered it during the Bologna Book fair and that I am now happy to share with you. Notari is a small and eclectic publishing house from Switzerland that is run by the nice couple Luca and Paola Notari (of course).

For a start I would like to talk a bit about the author of this book: Madalena Matoso. Illustrator and author, Matoso is one of the founders of Planeta Tangerina, an interesting publishing atelier that has produced several picture books of great interest, suffice it to take a look at their catalogue to realize it. Madalena Matoso’s books are not new in Italy, in fact with Topipittori publishing she has two titles: Quanti Siamo in Casa and Quando Sono Nato, that have been published as well in French by Notari under the titles Chez Moi Nous Sommes and Quand je suis né, together with Se Balader. Only one title has been translated and published, this year, in English: When I was Born, published by Tate Publishing. Matoso has received several recognitions amid which the CJ Picture Book Award, furthermore in 2008 she was selected for the 28th Edition of the Exhibit "Le Immagini della Fantasia" in Sarmede.

But let’s talk about Et Pourquoi Pas Toi? !

The book is wordless, its structure very simple and clever:

as you can see, despite the imperfection of my picture, the book has a cut at the middle of the pages, separating the tables in two mobile straps, images are consequently modular. Translation in images of the surrealist idea of the cadavre exquis (or exquisite corpse), of which another beautiful example is the Bestiaire Universel du Professeur Revillod, this book plays with image narration, though it maintains shapes and colours apt for a younger audience: clear cut images, on a white background, geometrical shapes, basic colours, image composition isn’t very complex though detailed; characters, outlined in a simple way, correspond to reassuring logics and are easily read.

In order to obtain a functional mechanism, on the left hand side all characters are dressed in red, while on the right they are dressed in blue, here below are a couple of examples:

Not only: image composition has been studied so as to give continuity to the upper and lower parts of the pages therefore, thanks to the use of simple geometric shapes, any combination you choose, page-cuts always correspond to a finished and following image, that sometimes leads to magic implications...

others simply fun ones

The declared topic of this book is beautiful and important: it tells of equality between men and women. In theory it’s a very complex topic to deal with though, thanks to the mechanism of mobile straps, all difficulties seem to disappear, there’s no need for words to explain, you just need to turn the page, the meaning is intuitive and immediate. This is how we end up meeting men and women doing the most varied jobs: women scientists, farmers, magicians or rock stars (see above), and men doing baby-sitting or just taking care of their sick kids, or primary school teachers...

Exactly because of the wide range of possible combinations, there are no age, nor sex limits. More: to a closer analysis the message goes far beyond equality between men and women, as in this gorgeous book there are no ethnical limitations: be you white, black, yellow or blue, you can do all you want. It’s the representation of an ideal world where I would want to live as well.

Created in collaboration with the Department for Social Cohesion, Youth and Sports of the town of Geneva, this book is an important tool for modern children from any nation: the idea of equality amid sexes and races is never learned soon enough, especially when society is subject to quick and important changes, like nowadays, especially when integration is a daily, urgent, issue. Maybe, with a book like this, children (or future adults) will learn not to look their neighbour with suspicion, and they will be able to give course to new perspectives for everyone.

Shortly: an international book for modern children! What else could you wish for?

I can already hear them: "is this a job for girls

or for boys?
how about this one?

and this?"

P.S. I received the book from the Publishers upon selection at the Book Fair in Bologna, I thank them for their kindness and precious collaboration.

Copyright© text and images, Ed. Notari 2011. Images have been reproduced with the publisher’s permission, all unauthorized reproduction is strictly forbidden.

Favole di Esopo - Topipittori

2011-04-18T22:40:00.010+11:00

Fables by Aesop, illustrations by Simone Rea, translation by Bianca Mariano*, Topipittori Editore, March 2011

I had been waiting for the publication of this book for about a year, I had fallen in love with Simone Rea's artwork at first glance and since then, at regular intervals, I asked Giovanna and Paolo for some news about the book. I must have been a real pain in the neck!

The book was finally published in March, right before the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and to confirm how strange life can be, a few weeks before I had personally met Simone in Rome, during a wonderful laboratory at Orecchio Acerbo Publishing house.

But let's start with order, because today we're talking about what is considered the forerunner of modern fables, and this deserves at least a short introduction.

During the centuries, Aesop's Fables have been translated several times - from Greek to Latin, to medieval versions in vulgar (Isopet or Ysopet) – and revisions; in some cases we could as well say they were re-written, as it was the case with Jean de La Fontaine who rewrote them according to the needs of his times. Also from the iconographic point of view, the Fables have been the source of several interpretations: from the famous New York Public Library's Esopo Mediceo to the one from Augusta, dating the end of 1400, up to the very famous children's version, titled Baby's Own Aesop, by Walter Crane dating 1887, not to forget Milo Winter's and Arthur Rackham's dating the beginning of 1900. To end this quick excursus let me mention one last masterpiece: the interpretation Antonio Frasconi gave of the Fables, for those who can read Italian, Publisher Topipittori wrote this beautiful post on its blog. Several diatribes regarding Fables' paternity took place in time and space: in fact, to its primeval nucleus several additions were made in later epochs, imitating their style, in some cases metrics as well, to the point that the identification of the original Fables became quite difficult to evince. To this purpose I suggest you to take a look at the Fables Pedigree you can find here and to read this article where their classification is thoroughly explained **.

We could talk about Aesop's Fables for days, but let's get to our times because, as it seems, the attention towards this literature's classic hasn't decreased: as an evidence to what I'm saying, let me mention the recent version published by Milan Presse with artwork by Jean-Francois Martin, that was awarded with the Fiction Bologna Ragazzi Award, and the beautiful version object for this post.

For a start, please allow me to make a short evaluation on the Fable's selection the publisher made: we're talking 20 fables, for each one we have a double page spread; amid the selected Fables we find some famous texts, such as The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, The Cat and the Mice, The Fox and the Grapes, together with less usual ones such as The Donkey and the Mule and The Crab and its Mother. A refined selection that has been clearly meditated at length.

And now let's talk about Simone Rea's artwork!

The Lion and the Dolphin

The first thing that strikes me while looking at those illustrations is the use of colour: even though there is not much space left for white, Rea's tables are sober and elegant. His colours, peculiar and wisely measured, fill the glance and give us a sense of time suspension: the seraphic azures, at times clear others more material, copious or transparent reds, or the more neutral nuances to whom the illustrator gives the task to soothe the turmoil resulting from other colours. If you notice, white appears in the details: in the dolphin's dress light lace above, or in the chair in the illustration that follows, in the dresses' collars or in the t-shirt and in the frog's face from the last illustration. Another aspect that meets my taste in particular is Simone's sensibility for material, for the scratched, scraped off stroke, that often gives images with a modern tone an air of something more consumed, as if we were observing a film worn by the many projections, as if to underline the infinite repetition of these stories, indirect recall to the Fable's ancient life.

The Monkeys and their Mother

Another important aspect that needs be taken into consideration about Simone’s images is their composition. In fact, in order to maintain a sense of space and lightness, and of course to allow text inclusion, where narrating elements are composite, the heart of image narration plays all around structures that tend to agglomerate, giving to the tables background the task to soothe the scene and to create enough space to insert the text. Framings, always accurately distinct, give reading its rhythm and liveliness. I would also like to emphasize Rea’s incredible synthesis capability when narrating: even if it’s true that the Fables don’t have large texts, on the contrary most of them do have a very succinct one, it is also true that some of these stories entered popular tradition in many countries and, consequently, were enriched with a particularly important cultural and iconic inheritance. Our illustrator’s ability, to my opinion, consists in having inserted with discretion and intelligence some archaic elements re-elaborated in a more topic key.

The Gnat and the Bull

Let me clear this point: Fables, where they formed part of popular cultural patrimony, at first had a purely moral task and, only in a second moment, a pedagogical one, especially from the moment they were designated as an essential element in children’s educational equipment; in both cases the parallel between animal’s and human behaviours is perfectly clear, as much as it’s clear these behaviours were used as an example to communicate a common sense lesson. While observing Rea’s tables it appears quite evident how his playing with some elements, as for instance clothes used to dress animals as if they were men (not a new expedient but still used with remarkable skill), or the insertion of modernity cross-references (I’m thinking for instance at the puzzles magazine you find in The Monkeys and Their Mother ‘s image above, but also at the digital camera in The Frogs' Complaint against the Sun just to name a couple), do contribute in a decisive way to the reader’s identification process and, as a result of this, to an easier assimilation of the message contained in the text. It’s curious to observe how a similar process, in specific animal’s clothing, applied by two contemporary artists, almost the same age, may generate such distinct results: if we take Martin’s Fables illustrated for Milan Presse, and we compare them to Rea’s, we can recognize the similarity of intents that differs in the way these are filtered by the artists both in the chromatic choice, minimal in Martin’s tables, more complex in Rea’s ones, and in the settings: decidedly more retro for the French and more contemporary for the Italian. We’re talking here two excellent interpretations, no doubt. Were I forced to find a small flaw, I would instinctively think that the amazing artworks produced by Martin might be less immediate to a younger reader, that the refinement of his tables, and their reference to artworks from the first decades of the 20th century, might risk to lose that feeling of empathy I fully find in Rea’s artworks. It’s though appropriate to remind that children aren’t a single entity and that, any single one of them perceives and filters images according to his/her own sensibility, therefore my digression right above might be completely useless: what stands out, in the end, is the amazing work they both produced.

One last note goes to the book’s flyleaves: perfect anteroom for what we will find in the internal pages, inhabited by animals-children simply outlined with pastels, gently laid on the page, ready to lead us into this archetypal travel and to bring us back to where they found us, maybe slightly different.

If you’re curious to know more about Simone Rea, you can take a look at his blog.

* with the exception of The Crow and the Fox, done by Topipittori.
** just for complete information, and if you can read Italian, let me signal as well this extract from Confessioni e battaglie by Carducci where, at point III, he tells about "l'Esopo senese curato dal Targioni e dal Gargani" [Aesop from Siena edited by Targioni and Gargani] that was published by Le Monnier in 1864.

Copyright© text and images, Ed. Topipittori 2011. Images have been published with the Publisher’s permission, any unauthorised reproduction being severely forbidden.

Premio Bologna Children's Book Fair - Fundaciòn SM International Prize for Illustration

2011-04-04T23:40:00.002+11:00

Once again the Book Fair is over, the last official act was the assignment of the Fundaciòn SM Award, an important moment not just for illustrators, followed by the diploma ceremony for all the selected illustrators who submitted their artwork this year.

The recipient of the 2011 Bologna Children's Book Fair - Fundaciòn SM International Prize for Illustration is

Page Tsou

Page is from Taiwan but he lives in London, he has an MA in Communication and Art Design obtained at the London Royal College of Art. Though he's at the beginnings of his artistic career, Page has already obtained many amid mentions and recognitions, he had already been selected at the Bologna Book Fair in 2008 and 2010, and he now finally obtained the prize in this last edition.

If you're interested in getting to know him better, here is his website:

http://pagetsou.com/About.html

and his two blogs:

http://pagetsou.blogspot.com/

http://page721.blogspot.com/

both extremely interesting.

Here is the video of the award reception:

Here the other illustrators receiving their diplomas:

Part One

Part Two

Here some images from the illustrator's exhibit:

Enjoy!

ALMA Award 2011

2011-04-03T13:29:00.001+11:00

I was right there, at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, waiting for the announcements of the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, people started to gather, await was filled with soothed chattering. I asked myself if it would be as touching as it were last year: Kitty Crowther's work has, for me, a special meaning and this was one of the reasons why I felt so much touched when the announcement was made in 2010. And like last year Kitty was there, once again, she sat right in front of me, which made me all emotional again, when I see her I always feel like a kid facing her hero! Ok, enough with emotions, let's regain composure!

I decided to grab my camera and wait...

Who will be the winner? I was wondering, fervent with expectation.

The jury members arrived, the moment was getting closer... time to start shooting!

And, directly from Sweden, the name is finally announced: "The winner is....

SHAUN TAN

A wonderful year for the australian illustrator: after the more glamourous recognitions directly form Hollywood here it comes, the most important prize for an illustrator, the ALMA Award!!!

Amid his books:

Once again the ALMA jury has selected an illustrator whose unique, courageous, work stands out of traditional values, whose way of looking at the world can be mercyless, whose ability to find poetry in smaller details, that slowly become predominant, is unequalled.

Here is my video (once again I do apologise for all its imperfection) of the announcement, enjoy!

Desperate illustrator?

