Children's Book Study Room" Italy's Stoppani children's bookstore suffered disaster, hope to rebuild through fundraising, and other short messages of children's book art

Author｜ Wu Pinru (Translator/Program Planning/Creator)

➤Industry news

■ The children's bookstore "Giannino Stoppani" in Bologna, Italy, suffered a catastrophic disaster, and hopes to rebuild it as soon as possible through crowdfunding. Stopani Bookstore is loved by children's book lovers and locals from all over the world. In 2018, illustrator Jimmy held a new book launch here. As a classic children's bookstore, Stopani is not only a regular visitor to the Bologna Children's Book Fair, but the founder of the bookstore was also invited to be a jury member of the Bologna Book Fair in 2019. Unexpectedly, a fire broke out in the Stopani bookstore on May 20 this year. The first floor and the underground floor (mezzanine), which is used as a warehouse and office, were affected by the fire, and the second floor was flooded due to disaster relief. Fortunately, no one was injured.

According to preliminary estimates, there are still more than 35,000 books in the store, some of which are damaged and completely unreadable, and some have absorbed ashes, smoke and fire extinguishing agents from the fire, and must be disinfected before they can be put back on the shelves. Bookstore employees manually check the books, and at the time of writing (July), no statistics have been made about how heavy the losses are. The reconstruction progress is updated irregularly on the crowdfunding website , so that supporters can grasp the information of the bookstore at the same time. The Stopani Bookstore was founded in 1983 by five young women who studied children's books. When the book fair runs every spring, both the book fair and the Stopany Bookstore become the most popular places in Bologna.

➤The sea picture book

The number of confirmed cases has gradually declined, and the epidemic has cooled down, so you can relax a little for the summer vacation~ All friends, big and small, can't wait to rush to the beach to cool off, let's take a picture book vacation by the sea!

■ The first to introduce is Doug Salati's " Hog Dog " (Hot Dog), the humorous title makes people smile. The vivid painting skills in this book can make people realize how hard it is to be a dog in a city where the heat is unbearable: for example, it is impossible to walk on hot concrete floors and asphalt roads (dogs also need to dissipate heat through the small sweat glands on the soles of their feet). On the road, you need to find a shade of trees to "jump the island", and then bump into other sweaty passers-by. The sun seemed to be on the top of the building, and the whole city was like a big oven emitting orange light, almost cooking the hot dog, and finally the hot dog finally collapsed and shouted "I've had enough!"

It and the owner took the subway all the way to change trains, and moved from the city to the island in just a few hours. When the dog and the owner are sitting on the boat, the dog's ears and the owner's hair are flowing in the wind, and the happy mood is vivid on the paper. The hot dog went to the beach to play in the sand and chase the waves. The storyboard of the picture book is very smooth and cool, and the coolness is like the waves and foam in the picture, which makes people fully relieved from the oppressive heat. The author Salati and "Witch Granny" author Tommy. Deborah collaborated on the picture book " In a Small Kingdom ", and his solo work " Lawrence in the Fall " is also a touching work that captures the beauty of nature.

■ Then there is " Little House " (little house) by husband and wife creative group Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek. In the story, the little girl and her parents came to the beach for a vacation and lived in a small house temporarily, but there were other smaller houses scattered on the beach, that is, the home of hermit crabs - shells. The girl was intoxicated by the gentle soothing of the sea breeze and fascinated by the various shells. Dronzek, who is in charge of the drawing, used dreamy and childish colors to draw colorful shells like candy, such as tower shells, spiral shells, flat shells, slender shells and other types. The little girl picked up some shells to go home as a souvenir, as a good memory of summer. Henkes and Dronzek also have a set of four seasons picture books, including " When Spring Comes " and " Winter is Here ", which are also easy to read for parents and children.

■The hermit crab wants to go home and get into the shell, but it is not so easy for the turtle to go home. " Yoshi and the Ocean: A Sea Turtle's Incredible Journey Home " This book describes the long adventure of the loggerhead turtle Yoshi back to the ocean. In 1997, Japanese fishermen found an injured loggerhead turtle, named it "Yoshitaro" (Yoshi for short), and handed it over to the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa for treatment. Yoshi stayed in the aquarium for 20 years after recovering from his injuries, growing from 2kg to 180kg. In 2017, the museum believed that Yoshi had reached breeding age, and after 18 months of training, a tracker was installed for her and released into the wild.

