Today, on International Thank you Day what better book to celebrated it that the gorgeous art of Icinori. A remeberance of being grateful and to realy apreciate what we have.
So, Thank you, everything!
Thank you, everything!
Books and activities
The Universe in Verse
15 Portals to wonder through science&poetry
By Maria Popova, illustrated by Ofra Amit
Maria Popova is an artist that has chosen to share her light and her talent on all of us willing to wonder to the beauty of the world.
Her project The Marginalian is a monography of what is real important and has meaning in literature. Her work on all the presentations and reviews is huge and of a great quality and realism.
Her latest work is a printed book. “The Universe in Verse” started in 2017 as a gathering of people interested in poetry, stories, a festival of wonder as the author herself name it.
Now we have this gorgeous book to comfort our need to know and to feel the beauty and the reality, what is inside of us and what lays there, all the way to the horizon and beyond.
Origine
A beautiful album about people still living in remote and faraway places, after their own traditions and customs, in perfect harmony with their native land and all it surround them.
A masterpiece of history and beauty and beyond magic places to be discover. A work of more than 10 years of study and travelling for the author, Nat Carduzo.
An encyclopedia of nature and live, of past and present meeting. Of beauty. Enjoy it!
The Dictionary story
The most important book of all, the one’s keeping all the words in the world, would like to tell a story. How to do that? Who will help her do that? A hungry Crocodile, a Donut afraid to be eaten up, a Ghost, the Moon hershelf, the Queen and her Ruler, a Splash of ink and a Tornado!
If you want to emerge yourself in a great story and a superb illustration, then the art of Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston is the book right for it!
Enjoy it!
The secret world of Walter Anderson
by Hester Bass and illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Part of Candlewick Biographies and Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
Reading age: 8-12 years
In a beautifully crafted biography, Hester Bass and Caldecott Honor winner E. B. Lewis pay homage to the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of 🙂 Reclusive nature-lover Walter Anderson spent weeks at a time on an uninhabited island, sketching and painting the natural surroundings and animals to create some of his most brilliant watercolors, which he kept hidden during his lifetime. Only after his death they were revealed to the world, for all of us to be able to admire his true talentand love for painting and nature.
The yellow bus
The little humans go to school in yellow buses. Or minibuses or cars 🙂 But mostly, the yellow bus is their daily trusted travel companion.
The story of a school yellow bus told and illustrated by one of our favourite artist, Loren Long, was published this June.
Here, the story behind the story.
Enjoy it!
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19pbS21ZQE/?mibextid=wwXIfr
La parabola del panificio indipendente
One of our favorite contemporary illustrators is Neil Packer. “One of a kind”, his book about all kind of sorting one can imagine, won the Bologna Ragazzi Award and Premio Andersen and Cento Prize in 2021.
Now, in April 2024, the italian publisher Camelozampa printed his last masterpiece, La parabola del panifio indipendente. The book was “Printed on water” at Grafiche Veneziane, the last active independent printing house in Venice. And the book is indeed a true downward parable, symbolizing how conformity can flatten and consume everything: taste, originality, creativity, care and passion.
The story is centered around an elderly couple from a small town that runs a bakery that produces the most delicious bread. Their passion and love for creating good bread are evident in every loaf they bake. As the years goes by, their strength and energy eventually runs out. Seizing this opportunity, the owner of the Grande Fabbrica (the Big Factory) acquires their independent bakery. The result? The once-flavorful bread becomes bland, soft, and devoid of love. The townspeople reluctantly accept this tasteless bread, forgetting the goodness that came from the independent bakery. They are not happy, but what can they do?
Then, other bakers start reopening new independent bakeries. And so, the town is filled again with the smell of fresh out of the oven, tasteful and baked with love bread.
International Children Book Day
Today we celebrate once more the glorious wonders of children books.
Since 1967 IBBY ( International Board on Books for Young Children) celebrates on 2nd of April, the birth anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen, International Children Book Day (ICBD). To honor one of the most important figures in children literature and to celebrate the importance of books in children’s life.
Each year one nation member of IBBY gets to be the sponsor of ICBD. In 2024, Japan is the sponsor of the event and the theme chosen is Imagination: “ Cross the Sea on the Wings of Your Imagination”.
The Japonese writer Eiko Kadono, who won the Hans Christian Andersen award on 2018, send a letter to all the children of the world for this special day.
I will let the English translation of it down below. More informations on this year event can be found on IBBY organization website.
“Stories travel, riding on wings,
Longing to hear the joyful beat of your heart.
I’m a traveling story. I fly anywhere.
On wings of wind, or wings of waves, or sometimes on tiny wings of sand. Of course, I also ride the wings of migratory birds. And even those of jet planes.
I sit beside you. Opening the pages, I tell you a story, the one you want to hear.
Would you like a strange and wondrous story?
Or how about a sad one, a scary one, or a funny one?
If you don’t feel like listening right now, that’s fine too. But I know someday you will. When you do, just call out, “Traveling story, come. Sit beside me!”
And I’ll fly right there.
I have so many stories to share.
How about a story of a little island tired of being alone who learned to swim and set off to find a friend?
Or the tale of a mysterious night when two moons appeared.
Or the one about Santa Claus getting lost.
Oh, I can hear your heart. It’s beating faster.
Flitter-flutter, thumpity-thump, pitter-patter, bumpety-bump.
The traveling story has jumped inside and set your heart racing.
You’ll become one yourself next, spreading your wings to fly.
And so, another traveling story is born.” ( Eiko Kadono)
Don’t let the Pigeon drive the sleigh!
by Mo Willems
The last addiction to the Pigeon serie has come! Not with the actual Santa’s sleigh, but in time to be under the Christmas tree for all the children who loves Pigeon.
“Don’t leg the Pigeon drive the sleigh!” is a super funny wintery story about the Pigeon wanting to drive Santa’s sleigh. Until he realises that it is not actually so simple and after a reindeer frightens him, he decided that it is not a job for him. Maybe, he will try the Easter bunny… sorry, Pigeon 🙂
Giving thanks
We often say this word out of habit. But there are moments in life when we take the time to give thanks for what we are and what we have.
Today is that day of the year when a lot of thanks will be heard.
I chose a book to celebrate this day. It is call “A fine dessert” and it is illustrated by the renewed artist Sophie Blackall.
A true history and humanity lesson. A walk through the centuries to see families enjoying this fine dessert.
little humans 