2011-03-11T21:00:00.024+11:00

Dear illustrators, or aspiring illustrators, if you're ready to worn out the soles of your shoes along the corridors of the Bologna Book Fair, looking agonizingly for a publisher/art director/professional illustrator whom to show your works to, today, for you, there are good, better

EXCELLENT NEWS!

A real task force composed by professional illustrators, upon whose identity remains a deep mystery, have decided to be at your disposal, how?!? Well, read here and rejoice:

No Book will be Neglected

BOLOGNA CHILDREN'S BOOK FAIR 2011

Dear friends, colleagues and editors,

it's several years now I started having the feeling that, for those who are moving their first steps in the world of children's books illustration, there are less and less chances during the Bologna Book Fair to show their work, to receive advices and, why not, solemn harsh criticism (that are always useful).

This is not the moment to discuss the reasons for it: there is much to do, everybody is tired, there's no time to concentrate.

It still remains true that those guys need a first contact with professionalism and some advice.

Even if natural selection – bringing ahead not simply those illustrators that are the more talented from the technical point of view but also those who are able to get by in the complex world of publishing – has some sense, I believe that a minimum availability for young illustrators is a duty, for those who made it, more than being something that can reveal to be useful, not just for them.

The CMYK Project is a group of superheroes, or professional illustrators and authors whom, during the fair, have accepted to be available for younger illustrators to take a look at their books.

There is no established meeting, no place where they can show and queue up.
Our four can be recognized by a pin and a badge. If you see them, you can simply stop them and open up your book.
The four superheroes in this group are:
Mr. BLUE – MAGENTA - Mr. BLONDE - Mr. BLACK

One only request: if Blue, Magenta, Blonde and Black aren't showing their badges exposed here below it means that they are NOT available, in that moment because otherwise busy.

please do respect this simple rule.

A sincere THANK YOU, for this generous and brilliant idea is the least thing I can say!

This whole thing makes we wish to give chase to them, my camcorder at hand, ready to capture any sign, in alert looking for suspicious jams in the corridors, of wary cliques scattered in the less obvious corners. To be in theme I shall wear a mask too... well, if I think of it I'd better not: the only one I have is a cat's mask, remains form carnival, which makes me certain that I would unavoidably be mistaken for Garfield!!! Mumble, mumble, mumble... what shall I do? Well, I'll think of it!

Anyway:

THANK YOU GUYS, YOU'RE OUR HEROES!

FESTIVAL MINIMONDI - XI Edition 12th-27th March

2011-03-08T20:34:00.018+11:00

It's about time: Festival Minimondi is back!!!

Once again Parma turns cultural thanks to the eleventh edition of the famous festival, devoted to literature and illustration, that will run from March 12^th to 27^th.

Like in past editions, the festival's program is extremely varied, in fact amid other events there will be: the fantastic Remy Charlip exhibit, several workshops and events with authors and illustrators, and with Editoriale Scienza, meetings at schools, workshops with Focus Pico about graffitis and artwork with plasticine, a season of films at Cinema D'Azeglio and the always actual initiative Adopt a Publisher.

Amid the guests: Brunella Baldi, Viorel Boldis, Francesca Capelli, Ennio Cavalli, Anna Cerasoli, Roberto Denti, Ermanno Detti, Miriam Dubini, Silvana Gandolfi, Antonio Nicaso, Giulia Orecchia, Chiara Rapaccini, Gustavo Roldan, Silvia Roncaglia, Andrea Salvatici, Guido Sgardoli, Iole Severi Silvestrini, Tabitha Suzuma, Virgilio Sieni, Vanna Vannuccini, Guia Risari.

I would like to focus your attention on one event, to my opinion, unique: the exhibition

REMY CHARLIP DANZARE IL MIO LIBRO*

that will run from March 12^th to April 25^th at Galleria San Ludovico**. The show has been organised by Festival Minimondi and edited by: Les Trois Ourses, Associazione Minimondi and by the architect Marco Ferreri, who is responsible as well for the setting up.

First of all this is the first italian show devoted to the American artist in its whole, that is to say a one-man exhibition including his activities as illustrator, author, choreographer and dancer as well, it's therefore a unique occasion that you shouldn't miss.

Charlip is a really extraordinary character, who has lived a very interesting life: choreographer and dancer as I said he collaborated, for about 12 years, with the company of the legendary avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham. Though, during his career in the world of dance, he never stopped writing children's books, because: "I have always wanted to do picture books for children"***. From the beginning of the fifties, Charlip has published more than 30 titles of which the last, A Perfect Day, dates 2007. As he declared during a celebration dedicated to him in '97, from Library's Children's Literature Center Convention, he loves changing style and experiencing new languages and perspectives, in order to better represent a variety of situations: "How I look at subjects, people and things are different, so I like to bring that to the books"***

To give voice to the multi- artistic soul of the American author, the exhibit has been set up by dividing the main central room, where the first editions of his books will be showcased together with original artwork from his books, from lateral niches where didactical activities will take place and where videos with Charlip's performances as dancer and choreographer will be shown.

In the context of Charlip's activity in the world of dance, on March 14^th at 06.00 p.m., Virgilio Sieni will execute the performance titled "Stanze, accenni e sguardi sul corpo come luogo”**** dedicated to Merce Cunningham, who was one of his teachers.

Amid the many interesting documents of the show there is as well a letter from Bruno Munari, dated 1958, where he congratulates Charlip for his book It looks like snow and, meanwhile, sends him a mock-up of his book Nella nebbia di Milano. It's nice to realize how culture grows always richer when it opens up, letting experience flow through communicating vessels that make it wider. In this case our communicating vessels are human relationships and the ability to open up to exchanges: in 1981, Munari dedicated Charlip (and John Cage) his Cappuccetto Bianco**** for those who know both texts the reason is quite evident.

Of Charlip's many books, il Italy only two have been translated: Niente, published on 2007, and Fortunatamente, that has just been published, both texts were published by Orecchio Acerbo. Fortunately is as well the 100^th title of the roman publisher that celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year.

One last curiosity: writer Brian Selznick has the merit to have made Charlip famous in the world, in some case way before his books were translated and published, because he got inspired by Charlip's features for the character of Georges Méliès, in his book La straordinaria invenzione di Hugo Cabret (The Extraordinary Adventure of Hugo Cabret).

In short: don't loose this occasion!

For more information you can contact the following:

e-mail: info@minimondi.com
website: http://www.minimondi.com/
telephones: 3287826571 - 3208112085 - 3487334761

*REMY CHARLIP DANCE MY BOOK

**Galleria San Ludovico is in Borgo del Parmigianino 2/b, Parma. It's opened from 09.30 a.m. To 06.30 p.m., it's closed on Tuesdays.

*** Both mentions were taken from the article: "Young at Heart: A Celebration of Remy Charlip", published in the Library of Congress LC Information Bulletin, June 23, 1997.

The winners of the 2011 BOLOGNA CHILDREN'S BOOK FAIR

2011-02-22T06:00:00.002+11:00

Here are th book selected b the jury for the 2011 Bologna Children's Book Fair:

FICTION

ÉDITIONS MILAN - Toulouse, France
FABLES texts by Esope, adaptation by Jean-Philippe Mogenet, illustrations by Jean-François Martin

Special Mentions have been assigned to:

HYACINTHE ET ROSE, texts by François Morel, illustrations by Martin Jarrie, ÉDITIONS THIERRY MAGNIER - Paris, France

THE IRON MAN, texts by Ted Hughes, drawings by Laura Carlin, WALKER BOOKS - London, United Kingdom

NON FICTION

CHANGBI PUBLISHERS - Paju, Republic of Korea
A HOUSE OF THE MIND: MAUM texts by Kim Hee-Kyung, illustrations by Iwona Chmielewska

Special Mentions were assigned to:

CO Z CIEBIE WYROSNIE? texts and illustrations by Aleksandra Mizielinska, Daniel Mizielinski, DWIE SIOSTRY - Warsaw, Poland

THE STORIES SHOULDN’T BE TRUE, texts and illustrations by Gang GyeongSu, SIGONGJUNIOR - Seoul, Republic of Korea

NEW HORIZONS

COSAC NAIFY – São Paulo, Brazil
MIL-FOLHAS – HISTÓRIA ILUSTRADA DO DOCE texts by Lucrecia Zappi, graphic design by Maria Carolina Sampaio

Special Mentions went to:

A JANELA DE ESQUINA DO MEU PRIMO, texts by E.T.A Hoffman, illustraztions by Daniel Bueno, COSAC NAIFY – São Paulo, Brazil

UN DÍA, texts and illustrations by Chiara Carrer, PETRA EDICIONES – Zapopan, México

OPERA PRIMA

ÉDITIONS MeMo - Nantes, France
MONSIEUR CENT TÊTES texts and illustrations by Ghislaine Herbéra

Special Mentions went to:

DIAPASON, illustrations by Laëtitia Devernay, LA JOIE DE LIRE - Geneva, Switzerland I had already told you briefly about this book here.

SŁONIĄTKO/FANTJE, texts by Adam Jaromir, illustrations by Gabriela Cichowska, MUCHOMOR - Warsaw, Poland/GIMPEL VERLAG - Hannover,Germany

You can find the jury's motivations and plenty of other information here.

The Wild Swans - Topipittori

2011-02-21T19:43:00.051+11:00

The Wild Swans by Has Christian Andersen, illustrations by Joanna Concejo, translation by Maria Giacobbe, Ed. Topipittori, February 2011

Every time I open up a book illustrated by Joanna Concejo my wrists start shaking with emotion, for how deeply her images arrive to my heart with no filters nor inhibitions. It's beyond my control, an emotional wave overwhelms me entirely, leaving me breathless, as if the most beautiful and sad memories came out of their tidy drawers all at once and started dancing all over my body.

When I learned that Giovanna and Paolo, our Topi, had assigned her one of the most beautiful and difficult texts by Andersen I deeply rejoiced, and not because I'm sadistic: this was one of the stories my granny used to tell me more frequently and I couldn't wait to plunge into the interpretation Joanna would have given of it.

It's not easy to confront with a classic, least of all if the classic is signed Hans Christian Andersen, because the psychological complexity of his tales is heavy, because rendering his melancholic and poetical atmospheres is extremely difficult, because the harshness of his stories seems at times hopeless (I have vivid memories of the anguish I felt when, child, I read The Little Mermaid). Giving essence to such a refined and restless soul is not simple.

This tale, in particular, is extremely complex because it represents the fall from childhood's paradise towards the abyss that goes along with adolescence, between disenchantment and inability to communicate, between the loss of one's nearest and dearest and the desperate effort of bringing them back.

The main character, Elisa, is alone. Left to her own devices, every minute of her life is spent in the memory of her beloved brothers, that she will find again only almost adult, and of the nice moments spent with them. As in almost all traditional tales, advocate of the fall is the cruel stepmother who alienates the children from their father condemning them to an imposed silence, deriving from the mutation into swans for the sons and from the forceful separation for Elisa.

As suitable to an appropriate tale's hero, Elisa is at first a child and then a young woman of great virtues: beautiful, polite, with a firm faith, she places her and her swan-brothers' destiny in the hands of Divine mercy, scrupulously following the precepts she's being given without a doubt, with no sinking. Despite physical suffering, caused by the nettles she's obliged to spin to make the shirts that will break the witch-stepmother's spell, despite all the risks she runs, the young woman will bring her task to the conclusion assuring her brothers and herself the longed happy ending.

Joanna has given an amazing interpretation of this tale, full of symbolic cross-references and noble moments. Her illustrations reaffirm Elisa's loneliness in several ways, as it happens in the image here below, where the nettles form a sort of frame/prison that isolates the beautiful princess from the rest of the world:

Depicted from behind, bent on her own piece of work, the young woman looks like a twig bending over to life's moodiness: she doesn't address us while we observe her, she can't say a word, otherwise her brothers would die.

I would like to recall your attention on the first image of this post, on the mirror-image portraying the shape of a swan to be precise, because this illustration recalls with great strength the idea of presence/absence of the brothers: on the left side of the image the swan looks like a ghost, only vaguely sketched, and the little character in the distance, as big as a little speck, represents young Elisa wondering with no precise intent, looking for those she can feel without really seeing; on the right side nothing is left of the swan if not its negative, the silhouette, almost as if to remark the ideas of distance, unattainability, absence.

Absence, together with desperation for the impossibility of carrying on the task of weaving the eleven shirts, is recaptured in this image as well

where, to a more descriptive part where we can see tiny knights galloping towards the castle whose king has decided to take Elisa with him and to soon marry her, is powerfully opposing the image on the right, a portrait of the young woman, visibly hopeless, whose image is at times eclipsed by those embroidered disks, transparent, appearing as well in the flyleaves of the book. The presence of those objects seems almost to be emphasizing the sensation of emptiness that overwhelms the girl when she is parted from her brothers, her body is almost maimed, erased, at the same time the shape and the positioning in flock the illustrator gave those disks seems to be recalling the idea of travel and the temporary nature of the situation.

In the last illustration I propose, once again Elisa turns her back to us, once more she appears as the solitary hero, framed by the crowd that between fury and incredulity besieges her

Only favourable wardens the birds, observing the scene at a distance, as if to symbolize the benevolent glance of heavens.

To end with, please observe the wonderful harmony of Joanna's tables, drawn using pastels, their balance in the use of colour, the gentleness of her stroke.

Beautiful the translation by Maria Giacobbe.

This book doesn't cost "half of the kingdom", it doesn't even cost as much as Elisa's precious book therefore, if I was able to arouse your curiosity, I suggest that you to pay a visit to the bookshop (or to the publisher's website).

The book has been published simultaneously in french, for Editions Notari.

Le Géant - L'Atelier du Poisson Soluble

2011-02-15T18:55:00.002+11:00

Le Géant by Nicolas Thers, L'Atelier du Poisson Soluble, May 2010

"Maman et moi avons décidé d’adopter un Géant! C’est mieux d’être trois pour regarder les étoiles."*

This is how the new book by Nicolas Thers - Le Géant, the giant, for the French soluble fishes - starts.

Title and cover already reveal a lot: the one that is portrayed is a giant that scarcely resembles the scary Polyphemus or Roald Dahl's bad giants, no trace of Rabelaisian’s memories are left with this tall titan, otherwise it's the businessman's, or the doctor's or the banker's aspect that dominates if ever. A real urban mastodon, in jacket and white shirt.

Though he is gigantic, no doubt!

When I first saw this book, I was completely blown away by the images, the use of colour and the quality of the images, quite unusual though totally convincing, really struck me. Visual impact was such that, at the very beginning, the message contained in the book became less evident.

Though I want to start talking of the message contained in the book, before analysing the images, because it deals with a subject touching many families, be them the result of a separation or of widowhood, which break up to then reset otherwise.

The narrator of the story is a girl telling how she and her mom decided to adopt a giant, exactly! It seems there are very good reasons to adopt a giant, and the explanation is abundantly detailed.

Of course, in the presence of such a tall being, feeling frightened and a bit suspicious as well is totally understandable, at least in the start but then, if the colossus is kind, if he offers us a few presents and showers us with attentions, if he allows us to explore him a bit and takes good care of us, then becoming friends is unavoidable.

I was really amused by how the author decided to expose this role game, giant/girl, where the third character - the mother - is nothing but secondary to the purposes of narration, as she only appears in the sentence I quoted at the beginning of the post and she is never represented in the images.

The whole book plays around the slow and constant approach between the two: of course images and text go completely along with the kid's vision emphasising her fears at first, that materialize in the representation of the giant's physical power while the girl is almost invisible (see the image above), to then illustrate the gradual acceptance of the man, that corresponds with the slow resizing of both characters until they reach a reasonable physical dimension (see images below).

The character's real dimensions recuperating process, with the consequent balance change in the original role game, develops through the slow and constant physical approach between the two: the girl, that at the beginning of the book was just a small coloured dot in the distance, gains more and more substance when she starts moving towards the giant, as if to affirm that the growth of a human being can take place only when he gets connected to the people around him.

As for the images, Thers had great fun playing with photomontage reworked with graphic palette, the colours are clear, simple, immediate. As I was saying before the tables are all centred on a skilful and audacious perspective game, their urban setting, almost futuristic, gives the images a touch of surreal that goes very well with the unlikeliness of the situation at the start. In a not too far future, giants will get out of their hiding places and will become mates and daddies.

A beautiful picture book, perfect identification with child's imaginary and positive résumé of the mechanisms hiding behind modern families.

* "Mummy and me have decided to adopt a Giant! It's better to be three to look at the stars."

Copyright© text and images L'Atelier du Poisson Soluble, 2010. Images have been reproduced with the permission of the publisher, all reproduction is strictly forbidden.

El Tren - OQO Editora

2011-02-08T22:16:00.052+11:00

El Tren, by Silvia Santirosi, illustrations by Chiara Carrer, OQO Editora, February 2011

When Silvia told me her first book was about to be printed, together with the joy I felt as she was crowning such a nice dream, I immediately thought I would have had a nice surprise, and I was right. After all, I expected nothing less from someone as intense as she is.

In this poetic story, made even more profound by Chiara Carrer's marvellous illustrations, Silvia tells us about a difficult topic and she does so without choosing easy loopholes, on the contrary she undertakes the bristliest path, putting salt over wounds, showing in all its excruciating power the strength of sorrow: El Tren is the story of a child and her dad, the story of a trio left maimed for the loss of a vital part, the mother, the story telling of the attempt to fill an emptiness that becomes ruinous precipice.

A father and his daughter, alone, looking at the stars and a newborn bright dot, in the distance. A little dot that seems almost reachable, the hand stretching out in the emptiness. And then, in the silence of await, the voice of a child telling of a recurring dream: there's a train she must get, though, despite all effort, it leaves solitary leaving the disheartened girl on the empty platform.

In the alternation between the telling of the dream and acts of everyday life, we assist at the dissolution of pain, at the metamorphosis that makes ineffable more real and real less defined, maybe less definitive as well.
The father listens, patient, curious and defenceless at the same time, he feels all the difficulty enclosed in that repeated dream to which none of them can give an answer.

" Come posso dirti che le persone che amiamo muoiono, ci lasciano e vanno via?" * wonders the father. Maybe there's no way, maybe we should all find our own way, or maybe we could just tell another story, like the one of the blind man asking his neighbour to describe the colour white...

and in the act of sharing, everything might change once more

I particularly like the way the text renders the simplicity of a conversation between father and child, the way in which more simple gestures leave place to higher moments: without ever leaving behind the central subject of the book, the author allows us to share life passing by, imperturbably following its own rhythms and logics.

To my opinion Chiara Carrer's narration adds, weights up, moves, interprets this beautiful text sublimely. As I was saying above, the story is built on a double reading level, alternating dream and real, emotion and gesture, reason and feelings. To realize this difficult dichotomy, if we just take a look back at her other works we realize that Chiara has chosen an unusual interpretation (even if many germs of this last work can be found elsewhere as well): while real has a more graphic quality, dreamlike has a pictorial quality, here is an example

in the moment of dream, and from the psychological point of view in the moment of sorrow as well, the sign blurs to leave place to colour and its matter, the table is stained so as to become almost mark in order to give voice to all you can't explain otherwise; in the moment when the account starts again, the fogs of colour clear out in favour of a renewed sign.

All is revealed in the mirror-image above, turning point of image narration, because it represents the moment when dream and real touch for the first time: on the left the girl is represented while dreaming, we can understand she's about to wake up thanks to the more punctual definition of her silhouette compared to the previous image, on the right the moment when the girl questions her father about the meaning of the dream is represented. The identical pose of the girl, the reflected expression of emotions and pain narrated in this double image, the colour and its absence, all tells of a highly symbolic moment that flows into the absence of concrete answers and in the necessary absorption of reality.

From this moment on starts the father and daughter's route towards a new day...

a day when we shall just stretch out our hands to reach the stars we love...

I want to express my best wishes to this beautiful book, may it find place in many shelves, my congratulations to the publishers (as well) for their courage and for the professionalism they have in dealing with difficult themes, without ever drawing back.

* " How can I tell you that the people we love die, that they leave us and go away?"

Copyright© text and images OQO Editora, 2011

Monsieur 100 têtes - MeMo

2011-01-28T19:07:00.002+11:00

Monsieur 100 Têtes by Ghislaine Herbéra, Editions MeMo, 2010

I already partly told you about this book here, it's the winner of the Prix Premier Album obtained during the last Salon de Montreuil, debut book of the skillful Ghislaine Herbéra.

The making of this book, which is only apparently simple, unchains through the representation of Monsieur’s (the main character) moods. The narrative pretext, from which the psychological and cultural contents of the book derive, are built on the telling of an important day : Monsieur has a romantic encounter and he doesn't know which head to wear to cause sensation with his lady.

From that sort of magic cavern where he keeps his countless heads, Monsieur draws one head after the other, desperately looking for the perfect one. In a windmill of faces, we live all the different typical moods when the heart is in turmoil : shyness, frustration, anxiety, fear, joy, cheerfulness up to the happy ending.

Inuit Masks, Alaska

The text helps us understanding how easy it may be to pass from one mood to another: of how shyness can make us feel foolish and of how, when we feel foolish, we get hurt and anger grown uncontrolled and, when anger grows and we are able to do no matter what. After all, it's known, feelings master us despite our will.

The real brilliance and originality of this book, resides in the manner the author chose to represent those moods: in fact, the heads are masks coming from the whole world. (I do suspect that the masks might as well have been the starting point of the story but, for the moment, I have no evidence to demonstrate this). Amid others, there are masks pertaining to the theatrical and iconological inheritance of some countries: there's the Italian Comedy of Art, as well as the Kyōgen Theatre or the Nō Theatre (see cover image) from Japan, Ihamo Theatre from Tibet or the traditional mask used for the Dance of the Dead, during the Día de Muertos, in Mexico.

The book therefore becomes a cultural pretext, a tool through which we can discover the more secluded sides of the countries represented, gaining substance and evidence in their masks : ancestral expression – passing from idols to carnival masks, from popular tradition to the more cultivated one of theatres – masks have always been a sort of mean for telling of aspects forbidden by prevailing cultures as well as emblem of fears and sacred, passage from human to sacred, object of rituals and representations. From more clearly tribal allegories to the more refined ones, the reader is allowed travel through the book and to appropriate a precious heritage of information.

Bwa, Burkina Faso - Bengale, India

Going back to the illustrations, what immediately struck me of this book was the intentional cleanness of the images : the only colours evidenced are those of the masks and, at times, of the boxes where they are contained according to representative needs. Every object contained in the illustrations has a precise aim, for instance : if, by looking at the first table, you assume that the object placed above the door in Monsieur's room is a simple showy decoration, then you will be soundly disavowed because, that one as well, is a mask. Just like the one on the very last table (I'm not telling more for obvious reasons !).

The scene looks bare, the double page is structured on the alternation of foregrounds aimed to highlight the expressions of the represented faces, in a flow with no apparent interruption. Monsieur, captured in the act of trying on the « head » of the moment, is the thread that contributes to a narrative unicum flowing in the opposition, or consecution, of his various poses. The text, where present, is reduced to the essential. It's a simple skilfully played text, never banal, all played around increasing expectation and desire to discover what follows, that gives us the necessary information to make us feel in want for the next page.

Maltugi, Corea - Dance of the Dead, Mexico

A well structured picture book, sober, amusing, easy to read that I would suggest also to younger kids.

Barbe Bleue di Maurizio Quarello

2011-01-27T07:23:00.003+11:00

Barbe Bleue by Charles Perrault, illustrations by Maurizio Quarello, Milan Presse, Albums Classiques, April 15th 2010

We all know about Blue Beard, right? So why bother getting a new version of the book? Well, this particular one has been illustrated by Maurizio Quarello!

To find our more about this book, please go here.

Barbe Bleue by Charles Perrault, illustrations by Maurizio Quarello, Collection Albums Classiques,

Walking in Macerata: interview with Javier Zabala

2011-01-24T07:01:00.002+11:00

Do you love Javier Zabala?

If you do then you shouldn't miss the interview I made with him

you can find it right here!

Caldecott & Newbery Awards - 2011 Winners

2011-01-10T19:33:00.003+11:00

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!

To start with something exciting after the blog pause, I have waited until today because: about a couple of hours ago, on ALA (American Library Association) website, the winners of the prestigious Caldecott Medal and Newbery Medal for 2011 regarding the books published in the States in 2010, have been published. Here they are!

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book

A Sick Day for Amos McGee, by Philip C. Stead, illustrarted by Erin E. Stead, A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing, May 2010. I had shortly told you about this book here, whilst you can find a wonderful post by Jules, at 7Imp, right here.

The two books that have received the Caldecott Honor Books are:

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, written by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc., September 2010.

and

Interrupting Chicken, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein, published by Candlewick Press, August 2010.

Let's now passo on to the

John Newbery Medal for the outstanding contribution to children's literature, that has been assigned to

Moon over Manifest, written by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, Inc., October 2010.

As for the Newbery Honor Books, there are four this year:

Turtle in Paradise, by Jennifer L. Holm, published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., May 2010.

Heart of a Samurai, written by Margi Preus, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, August 2010.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, written by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 2010.

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia, published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, January 2010.

Should you wish to read the complete list of the winners, you can find complete information here.

Happy Holidays and blog pause

2010-12-24T23:07:00.002+11:00

Dear readers,

I take the chance of this post to beg your pardon for my almost total absence this December.

The truth is I've been working like crazy this last year and a half and I am now a bit tired. I need to take a few days off to reorganize my engagements and to properly plan upcoming news. I therefore take advantage of these Xmas Holidays to make a small pause, I shall be back on the January 10th week.

I've got plenty of surprises in the works and I can't wait to share them with you!!

Meanwhile I would like to wish, to those who actually celebrate it, a

MERRY CHRITSMAS

AND TO ALL OF YOU

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Image ©copyright Andrea Marazzi, all reproduction is severely prohibited.

Salon de Montreuil (Book Fair)

2010-12-12T05:17:00.233+11:00

Dear readers,

I'm back after a pause I hadn't announced, due to my participation to the famous Salon de Montreuil*. I do apologize for not having given an official notice. The truth is that maybe I have been a bit reticent in announcing a blog pause because I didn't really feel "paused", in fact all my actions were aiming these pages.

In the upcoming weeks I shall start analyzing in-depth some of the books I have found at the Salon, for the moment though I shall just make a short resumé of what I was able to see, hear and feel during the show, together with a short selection of masterpieces I found (of course the selection is limited for reasons of time and personal taste, many other books would have been eligible to make it to the list).

As usual the French scene is always rich in discoveries and stimulus even if, here as well, the wind is starting to blow a bit harder because of the new financial measures taken by the French Government. The debate upon the future of Children's Literature, and on culture in general, is therefore still actual and kicking: after the "end of activity" announcement given by Etre Publishing, as I had already explained here, and after the substantial fund-cut that is determining the end of the association Livres au Trésor with all its wonderful activities, France has to face an increasing dread that often resolves into a worrying incoherence when it's up to publisher's choices. Let me explain this better: I had the precise feeling that an increasing number of publishers have started to try to expand their horizons, which is not bad at all by itself, their action though is quite confused and confusing. To be short it's as if they were trying to avoid drowning by grasping the first life raft that comes at hand, no matter if it's not in line with their original plan. Now, I can't avoid to asking myself (and you of course): is it wise and fair that a publishing house moves away from its own original line of action? Is it correct if said publisher gathers under its roof a number of texts, projects and/or collections that have little to do with that starting point they themselves had traced? Of course I don't pretend I have an answer but, if you have any, I would be glad to host a little debate.

As regards children's literature perspectives, IBBY France together with BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Centre National de la littérature pour la Jeunesse La joie par les Livres) have organized a very interesting meeting titled: "2e Rencontres européennes de la littérature pour la jeunesse", during the meeting the discussion lead to analyze European creative paths (thanks to the participation of very important illustrators such as Dusan Kàllay, Arnal Ballester and Bernd Mölck-Tassel) and publishing, literary mediation and promotional practices related to kidslit, of course. The acts will soon be available, if you're interested in reading them you could get them here.

As I was saying above, despite all possible worries and doubts, the Salon remains an important moment of meditation and sharing that is really worthy if you're interested in this sector. Le latest piece of new from our French cousins is the future opening, in Montreuil, of a new school called: "L'Ecole du livre de jeunesse". The school aims to give resources and informations to the various parties involved in the diffusion and deepening of children's books at various levels, all this though without forgetting families: for them there will be special educational laboratories aimed to give parents new mwthods of approach to books and many other initiatives. Amid the fifteen amazing contributors of the school, that will open officially in 2011, there will be the dearest Christian Bruel too! I wish his genius and the experience he made as publisher along the years will contribute to the blossoming of many biting smiles**!

Time for some books signaling now!!! Some books are older but they are such wonderful books I couldn't avoid putting them in my list:

Monsieur Cent Têtes, by Ghislaine Herbéra, Edizioni MeMo, January 10th 2010. Prix Premier Album (First Picture Book Award) at the Salon.

L'Herbier, Petite Flore des bois d'Europe, by Emilie Vast, Edizioni MeMo, May 15th 2010.

Le Petit Homme et Dieu, by Kitty Crowther, L'Ecole des Loisirs - Pastel Publishing, September 2010

Diapason, by Laëtitia Devernay, La Joie de Lire Publishing, October 2010

Ici Londres, by Vincent Cuvellier, illustrations by Anne Herbauts, Rouergue Publishing, January 2009.

and, least but not last, some lovely poetry books:

published by Bayard Jeunesse from 2003 up to nowadays in the section "Hors Collection".

The books are not in a particular order, no favorites, no chronological order, let's say it's much more a random act of disorder! I shall tell you more about some of these books soon, therefore: stay tuned!

This is it for now.

* Important Kidslit fair, held in Paris every Fall/Winter, gathering almost all French Publishers of the sector. A reference show as for new trends in the sector and cultural debate.

** For those who don't know it yet, C. Bruel's first publishing house was called La Sourire qui Mord, meaning "the biting smile".

Il Grande Alfredo - Spider

2010-12-03T06:20:00.000+11:00

Il Grande Alfredo, by Spider, Orecchio Acerbo Editore, 2010

If you're interested in reading more about this wonderful book...

Telling the story of the most incredible clown in the world....

please visit here.

A very sad day

2010-11-23T18:00:00.000+11:00

Today is a very sad day, I have been long afraid it would come but I still hoped it wouldn't.

I just received a message by Christian Bruel, owner and soul of Editions Etre, I had tried to give an alert a few months ago but, to my utter regret, Editions Etre couldn't make it: they will be closing at the end of the year.

I'm very sad because I was unable to do more than what I actually did. Amid their artists are some of the most important on the international scene, their books are precious gems, gems that will find a home on a few lucky shelves but will be precluded to the most.

A brilliant and inspired light, a free voice that has gifted us with its beautiful books will soon be no more. Once again titans are winning and little ones are loosing, but I will not surrender and, once again, let me cry out loud that
CULTURE IS FREEDOM, LET'S FIGHT FOR IT!

The winners of the Salon di Montreuil 2010

2010-11-22T21:30:00.000+11:00

Here are the winners of the prizes for the 2010 edition of the Paris Salon de Montreuil!!!

Let's start with the prestigious

Baobab de l'Album

La Règle d'or du cache-cache

by Christophe Honoré, illustrations by Gwen Le Gac, Actes Sud junior, 2010.

Other important prize

Prix du 1er album

Monsieur cent têtes

by Ghislaine Herbéra, Éditions MeMo, 2010.

let's continue with the

Prix de la presse des jeunes

Des hommes dans la guerre d'Algérie

texts by Isabelle Bournier, illustrations by Jacques Ferrandez, Casterman, 2010.

Prix Terre en vue

Petites et grandes histoires des animaux disparus

by Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt, with the collaboration of Cécile Colin and Luc Vives from the National Museum of Natural History, Actes Sud Junior, 2010.

Prix À l'abord'art

La Petite Galerie de Andy Warhol

by Patricia Geis, coll. La petite galerie, Editions Palette, 2010

Prix Coup de cœur de l'équipe du Salon

Le Petit Gibert illustré

by Bruno Gibert, Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2010

This is it for now, talk soon for more news!

Autumn Rain

2010-11-15T23:49:00.000+11:00

In these days of pouring rain, let me sweep you away with these drops of colour and wisdom. It’s all “must have” books: some more recent, others a bit older.

To start our parade it could be none else than her: Suzy Lee, with her last masterpiece that has been published (more or less) contemporarily in three countries: United States, Italy and France!

Shadow, by Suzy Lee, Chronicle Books, Septembrer 2010

Ombres, by Suzy Lee, Editions Kaleidoscope, Septembrer 2010

Ombra, by Suzy Lee, Edizioni Corraini, Septembrer 2010

The story is simple and brilliant, as this wonderful artist has accustomed us to: leave a child alone in an attic with a few common objects, old and dusty; the first instinct, it’s clear, is to explore the place and the best way to give way to exploration is playing, better if all alone. The most simple objects as well, when filtered by a fervent imagination, take up the most unimaginable appearances (Le Petit Nicolas by Sempé is a good example) even truer for their shade’s reflex that will inspire unexpected sceneries. Just like in Wave, and in Mirror, Lee enjoys marking the boundary between real and imagined amid the two adjoining pages. Just like in the books I’ve mentioned before, in Shadow as well imagination assumes, at one point, a more concrete aspect, at times a menacing one, bursting physically into the space of real, as if to make it visible how much, in the end, real and imagined nourish one another. Briefly: another masterpiece by the chorean illustrator, accurate and sensible interpretation of a childhood lived on the thread of fantastic.

In an interesting article, the New York Times uses Shadow by Suzy Lee as an example to proof that printed page, in a digital era such as ours (in constant acceleration also thanks to tools such as Ipad), is all the same vital and to some extent irreplaceable.

Here is a beautiful interview with Suzy Lee, it’s a bit old but it’s all the same very good:

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1410

and also:
The DPI Magazine - don’t get scared by the writings in chorean, at the bottom there’s an English version of the interview
http://suzyleebooks.com/zeroboard/zboard.php?id=misc&page=5&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=70

Reviews in English:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2023
You Know, For Kids - http://youknowforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-books-shadow.html
Publishers Weekly - http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/childrens-announcements/article/43866-wordless-wonders.html

Reviews in French:
La Citrouille - http://lsj.hautetfort.com/archive/2010/11/08/ombres.html

Reviews in Italian:
Letto fra Noi - http://www.lettofranoi.it/tag/suzy-lee/
Forkids - http://www.forkids.it/2010/07/09/ombra/

Another great international artist, from the States, with one of his last productions:

Lulu and the Brontosaurus, by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Lane Smith, Atheneum Books, September 2010

After It's a Book, an a solo project, the great Lane Smith delights us with this , an a solo project, the great Lane Smith delights us with this picture book with Judith Viorst. To be true, this picture book would have righteously had its place in the post I had titled Ugly, Dirty and Bad... guess why? Well, that's because Lulu, the main character of the book, ia a spoiled, a very spoiled kid who clearly recalls (at least to me) the character of Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: Lulu always obtains what she wants. One nice morning she wakes up and decides she wants a Brontosaurus for a pet. No matter if her parents deny her the permission to get one, she stays on the piece and decides for action: you know, she can’t accept a no! This scene somehow reminds me of Veruca, when she decides she’ll get her own squirrel, for the fear of children and adults present on the scene. To end with my comparison, there is as well a sort of tribal/rhythmic song that somewhat recalls the Umpa Lumpa’s songs:

"I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, gonna get
A bronto-bronto-bronto
Brontosaurus for a pet.
I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, gonna get
A bronto-bronto-bronto
Brontosaurus for a pet."

As in Dahl’s best books, things won’t turn out so positively for Lulu either, in a cruel capsizing of events it’s
the Brontosaurus who will make of Lulu his pet.

Links to Lane Smith:
site http://www.lanesmithbooks.com/Home.html
blog http://lanesart.blogspot.com/

Interviews with Lane Smith:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1422
Adventures Underground - http://www.advunderground.com/interviews/smith1106.php
Estrella's Revenge - http://estellabooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/authorillustrator-interview-lane-smith.html
The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy - http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/08/31/its-a-book-author-lane-smith-on-kids-and-technology/ (about It's a Book)
Housatonic Times - http://www.housatonictimes.com/articles/2010/10/15/entertainment/doc4cb70c1946b1b665670407.txt
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/smith (video)
Carnegie Corporation of NY (Teachers for a new era) - http://www.tne.uconn.edu/interviews/lane%20smith.mp3 (audio)
Just One More Book - http://www.justonemorebook.com/2008/08/25/interview-with-lane-smith/ (audio)

Interviews with Judith Viorst:
The Kennedy Center - http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/family/alexander/author.html
Book Page - http://www.bookpage.com/0711bp/judith_viorst.html
Dream Jam World - http://www.dreamjamworld.com/interview.html (audio)
ed un estratto da World Literature Today - http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-541123/An-interview-with-Judith-Viorst.html

Reviews:
Dog Ear - http://nicolepoliti.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/lulu-and-the-brontosaurus-by-judith-viorst-illustrated-by-lane-smith-2010/
Proseandkahn - http://proseandkahn.livejournal.com/131068.html?thread=28156

Let’s stop in America for a while, with a change of atmosphere though, with Peter Sis and his last Madlenka’s picture book:

Madlenka Soccer Star, by Peter Sis, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 28th September 2010

Madlenka's Dog was the first book by Sis I ever bought, during one of my trips to NY, since then I usually never miss one. Peter Sis has a refined sensibility he transposes in his works through rarefied and dreamy atmospheres: his The Wall (that won the Caldecott Honour Book mention, and to whom is devoted this beautiful article from the New York Times), Tibet Through the Red Box (a wonderful autobiographical work where he discovers the contents of the mysterious red box, the one his father carried from a stay in Tibet), The Tree of Life (forerunner of the many books on Charles Darwin published more recently).

But let’s go back to our book: Madlenka is a girl who lives in the big town and, like all kids living in the big town, she’s looking for a place of her own, she looks for it among cars, in the street, under the shade of trees growing in the suffocating asphalt. Like all kids living in the big town, her playmates could be other kids or, eventually trees, or objects, or animals. Today Madlenka leaves her flat with her brand new soccer ball, and she is uncontrollable, wild, irrepressible! She plays, she plays everywhere. Her team mates are a letterbox, a few cats, a parking meter, a dog, all unfailingly involved in a neighbourhood cup, reflexion of the recent African World Cup. But, to be truth, Madlenka is secretly training for the Women’s World Cup of 2011, in Germany!

Here is Peter Sis website: http://www.petersis.com/index2.html

Interviews:
On the Job, Mystery Man - http://www.zuzu.org/sisinterview.html
School Library Journal - http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6351977.html?q=under+cover+video (video)
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/sis/transcript and http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/sis (video)
NPR - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/sis (audio)

Reviews:
Books For Kids - http://booksforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/kick-off-madlenka-soccer-star-by-peter.html

And now let’s travel to England with:

The Rabbit Problem, by Emily Gravett, Macmillan Children's Books, 7th August 2009

This book, published in 2009, is based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Gulp! Well not really: Emily Gravett, as usual, is able to make fun and adventurous every story she tells. Who doesn’t remember Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears? Well, in this book as well, the British author sets all her imagination free, producing a real masterpiece for inventiveness: the text substantially reproduces the calendar’s format where, at each month, there is the count of the number of rabbits joining Lonely, the solitary protagonist of the first table. As in Shadow by Suzy Lee, in The Rabbit Problem as well you’ll have to flip the book to read it, as you would do with a real calendar. To each table, executed with a rigorously mixed-media technique mixing watercolors and collage, Gravett adds little details: envelopes, instructions on how to make a warm jumper, a little recipe booklet, many notes scattered here and there (as you would do on your own home calendar). A book for all those kids who suffer an irresistible attraction for discovery and who love reading books over and over again, always searching for new details. (Watch out for the surprise at the end!)

And for an on-line experience, here is Emily Gravett’s website: www.emilygravett.com/

Interviews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1606
Booktrust Childrens Books http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Features%20Interviews/Interview-with-Emily-Gravett and http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Emily-Gravett-interview-2
The Telegraph UK - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3664140/The-road-less-travelled.html
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/gravett and http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/gravett/transcript
Kids Book Review - http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2010/09/interview-emily-gravett.html

Reviews:
B is For Books - http://www.thaolam.com/blog/?p=476
Henrietta - http://henriettamouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/rabbit-problem-by-emily-gravett.html
The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/19/rabbit-problem-emily-gravett-review
The Bookbag - http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Rabbit_Problem_by_Emily_Gravett
Kirkus Reviews - http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/childrens-books/emily-gravett/rabbit-problem/

Let’s go back to the other side of the Ocean with the amazing Peter Brown, former author of The Curious Garden, and his last work:

Children Make Terrible Pets, by Peter Brown, Little, Brown & Company, 7th September 2010

This is a really fun book! Little Rose finds a kid in the woods and decides to make him her pet. As he doesn’t speak but just squeaks, Rose will call it Squeaker. But, when she sees it, mother bear doesn’t agree with Rose as she explains very clearly because: "Children make terrible pets". As in Lulu and the Brontosaurus, in Children Make Terrible Pets as well there is a capsizing: the human becomes, despite his will, a pet while animals are portrayed as humans. With backgrounds reproducing wood’s grain and the images centered in warm colors screen-shaped, rounded at the corners, it seems as if the only things missing were knobs and here we would be in front of an old TV screen, ready to assist to the new adventures of those that (maybe because I’m just romantic, or maybe cos’ TV with knobs reminds me of when, kid, I used to look at them) recall so much Yogi Bear and Bubu, in their nice Yellowstone Park! Only intruders, as usual, men!

For more information about Peter Brown, here is his website: http://www.peterbrownstudio.com/

And some Interviews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1920
Into the Wardrobe - http://peteredmundlucy7.blogspot.com/2009/07/authorillustrator-interview-peter-brown.html
Giggle - http://ali.blogs.giggle.com/2010/07/15/an-a-list-interview-peter-brown/
Sory Sleuths - http://www.storysleuths.com/2010/04/interview-with-peter-brown-curious.html
Embracing the Child - http://www.embracingthechild.org/abrown.html
And a Video-interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w2vC-9An0k

Reviews:
100 Scope Notes - http://100scopenotes.com/2010/11/04/review-children-make-terrible-pets-by-peter-brown/
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2025 (with many illustrations and sketches)
Children's Book Reviews - http://wordsbymom.com/authors/peter-brown/children-make-terrible-pets/
Twenty by Jenny - http://www.twentybyjenny.com/47Books/review/children-make-terrible-pets/
Kid's Book Buzz - http://kidsbookbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/10/children-make-terrible-pets-by-peter.html

Let's stay in America, to then move to Holland, with

Knuffle Bunny Free, by Mo Willems, Balzer & Bray, 28th September 2010

Knuffle Bunny Free is a sequel as well, to be precise it's the picture book closing the trilogy started with Knuffle Bunny, a Cautionary Tale, and followed by Knuffle Bunny, a Case of Mistaken Identity. Another book I had bought during a trip to NY, other case of love at first sight!

Trixie and Knuffle Bunny are inseparable, since Trixie was as big as this and Knuffle Bunny had just gotten out of his brand new box. For Trixie being at distance from Knuffle Bunny is unbearable (yesterday, the younger kid of my neighbour was desperately crying because he had temporarily lost his favourite game, how to blame him?). Though, if we think of it, from time to time it seems that Knuffle gets lost on purpose. And, to be completely honest, in his profound longing for exploration, he does have a weird taste when he chooses where to go: once he gets lost in the washing machine, then he lands in the arms of Trixie's worse enemy (leaving his double with Trixie)… and, least but not last, while he's on a trip to Holland with the whole family, he decides to make a detour in his own peculiar style (this is the starting point for Knuffle Bunny Free).
For all three books, Willems uses a mixed technique, with pictures (more or less urban) for the backgrounds, and linear drawings for the characters, mainly in pastel tones. All is played on a deliberate ambiguity: real/unreal in the backgrounds wisely in black and white, that make the setting almost universal and in any case knowingly suspended in time, modern interpretation of the old “once upon a time in a faraway land...”; real/unreal for the characters as well and their actions, always suspended amid concrete acts and imagined ones.

As you might read in some of the interviews here below, Mo Willems has a background in television, theatre and animation, during his career he has obtained: 3 Caldecott Honors, 2 Geisel Medals, 2 Carnegie Medals, 6 Emmys! Amid his many books: very famous is Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus, and the beautiful series of the books for younger kids Elephant and Piggie, Cat the Cat and Big Frog, just to mention a few. What strikes me about his art is the extremely linear and simple characters, on which he inserts themes that are deeply rooted in childhood.

To get to know Mo Willems a bit more:
Site http://www.mowillems.com/
Blog http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/

Intervews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=863 - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=841
Book Trust Children's Books - http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Features%20Interviews/Interview-with-Mo-Willems
Trap Door Sun - http://www.trapdoorsun.com/literature/mo-willems.aspx
Scholastic - http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7518
At Home Dad - http://www.athomedad.org/node/605
Babble - http://www.babble.com/content/articles/columns/5minutetimeout/mo-willems-a-chat-with-the-creator-of-knuffle-bunny-too/
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/willems/transcript and http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/willems/transcript
Just One More Book - http://www.justonemorebook.com/2007/05/14/interview-with-mo-willems/ (audio)
School Library Journal - http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6304810.html (video)

Reviews:
Publishers' Weekly - http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/44415-mo-willems-on-knuffle-bunny-free-.html
100 Scopenotes - http://100scopenotes.com/2010/09/07/review-knuffle-bunny-free/
The Seattle Times - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2013051230_kidsbooksmowilliems02.html?syndication=rss
Flying Giggles and Lollipops - http://www.flyinggigglesandlollipops.com/2010/10/knuffle-bunny-free-giveaway.html
Brimful Curiosities - http://www.brimfulcuriosities.com/2010/09/knuffle-bunny-free-by-mo-willems-book.html
Two Writing Teachers - http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/knuffle3/
Script PS News - http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/corner-mo-willems-knuffle-bunny-free-city-dog-country-frog

Let's stay in America with:

13 Words, by Lemony Snicket, illustrations by Maira Kalman, HarperCollins, 5th October 2010

13 Words is the newborn by Lemony Snicket, a.k.a Daniel Handler (author, scriptwriter and accordionist) and Maira Kalman (eminent illustrator and designer and cover-maker for the New Yorker)! Well, I guess it's already enough, isn't it? Are you wondering about the story? Which story? There's no story, there are just those thirteen words:

1. Bird
2. Despondent
3. Cake
4. Dog
5. Busy
6. Convertible
7. Goat
8. Hat
9. Haberdashery
10. Scarlet
11. Baby
12. Panache
13. Mezzo-Soprano

What do these words mean all together? I can't tell you, I'd otherwise reveal unmentionable secrets, and I would ruin the surprise!

The only treat I can grant is the book's trailer:

Wanna know more about author and illustrator?

Lemony Snicket - Site http://www.lemonysnicket.com/

Maira Kalman - Site http://www.mairakalman.com/

Interviews with Lemony Snicket:
Parent Dish - http://www.parentdish.com/2010/10/05/lemony-snicket-gets-persnickety-with-pdish/
Browse Inside: http://browseinside.harpercollinschildrens.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061664656
About Creativity - http://about-creativity.com/2007/06/an-interview-with-daniel-handler-aka-lemony-snicket-part-1.php
About.com - http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/interviews/a/lemony.htm
The Telegraph UK - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/7157019/Lemony-Snicket-Interview.html
The Washington Post, Kids' Stuff - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901307.html
Book Browse - http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=500
Combustible Celluliod - http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/interviews/danielhandler.shtml

Interviews with Maira Kalman:
Inspiration Boards - http://inspirationboards.blogspot.com/2008/03/maira-kalman.html
Design Sponge - http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/10/whats-in-your-toolbox-maira-kalman.html
The Design Files - http://thedesignfiles.net/2008/03/maira-kalman/
Bygone Bureau - http://bygonebureau.com/2009/09/07/the-life-pursuit-an-interview-with-maira-kalman/
Nasheville Review - http://www.vanderbilt.edu/english/nashvillereview/archives/1305
10 Answers - http://10answers.net/2010/10/06/maira-kalman/

Reviews:
Flavorpill - http://flavorpill.com/sanfrancisco/events/2010/9/29/maira-kalman-and-lemony-snicket-13-words
SFGate.com - http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-26/books/24097018_1_trade-books-lemony-snicket-schwartz-wade
TimeOut Kids - http://newyorkkids.timeout.com/articles/books/89124/13-words-by-lemony-snicket-and-maira-kalman-book-review

Since we're here, let's end our imaginary trip in the States with:

A Sick Day for Amos McGee, by Philip C. Stead, illustrations by Erin E. Stead, A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press, May 2010

Comedy of surreal the story of Amos McGee, guardian of the City Zoo, friend of the shy penguin, the elephant, the turtle, the rhino and the owl. Amos is a scrupulous guardian, every animal gets his attentions and care: he plays chess with the Elephant, makes races with the Turtle, sits close to the Penguin, blows the Rhino's nose and tells stories to the Owl when it's dark. Everything proceeds as established since, one morning, Amos gets up sick. And now? Well, the City Zoo animals decide to get the bus and go and see him, to take care of their friend. Comedy of surreal, true, but I shall say comedy on friendship as well, of that kind of friendship where you take care of one another without need to say much more. This reminds me of one personal episode: two years ago I fell and badly hurt my ankle, I couldn't walk for a while, and my friend Francesca came at my place, she set the table with care, she prepared a delicious meal (and who knows her well can see how exceptional this act was) and she kept me company happily twittering in the house. What else is friendship other than that?

The curious thing about this book is that author and illustrator are husband and wife, and they clearly share much more than a roof: fruit of two creativities and one clear empathy, this story is told with great harmony and sensibility, with a careful balancing between what is narrated and what is left unsaid. As Betsy Bird, in her A Fuse#8 Production Blog, righteously observes there is a wise balance in the script between the first and the second part of the book. Corollary of the main event, Erin Stead adds many little details in the background, almost invisible, that enrich the story on tiptoes. Erin E. Stead's illustrations are beautiful both for the persona's characterization and for the gentleness they communicate, sensible eye of a whole range of feelings that can't be told with words. A book you shouldn't loose!!!

Here the sites of Philip and Erin Stead:
Philip Setad - Sito http://www.philipstead.com/
Erin Stead - Blog http://blog.erinstead.com/

Interviews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1723

Reviews:
The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/VonDrasek-t.html
A Fuse#8 Production - http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/04/07/review-of-the-day-a-sick-day-for-amos-mcgee-by-philip-c-stead/
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1950
Kids Lit - http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/2010/05/07/sick-day-for-amos-mcgee/
SC Whiddon Art - http://scwhiddonart.blogspot.com/2010/06/illustrator-erin-e-stead.html

In an interesting article titled Reading Dogs and Untrained Boys, from the columns of The New York Times, Lisa Von Drasek analyzes two of the picture books I just told you about: A Sick Day for Amos McGee and Children Make Terrible Pets, emphasising the ironic side, comedy of the absurd, with that touch of inconsistency that never gets old, not even after the nth reading.

Some of the books I have mentioned appear in the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010 selection: http://events.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2010/best-illustrated-childrens-books-2010/list.html.

This is it for now!

Unexpected

2010-11-14T07:05:00.027+11:00

Unexpected is this post, because I hadn't planned it in the least, but you know: love at first sight is always unexpected, and this was no exception.

As it always happens, because of ignorance, or for a cruel joke of fate or for others reasons I can’t think of right now, this time as well I am late. What really matters though is I am here, no matter if I got here following my shady and twisted paths or if I got lost in the seasonal (intellectual?) fogs, what matters is I’m here with my new discovery, which happens to be a MASTERPIECE

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, illustrated by Tullio Pericoli, Edizioni Adelphi, 2007

The passages contained in the book have been selected by Anna Maria Lorusso.

The very first edition of this book was the idea of Olivetti, they had the habit to gift their most prestigious customers with limited book editions conceived and printed on purpose for them: it was the 80’s, between 1982 and 1984 and, as Tullio Pericoli himself explains in the foreword, he was having a difficult transition: divided between illustrations for papers and art galleries, between the illustrator and the painter. The story he tells is charming, mostly interesting the way he explains how much, illustrating this book, helped him regaining a final artistic unity: up to that moment in fact, the expressive dichotomy that had kept the illustrator apart from the painter, as if they had to be separated from the start, had precluded to him to find a unitary expression. As he tells, Robinson Crusoe somehow included the two expressive worlds that, back then, were the object of his artistic research: man, the subject for his works in the papers, and nature, his favourite topic in his paintings. In Robinson Crusoe those two elements merge and become almost confused, this aggregation process is very clear in the tables that illustrate the novel.

In this new version by Adelphi, we find a great number of illustrations that weren't published in the original printed by Olivetti, showing an extremely interesting research.

My only regret, if a fault has to be found, is the almost total absence of Friday that, in the novel, still has some importance: I would have greatly enjoyed to see his equal representation as Friday is part of the island as much as trees, fish, birds and green peaks. Friday is the wild Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest, he is the perfect point of collision and fusion between man and nature: he represents the archetype of the wild to which a whole literary genre is devoted and, to my opinion, it deserved more attention. It is true that Pericoli explains how much, to him, Robinson and the Island were the two absolute characters of the novel and the perfect mean to complete the merging process between paper and art gallery, illustrator and painter, man and nature, gifting the first with characteristics from the other and vice-versa he thus obtained his purpose. True as well that in Defoe's novel, though as I just said he has some importance, Friday has a minor role, much less important if compared with the one Michel Tournier gives him in his wonderful novel Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique, where he has a supporting role, if not that of Robinson's own conscience.

In all cases this absence doesn't actually irreparably alter the beauty of this book that, to me, remains a masterpiece of rare beauty.

* Though there is not much in English about Tullio Pericoli, you can find some information about him on the following pages:

Life of Guangzhou - http://www.lifeofguangzhou.com/node_10/node_35/node_116/node_118/2009/11/02/125715172171163.shtml
Lambiek.net - http://lambiek.net/artists/p/pericoli_tullio.htm (about his comics)

Also, publisher Corraini, has just published a brand new book tracing the evolution of his works devoted to landscapes, whose title is “L'Infinito Paesaggio”, you can find it here.

Walking in Macerata: interview with Eva Montanari

2010-11-10T22:36:00.000+11:00

Dear readers, if you wish to read my interview with author/illustrator Eva Montanari, you can visit Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, right here.

You don't know Eva yet? Here's a sneak peek of her artwork...

A Very Full Morning, Eva Montanari, Houghton Mifflin Books 2006

Tempo d'Instabilità, Eva Montanari, Tricromia, 2010

All for one, one for all? No: All for All!

2010-09-27T17:58:00.073+11:00

It rains, it’s a dull Saturday, damply meditative, what could I be talking about then if not POETRY!?!

Tutti per Tutti, by Julian Tuwim, Translation into Italian by Marco Vanchetti, project coordination by Anna Niemierko. Graphic Projects by:

Gosia Urbańska, Monika Hanulak, Gosia Gurowska, Marta Ignerska, Ania Niemierko, Agnieszka Kucharska – Zajkowska, Justyna Wróblewska. Orecchio Acerbo Editore, September 2010

My droll review:

What a nice, surprising book,

Are you waiting? Take a look!

With good Old Trallall-ild

you can make a happy child,

and for adults, good old boys,

birds are singing with great joy!

Everybody seems so happy,

they look beautiful and nappy:

all TV’s they have turned off

and nobody’s running off.

Trallallero, trallew,

what a nice, amazing new!

(Mr Trallallini, Graphic Project by Monika Hanulak)

Have I grown mad? Maybe... Or maybe this book is simply contagious! I just can’t get the music of words out of my mind, any time I try to compose a sentence it comes out in rhyme, am I serious?

All right, I will try to be more polite though, my dear Orecchi Acerbi: you can’t publish a book like this and then pretend I can behave after reading it, this is what I call a fast one! This said, and given vent to my temporary folly, I shall move to a less humorous tone...

Julian Tuwim is a monument of Polish literature: born in Łódź in a family with Jewish origins, during World War II he emigrated to France first, then to Brazil and America last. He went back to Poland, where he died in 1953, only after the end of the big war.

If I had to tell you about Tuwim exhaustively a tome wouldn’t be enough, I therefore shall give you some basic information: in 1918, together with Antoni Słonimski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Kazimierz Wierzyński and Jan Lechoń, he founded the poetical group called Skamander through which they tried to release Polish poetry from the prominently patriotic role it had up to that moment, to make it more comprehensible to common people by simplifying language and rejecting cross-references to mythology and figures of speech traditionally used. Tuwim uses experimental poetry, inserting typical common situations and expressions with frequent dialectic contaminations, to grow away – more than anyone else did – from predominating mannerism. His most known writings are probably "Bal w Operze" (The Ball at the Opera), and "The Locomotive", together with his wonderful poems for kids, our main object today.

(The Locomotive, graphic project by Gosia Gurowska)

Tutti per Tutti, at first published by the Polish Publisher Wytwórnia under the title "TUWIM. WIERSZE DLA DZIECI", won the Special Section of the Bologna Ragazzi Award devoted to poetry, in 2008.

The accomplishment obtained with this volume is enormous, in fact it contains seven graphic projects edited by different artists who therefore gave seven different interpretations of Tuwim’s imagination, with results that are distant as much as surprising. Sole junction point: his poems.

Here below you can find some examples, you can click on images to observe them better:

Project 1 - by Gosia Urbańska

(Alphabet)

As you can see Urbańska, who illustrated four poems "Un Conto Complicato", "L'Alfabeto", "Gelo" and "Le Verdure"⁽¹⁾, prefers using materials on a white background, no matter if its scrap materials, collage or images obtained by using moulds immersed in colour.

(Frost)

Her images seem to pop out of the page, together with words changing body and font to support the lyric’s rhythm.

Project 2 - by Monika Hanulak

(Bambo)

Hanulak gives a definitely more pictorial interpretation – hers the versions of "La Rapa" cover image is obtained from this poem, "Micio", "Bambo", "Il Signor Trallallini" and "Scherzetto"⁽²⁾ – with a taste that goes from retrò, obtained as well using old ruined papers as background and a two-colour print (La Rapa), to a modern tribal (Bambo) with a clean mark and backgrounds, to grotesque (Il Signor Trallallini, Micio and Scherzetto) that reminds me of some advertising campaigns from the 60’s and 70’s.

Project 3 - by Gosia Gurowska

(Two Winds)

Gurowska gives a markedly graphic interpretation of the three poems she was assigned, "Pettegolezzi d'Uccelli", "Due Venti" and "Locomotiva"⁽³⁾. For all tables she uses a white background, images are extremely linear, a nice cross-reference with the text that results amplified and represented with great effectiveness.

Project 4 - by Marta Ignerska

(Gabri)

Marta Ignerska, who moreover is the author of the beautiful L'Alphabet des Gens (People’s Alphabet) published this year by Le Rouergue has illustrated "I Due Gini", "Gabri", "Radio Uccello", "Gigio Sognatore" and "Sofia - Tuttoio"⁽⁴⁾.

(Radio Bird)

Her mark, often blunt and softened, gives an almost dreamlike vision of the texts she has been assigned. Great, to my opinion, the representation she gave of Radio Uccello (above): strict chromaticism with red, black and strokes of shades of blue and green, at times almost unperceivable others more evident. Compared to other tables, here there are fewer characters; images are therefore easier to read.

Project 5 - by Ania Niemierko

(Click)

The original cover of the book, in the edition by Wytwórnia, was by Niemierko: it had been taken by one of the tables of the poem "L'Elefante Trombettoni". Hers as well the illustrations of "Cecco Bugiardino e Sua Zia", "Gli Occhiali", "Click", "In Aero-plano" and "L'Usignolo in Ritardo"⁽⁵⁾.

(The Nightingale is Late)

Delicious those images with coarse-grained, at times scratched, backgrounds, a technique she sometimes uses for characters as well. Where Niemierko uses white backgrounds, as in "Click" (above) and "L'Elefante Trombettoni" for instance, heavy pencil marks or graphic signs intervene to trace evident points or zigzagging lines. Her characters, outlined with pronounced black or blue outlines, have rounded reassuring shapes. Colours, in this case as well, are very few: red, light blue, white, blue and black. Wonderful, to me, Click’s graphic!

Project 6 - by Agnieszka Kucharska – Zajkowska

(Mr Small and the Whale)

I am certainly wrong though, if I observe the backgrounds Agnieszka Kucharska–Zajkowska has used for her images, I have the clear impression I am looking at material surfaces’ pictures perfectly touched up, that almost give the impression of Moon’s surface. On those backgrounds, to which at times she adds touches of pencil and colour, she outlines characters with stereotyped features – as in "Il Signor Piccini e La Balena" (above and below) – or common objects and characters having a more graphical approach, almost recalling the rigid shapes of Lego – as in "Tutti per Tutti"⁽⁶⁾.

(Mr Small and the Whale)

Project 7 - by Justyna Wróblewska

(Drizzle)

By Justyna Wróblewska are the illustrations of "Pioggerellina" (above), "Prodigi e Stranezze" and "Va Tobia" (below)⁽⁷⁾. She has created three completely different tables: "Pioggerellina" has a strong graphic approach, obtained by adding superimpositions of letters, graphic characters and murkiness effects, simulating thunders and lightning, to small touches of blue (very well done to my opinion); "Prodigi e Stranezze" has a mixed technique, reworked at the computer, to create a rightly surreal atmosphere, almost tropical-dreamlike; last "Va Tobia" where the collage composing the village’s road is enriched by simply sketched pencil drawings and italic writings, this ensemble confers to those images a simple, rural characteristic.

(Tobia Goes)

Enormous as well the enterprise of translating those poems into Italian, translation was made by Marco Vanchetti to whom goes all my appreciation for having obtained such a good result in such a complicated task.

Shortly, this is a real poetical anthology with many faces and strong irony, Tuwim’s irony of course: he, who was able to grasp the comic side of life in an historical moment where everything was tragically real.

In a cultural – or better artless – moment like this, deciding to publish poetry is an act of courage, something that goes against the tide, an act I personally welcome with great joy and with the confidence that, were we able to make others love poetry, it would regain all the strength it used to have in past times.

(1) "A Complicated Calculation", "The Alphabet", "Frost" and "Vegetables"
(2) ”The Turnip", "Pussycat", "Bambo", "Mr Trallallini" and "Little Joke"
(3) "Birds’ Gossip", "Two Wind" and "The Locomotive"
(4) "The Two Gino", "Gabri", "Radio Bird", "Gigio the Dreamer" and "Sofia - Iknowitall"
(5) "Elephant Bigtrumpet", "Cecco Liar and His Aunt ", "Glasses", "Click", "In Aero-plane" and "The Nightingale is Late "
(6) "Mr Small and The Whale" and "All for All"
(7) "Drizzle", "Wonders and Strangeness " and "Tobia Goes"

The titles above are my translation, with all possible mistakes! Sorry for that!

Copyright© text and images by Orecchio Acerbo 2010. Images have been reproduced with the permission of the Publisher, all reproduction is prohibited.

Too Late?

2010-09-23T23:02:00.007+11:00

Troppo Tardi, text by Giovanna Zoboli, illustrations by Camilla Engman, Topipittori Publishing, September 2010

You can find this post here, on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast!

Copyright© text and images by Casa Editrice Topipittori 2010. Images have been reproduced with the permission of the Publisher. All rights reserved.

A NICE new!

2010-09-09T23:18:00.000+11:00

Dear readers,

since the new is now official on the other side of the ocean, even if I may sound self-centric, I'm writing to announce a new New that regards me. I hope you'll enjoy it....

About a fortnight ago Jules, blogger at the amazing Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, and I have decided to start a collaboration that will see me posting - more or less regularly - on her blog. I will mainly treat European picture books and illustrators. We had planned on doing much more than this, though resources are limited and time stingy, we therefore decided we would be happy with what we can afford to do!

I'm obviously really satisfied, I've always loved Jules' (and Eisha's) blog, it was love at first sight. Thanks to Jules I started thinking of a blog on my own, even if I'm conscious I'll never reach her incomparable talent. When she asked me to collaborate with her I couldn't believe it! Though, this is how it is.

I start lighthearted, my head reaching clouds level and slightly trembling legs but I'm more than happy to start this new adventure. You will be able to read my posts for 7Imp in the translated pages, for the English page I shall put an alert post with title and link to the page on 7Imp.

Here below you can read the presentation Jules made for me, she has been too good:

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1993

and also the kind words by Betsy Bird, on her A Fuse#8 Production:

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/09/09/fusenews-its-a-mouse-its-a-monkey-its-a-blue-footed-booby/

Now I am speechless!

Thanks, once more, for your attention!

Ugly, dirty and Bad

2010-08-23T00:31:00.003+11:00

Whom an I talking about? Kids of course.

If you believe kids like being combed, washed, wringed, wrapped in laces and left posing still like mummies to show all their childish charms, then I suggest that you change article. Why, are you wondering? Because I’m about to talk about real kids, those who hate washing teeth and feet, those running around wild like ferocious little animals, screaming and champing at the bit, those for whom days are pure adventure. Shortly: common kids.

Is it a negative influence? Maybe. Even though, for me, there’s nothing more negative than hiding reality under the semblance of fake perfection. Therefore, here and now, I admit my preference for those stories where kids are treated frankly, with no pedagogical pretensions, with no final supposedly respectable little morals that give satisfaction to grownups but leave nothing to them, the real books' addressees.

And so, in those days of muggy hot, let’s immerge ourselves in a series of refreshingly fun stories.

Hattie the Bad, by Jane Devlin, illustrations by Joe Berger, Dial Publishing, 1st April 2010

Bad or good? What is best? Being terribly ‘bad’ and continuously reproached by adults, or becoming so good so as to win the prize for the "Best-Behaved Child Ever” and have no more friends to play with? Maybe reality lays in the middle or, maybe, being truth to one’s real nature is the only possible solution even if, for some, this is inconvenient. Hattie somehow reminds me of the kids from the series Our Gang, always ready to plot terribly brilliant and unacceptable ideas alike. She has no Pippi’s plaits but two little pigtails bursting with liveliness from every tuft and a poor, unfortunate, brother she’ll keep trying to get rid of.

Shortly, an exhilarating story, not necessarily politically correct but this is the best part!

For more in-depth reviews, you can visit:

Kids Lit - http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/2010/08/12/hattie-the-bad/
Pink Me - http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/2010/04/hattie-the-bad-review.html
Nochilas A. Basbanes - www.nicholasbasbanes.com/essays/children/10april.phtml

And Joe Berger’s Site - http://joeberger.squarespace.com/hattie-the-bad/

The Boss Baby, by Marla Frazee, Beach Lane Books, 31st August 2010

"From the moment the baby arrived, it was obvious that he was the boss." In this first line what will happen to the poor parents is already quite clear: nothing different than what happens in real life though! After all a baby has urgent needs that, like it or not, we can’t ignore. And so our poor lives take on totally knocked over rhythms: no more dinners with friends, mo more theatres nor movies, over with safaris in the savannah and peaceful sleep. The whole world ends up spinning around paps and terrifying night awakenings! Gulp! And who’s in chief of Diaper Operation? Him, the little screaming, teeth-less, tyrant! A fun picture book on the market very soon.

Here is Marla Frazee’s site - http://www.marlafrazee.com/ very interesting, it contains as well considerations upon illustration, techniques and tools, sketches and storyboards and much else.

And some nice interviews:

7Imp - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1783 together with Liz Garton Scanlon
Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup - http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/141989.html
Cynisations - http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2007/09/illustrator-interview-marla-frazee-on.html

Mostly Monsterly, by Tammy Sauer, illustrations by Scott Magoon, Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (31st August 2010).

Published the same day of The Boss Baby, here we have Mostly Monsterly: from the story of a monstrous little tyrant with harmless looks, to the story of a monster hiding behind her dreadful looks a kind heart. After all when you have sharp teeth and nails, pointed ears, greenish skin and a necklace with a skull for pendant, the entrance to the "Monster Academy" is guaranteed. What happens though if, behind those looks you have a delicate soul? How to handle with classmates who prefer to amuse themselves uprooting trees and eating snakes when, deep in your heart, you love cuddling animals and cooking cakes? Will Bernadette, the leading character of Tammy Sauer's new book, be able to find a solution?

Here’s the book trailer:

And some reviews:
Miss Print - http://missprint.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/mostly-monsterly-a-picture-book-review/
School Library Journal - http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/reviews/pretograde4/885579-319/preschool_to_grade_4.html.csp (search SAUER)

And an interview with the author:
Writing for Kids While Raising Them - http://taralazar.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/tammi-sauer/

Least but not last the sites:

author, Tammy Sauer: http://www.tammisauer.com/Mostly_Monsterly.html
and illustrator, Scott Magoon: http://www.scottmagoon.com/Site/ScottMagoonsWebsite.html

From France with fury, comes the first volume of a very promising graphic novel:

Les Sales Histoires de Félicien Moutarde, 1. La Naissance de Félicien Moutarde, by Fabrice Melquiot, illustrations by Ronan Badel, Publisher L'Elan Vert, 17th May 2010

The volume includes four chapters:

- La naissance de Félicien Moutarde
- Félicien Moutarde assassine sauvagement Bambi
- Le premier amour de Félicien Moutarde
- Félicien Moutarde a des super pouvoirs super pourris*

Félicien Moutarde says about himself: "Je suis un garçon vraiment pas gâté. Le plus étrange dans cette affaire, c'est que je suis quand même très heureux d'être en vie..."** An opposite superhero, in the style of Kick-ass to some extent: not exactly charmant, where others have super-powers, he affirms having all possible faults and super-weaknesses. A little misanthropist who would happily slap about the other kids playing in the park, who has an ironical and harsh sense of reality and hates tedious stories. He somehow reminds me of the book series Billy Brouillard by Guillaume Bianco, sharing that same demystified vision of life and a taste for noir that perfectly matches the illustrations, with their light strokes and grotesque feeling. I admit it: I love him already!

Here you can find some reviews, in French:

La Soupe de l'Espace - http://www.soupedelespace.fr/leblog/les-sales-histoires-de-felicien-moutarde-t1-la-naissance-de-felicien-moutarde/
France Culture - http://www.franceculture.com/emission-fictions-enfantines-les-sales-histoires-de-f%C3%A9licien-moutarde-de-fabrice-melquiot-2010-05-16
L'Express.fr - http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/les-sales-histoires-de-felicien-moutarde-la-naissance-de-felicien-moutarde-t-1-par-fabrice-melquiot-ill-de-ronan-badel-80-p-l-elan-vert-13-euros-des-8-ans_904119.html
Citrouille, Librairies Sorcières - http://lsj.hautetfort.com/archive/2010/08/16/les-sales-histoires-de-felicien-moutarde-tome-1-la-naissance.html
Passion du Livre - http://www.passiondulivre.com/livre-89598-les-sales-histoires-de-felicien-moutarde-volume-1-la-naissance-de-felicien.htm

From the author's site, Fabrice Melquiot: http://www.fabricemelquiot.com/article-felicien-moutarde-50316772.html

Well, this is it for today!

* - The birth of Félicien Moutarde
   - Félicien Moutarde wildly kills Bambi
   - Félicien Moutarde’s first love
   - Félicien Moutarde has dreadful super powers

** "I'm a kid who's hardly ever cuddled. The strangest thing in this whole story, is that I'm all the same happy to be alive."

When dreams come true

2010-08-06T07:52:00.006+11:00

There are magic moments in life and this is one of them.

Things hardly happen just thanks to ourselves alone: behind every little step we make there's us, of course, but there are also those people who have faith in us, and who support us.

Yesterday I came back from Macerata, where I went to prepare some news that will appear on the blog in the next few months. I voluntarily decided to remain disconnected from the rest of the world: no e-mail, no facebook or similar, in short: media blank.

These last seven days I've been cuddled, spoiled and assisted by wonderful people whom I want to send my sincere thanks: Nora and Gigi, Ale, Mauro and Michela, Giorgio, Samanta.

I have met marvellous people, I shall not reveal their names for the moment but I will tell you more about them soon enough. I have met young illustrators full of strong will and hopes whom I send all my affection and support.

In short, I made my fuel with amazing humanity and memories that I will keep with care: if richness in life consists in encountering people, then I've been very lucky.

Once I got home I had other surprises, very nice ones as well, I just hope my awakening won't be too hard after all this...

The first nice new was when I found out that Nora (another one from the Nora I mentioned up above), author of the blog La Felice Stagione, has signalled The Tea Box, in its Italian version, together with other blogs for the Dardos prize, thank you very much Nora for this!!!

The second has to do with nonetheless than Betsy Bird, the one and only, whom in her incredible A Fuse #8 Production made a blog alert for my little box, despite all my language imperfections of which I am absolutely aware and all the rest. I JUST FELL OFF MY CHAIR!!!! To accompany the alert, Betsy picked one of the illustrations from La Governante by Sara Gavioli... I just hope this be a little premonitory sign for Sara!

The last not so new new, but always Impossibly-Good-New, is the confirmation of a virtual and long distance friendship, with Jules at her beautiful 7Imp: if you don't know it already I warmly suggest you to take a look at it, you'll discover wonderful things! She was there when I started and she is the one who gave me immediate credit, I will never thank her enough for this!!!! I shall say nothing about our secret plots, you never know, all I can say is that we are actually confabbing or just telling? Secret! AHA!

I shall not take a minute more of your time, one last THANK YOU to you all whom, with patience, keep reading my blog!

The Quiet Book & The Loud Book!

2010-07-28T12:21:00.062+11:00

The Quiet Book, by Deborah Underwood, illustrations by Renata Liwska, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (April 2010)

First of all I must say that I've been following Renata Liwska's work for quite some time now: since when, just for a fortunate chance, I bumped into her blog and fell in love with her illustrations. Her way of portraying animals has a certain nostalgic and retrò style, a soothed sweetness that recalls to mind the scent of long gone moments. Memories of precious instants, connected more to senses than to precise reminiscences, come to mind: like when you walk along a road and, suddenly, your nostrils open wide up, fatally attracted by that one smell, the one you hadn't been smelling for ages but that, in one second, brings back to your mind all you thought you had forgotten!

The author of this book started with a simply brilliant idea: how many sorts of silence do we know? True there are many kinds: there's a delicate one, a threatening one, a sweet and intimate one, one that makes you fall asleep...

Well, not only this fantastic book has reached position number five in the New York Times Children's Books Bests-selling List, but soon there will be a sequel titled

THE LOUD BOOK!

I can't wait to see it!

If you are curious now, here is a list of reviews on THE QUIET BOOK:

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1924 where you can as well take a look at some spreads from the book, a NOT TO BE MISSED one: as usual Jules is incomparable!

Bookie Woogie - http://bookiewoogie.blogspot.com/2010/05/review-67-quiet-book.html real fun!

The Picture Book Junkies - http://pbjunkies.blogspot.com/2010/04/quiet-book.html

Kidoinfo - http://kidoinfo.com/ri/the-quiet-book-is-a-new-classic-for-bedtime/

Lesa's Book Critiques - http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/2010/06/quiet-book-by-deborah-underwood.html

Fizzwhizzing Flushbunker - http://fizzwhizzingflushbunker.blogspot.com/2010/05/get-this-book.html

Books for Kids - http://booksforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/softly-softly-quiet-book-by-deborah.html

Let me signal as well:

Renata Liwska's blog, the illustrator: http://renataliwska.blogspot.com/

and Deborah Underwood's website, the author: http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/

Boom by Mark Haddon

2010-07-28T10:50:00.072+11:00

Today I shall shortly tell you about one of my favourite book writers: Mark Haddon. Yeah, the one of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time".

Though I shall not talk about that book, instead I will tell you about BOOM!

I know, I'm late: in fact the book came out at the end of 2009! Well, to be precise it was first published in 1992, as this is the revised edition of Gridzbi Spudvetch! that was published at the times by Walker Books Ltd.

The new edition of this book has been released by David Fickling Books (September 3rd, 2009) and it comprises 208 pages. The text has already been translated and published in Italy, by Giulio Einaudi Editore, at the end of 2009 in the Supercoralli collection. Here is the Italian cover:

Mark Haddon, if ever needed, reconfirms his talents: he's incredibly versatile and ironic, he can easily play with words and - in this specific case - he even invents a new language and surreal sceneries that take us to other dimensions. The book is really nice, well built, the main character well outlined. It's as well a text that is suitable for more than one reading key, it's therefore right for different ages... as well for those adults that have no prejudice regarding kids lit!

But who, better than its author, can tell you about this book? Let's listen to Mark Haddon:

If you want to take a sneak-peak of the book you can go here: http://rhwidget.randomhouse.co.uk/flash-widget/widget_lg.do?isbn=9780385616294&menu=0&mode=1&cf=336699&cb=FFFFFF

You're not convinced yet? My alert is not enough? No problem, here is a series of reviews:

The Telegraph newspaper - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6202582/Boom-by-Mark-Haddon-review.html

Book Aunt - http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-of-boom-by-mark-haddon.html

Pink Me - http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/2010/06/boom-by-mark-haddon-review.html

Kidsread - http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/9780385751872.asp

This is the author's website: http://www.markhaddon.com/

Hope you'll enjoy it!

Big Red Lollipop

2010-07-27T18:40:00.145+11:00

Big Red Lollipop, by Rukhsana Khan, illustrations by Sophie Blackall, Viking Children's Books, March 2010.

I'm an only child, I therefore never experienced having a brother or a sister, though I know very well all the little bullying that kids make one another, this is why I've immediately loved this wonderful book by Rukhsana Khan.

Besides my personal life, the true reason why I decided to tell you about this book is dual: first of all the author has a very interesting personal story, cruel, always current and present in the books she writes; secondly because I particularly love the illustrator, Sophie Blackall, unluckily she is not as famous as she should be here in Italy.

Rukhsana Khan was born in Pakistan, in Lahore, but her family moved to England before and then to Canada. And it was in the country of Maple Syrup and Niagara Falls, that little Rukhsana and her family were forced to endure the worse humiliations due to their ethnical difference. This was as bad as the author tells she had no friends for a long time and, consequently, turned into reading. Kahn furthermore asserts that these difficulties made her a writer. For sure such events marked her life forever, though they seem to have left no trace of grudge in her, just like Rubina, the main character in Big Red Lollipop.

Sophie Blackall comes from Australia, she now lives and works in New York. We don't know much about her, except that on her Missed Connections* she enjoys giving us little Polaroids representing urban life, that she loves collecting a bit of everything and that her studio is quite messy. We know as well that, after working in a shoe-shop and in a robot company, she recently collaborated with pop star Mika for the making of the booklet that accompanies his Songs for Sorrow and for part of the illustrations for his last album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much. She furthermore illustrated the cover of the beautiful novel When you reach me, the last masterpiece by Rebecca Stead. As Betsy Bird, on her A Fuse #8 Production Blog*, rightly points out, the first spread of Big Red Lollipop seems to be recalling the cover of When you reach me.

How these two distant worlds could have met, giving birth to such a nice book, is a mystery I'm happy not to be able to reveal. After all, the most important new in this post is Big Red Lollipop: the story of two sisters and a birthday party. The story of Rubina - the elder - who loves to keep things to enjoy them only when the right moment comes, and Sana - the younger sister - who thunders around like an earthquake and tramples everything on her way, careless of what her actions will cause. It's as well a story about forgiveness, of understanding and Brotherhood, in the true meaning of the word.

Sophie Blackall's illustrations are delicious, as usual delicate and refined, standing out on a white background. In these images the artist's ability in capturing characters' expressions is central: Blackall seems to be able to have her characters express way beyond the text, underlining the unsaid, widening the thematic the author deals with.

In short, a book you shouldn't miss.

You can read some interesting reviews on the following pages:

The Planetesme Plan - Blog http://planetesme.blogspot.com/2010/06/big-red-lollipop-picture-book.html
Kids Lit - Blog http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/2010/03/09/big-red-lollipop/
*A Fuse #8 Production - Blog http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/05/14/review-of-the-day-big-red-lollipop-by-rukhsana-khan/

Here you can read two interesting interviews with the author, Rukhsana Khan:

Magazine CM by Manitoba University - http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/profiles/khan.html
and Papertigers - http://www.papertigers.org/interviews/archived_interviews/rkhan.html

Here below her site and blog:

Site - http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/index.html
Blog - http://blog.rukhsanakhan.com/

and Sophie Blackall's site and blogs:

Site - http://www.sophieblackall.com/
Blog - http://www.sophieblackall.blogspot.com/
*and Missed Connections Blog - http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com/ (don't loose it if you love tiny metropolitan stories!!!!)

Amid the many books Sophie Blackall has illustrated, you can also find:

and

her first and only (SOB!) book that was published in Italy by Motta Junior, under the title Il Sogno di Rosso Ciliegia.

L'Herbier by Emile Vast

2010-07-26T21:12:00.111+11:00

L'Herbier, by Émile Vast, MeMo Publishing House, July19th 2009

There are books I've been wanting to write about before, more in-depth, but a variety of circumstances didn't allow me to, at least until now. I therefore will take my time, in these last July's days, to post little updates that I hope you will find of interest.

This morning I would like to shortly tell you about this text, that was published about a year ago already, by MeMo Publishers in Nantes, if you don't know them already I invite you to take a look at their amazing catalogue.

As the title already explains, this book is an Herbarium: a small compendium of medieval inspiration, even though it's not purely a scientific booklet, dedicated to European leaf trees. It's a little treasure of style, composition and graphics. On its double pages we can see: on the left the leaf's silhouette complete with its description, on the right a full page illustration showing the tree branch picturing the different stages from gem, to flower and fruit. The sober and elegant style recalls Japanese art, which reflects as well in the careful and delicate use of colour.

It's a picture book where we can rediscover, together with more practical notions such as the use of wood obtained by the various trees, mythological anecdotes. The stories told are extremely short, no more than three lines, and they make you want to start searching old books about legends and myths. It's tales that make you ponder about all we loose every day, by taking the distance from nature and roots, no matter if it's the trees' roots or ours as they are inextricably tied the ones with the others, as this beautiful books makes us understand.

It was not a case if L'Herbier has obtained, during the last edition of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, a very well deserved mention amid non-fiction books. Here below is the jury's motivation:

"Emilie Vast has created an authentic, scientific herbarium. Hers is a clear, almost stark, style infused with poetry. We are shown the leaves of European species and at the same time learn much about Art Nouveau. We see how Western culture was, and remains, imbued with Japanism and how blending the two can produce exquisitely spare illustrations. Each plate is a typographical pearl, uncluttered and austere. Yet the herbarium also alludes to the enormous complexity behind the art of classifying the natural world. As well as recognizing plant species, children here learn respect for the environment around them." (source the Book Fair official website: http://www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it/en/boragazziaward/vincitori#non_fiction)

What else can I tell you? The book has been published in Italian as well, last June, by Salani Publishing Company (if I'm not wrong). I have tried to find an English version but apparently there is none yet, please DO correct me if I'm wrong as I would be delighted to see it published in English as well. Same for Spanish!?!

You can read some interesting reviews about this book, in French, on the following pages:

Le Carton à Desseins: http://carton-a-desseins.over-blog.com/article-l-herbier-d-emilie-vast-38826751.html

Lecture & Cie: http://leslecturesdemarie.free.fr/Litteraturedejeunesse/Recapitulatif/lherbierdemilievast.html

In case you wished to know better the book's author, these are her pages:

Site under construction - http://emilievast.com/
Blog on Myspace - http://blogs.myspace.com/emilievast

This is it for now!

La Governante di Osmont

2010-07-06T00:29:00.228+11:00

Regret or remorse, what's worse? An age-old problem and a very personal interpretation of life.

Not that Mr Tapinois had much choice as he got tangled, against his will, in a really big mess: he killed the housekeeper by mistake, while he was training for a duel.

Remorse therefore, and sense of guilt, get hold of the almost-young, almost-robust, almost-interesting and, above all, single Mr Tapinois!

This is the start of the new picture book, part of the collection Lampi, by Orecchio Acerbo.

La Governante*, by Edouard Osmont, illustrations by Sara Gavioli, Publisher Orecchio Acerbo, July 2010

Is this a detective story? Not really. A Thriller then? Almost... Maybe a Surreal story is a better description, with a touch of humour noir, a pinch of grotesque and much irony. If these ingredients whet your fantasy then, from tomorrow, you can go at your bookshop and buy it!

La Governante is a perfect picture book for these days of suffocating hot: it'll freeze blood in your veins for an absolutely moderate price.... Now why don't we analyse together this beautiful volume? For this I shall have to use a more convenient tone though!

First of all two words about the author, whose ghost seems to have haunted the poor publishers until they were finally forced to produce the book!

Edouard Osmont, a.k.a. Blaise Petitveau, has become a ghostwriter of French literature between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. About him we only know that he was a frequent visitor of Le Chat Noir, in Montmartre, together with a large group of artists and writers amid whom we find as well Alphonse Allais; we know as well that he contributed to magazines such as Le Rire, Le Sourire and Fantasio to which, amid others, were collaborating as well Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (another well-known habitué of Le Chat Noir) and Pierre Henri Cami (another incredible writer, not a renowned one neither, even if he's more known than Osmont. Years ago, the publisher Sellerio, had printed his irreverent Avventure di Loufock Holmès**, a clear parody of Sherlock Holmes).

Osmont therefore remains an enigmatic character, wind up in a mysterious aura and, up to today in a thick web weft as well. Luckily enough for us, Fausta and Simone have decided to remove this last one.

His writing is refined, captivating, with a nice sense of rhythm and implacable time scansion:

the housekeeper is killed (Bang! The shot roars in our heads)

and for poor Mr Tapinois a nightmare starts, what to do? Confess? Maybe he would be better hiding the body in a trunk...

From a veiled hint to absurd, though maintaining an elegant balance with reality, Osmont reaches the most paradoxical and unrestrained tones of absurdity.

The corpse of the housekeeper disappears (Bang! another shot that echoes in our minds)

but she is not ready to abandon Mr Tapinois yet: the housekeeper will reappear in a fun windmill of broken objects and increasing fear. Horror! Poor Mr Tapinois finds shelter nowhere, the corpse reappears, a threatening, prevailing presence, up to when...

Well, I won't be the one who gives away the end of the book!

The illustrations, by Sara Gavioli, are beautiful: edited with extreme care, always fitting, with a taste for retrò that marries well the text they refer to, and though they're always relevant. The enormous research Sara has made to obtain such a result is clear: we can see it surfacing in details, in unusual framings, in the careful décor. I'm thinking for instance of the pendulum clock, of the playing cards where she hides little information, of the use of silhouettes and the skilful handling of shadows.
The chromatic choice of the tables is absolutely right and, should it still be necessary, reveals furthermore Sara's original and unique talent. If you want to know something more about her, you can read the interview I made her last month: you'll find almost everything you shall like to know, including the most horrifying details! I'm kidding, of course...

What else could I say? Once again an audacious choice made by Orecchio Acerbo, a cultured, singular one, that goes against the tide. Once again my personal thanks go to Fausta and Simone for the excellence they keep bringing to our attention.

* La Governante means the housekeeper.
** Avventure di Loufock Holmès means Adventures of Loufock Holmès.