Through the tracker researchers found that in order to return home, Yoshi unrelentingly swam from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, from Cape Town to Australia, which lasted 982 days and nearly 25,000 miles, setting the longest swimming distance for biological tracking. Now Yoshi's mileage is still slowly increasing, let's explore Yoshi's way home through this book! The author Lindsay Moore majored in fine arts and marine life in college, and holds a master's degree in medical illustration. The combination of professionalism and art makes Moore's works warm, moving and accurate. Her other works are mostly marine, among which " Sea Bear " Get praise from all walks of life.

➤Winning news

■ Writer Joseph. Joseph Coelho was awarded this year's Children's Laureate. This award was established by Waterstone in 1999 to encourage children's book writers and illustrators. The award is given every two years and this year is the 12th year. session. When he received the award, Kerho expressed his hope that "all forms and styles of storytelling belong to everyone. Poetry and creativity have the power to transform, and books and reading can expand horizons. I want to be a children's literature laureate author who celebrates these powers."

Kerr is famous for the "Luna Loves" series, also wrote " My Beautiful Voice " for older children, and "No Longer Alone" published in Taiwan. In addition to writing children's books, Cole is also an action poet and playwright, and promotes reading. He launched the library marathon in 2019, going to libraries in various administrative regions of the United Kingdom, calling on local people to come to the library to apply for a library card and explore the endless sea of knowledge.

➤ Current affairs picture books

■ The US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in June, which limited the abortion rights affecting women across the United States to state regulations, and women's bodily autonomy has once again become the focus of heated debate. Sex, abortion, and sexual assault are topics that are rarely discussed even by adults. How to explain it to children?

The work of picture book writer Anastasia Higginbotham tells us that maybe it's just to say it directly! Among Higginbotham's works is the "Ordinary Terrible Things" series (horrific things that often happen), which currently consists of five volumes, and is quite straightforward from the title to the content. For example, " Death is Stupid " (Death is a blind thing), " Divorce is the Worst " (divorce is the worst), " Tell me about Sex, Grandma " (Grandma, tell me about sex), Just arranging it on the bookshelf makes people sweat, but it has won praise from all walks of life such as the New York Times.

Higginbotham’s creation adopts the method of paper-cut collage. It looks like a clumsy and interesting medium for art work classwork. After mature processing, it becomes full of tension. With the straightforward words that can penetrate people’s hearts, it does not whitewash the peace and does not expose it too much. When reading, resonate with the little protagonist in the book and get the feeling of being understood.

The new work " You Ruined It " deals with the theme of child sexual abuse, with a tight-faced child on the cover and the title of the direct accusation, which is rare and impressive. In the book, 11-year-old Dawn was sexually assaulted by a relative of a similar age. After the incident, Dawn Overwhelmed, struggling to tell the truth, to sue a relative who was close to her before the incident, but the problem is that she doesn't want to put him in jail, and she doesn't know how to prove an unwitnessed incident. Many people say that they should speak out bravely when they encounter bad things, but if the victim does not have the "capital" to be brave, if he tells the truth, he will be isolated by his family, and what should he do if he loses his family or financial backing?

➤ Cross-border cooperation

■ Chizu Town, Tottori Prefecture, Japan is rich in forest resources and has a history of afforestation for more than 350 years. In order to let more people know the charm of Chitou Town, Shiraoka Biao, the director of the local design office, released a set of 5 volumes of "Tree no え ほ ん" (tree picture book). Although the price of the full set is nearly 20,000 yen, it is not cheap, but the first 30 sets were sold out within a month, and the follow-up booking situation is also quite active.

The pages of the picture book are made of wood boards produced in Chizu-cho, with a thickness of 7mm. Special shapes are carved out of the wooden boards, and three-dimensional protagonists of the story are placed, such as white rabbits, pears, and Matsuba crabs, echoing local myths and famous products. The page is printed by UV, the ink dries quickly after UV irradiation, and the color is bright, the adhesion to wood is high, and the ink can be stacked layer by layer to bring a bumpy feel. The author hopes that readers can feel the texture and aroma of Chizu-cho wood while reading, and also have more emotional connections to Tottori Prefecture.

■ Mu Mi (Taiwan name: Lu Lu Mi) is the author of novels and comics, Duo Bei. Tove Jansson's first biographical film "Dobe's Love Picture Book" will be released this month. Moomin has been popular all over the world for 75 years. The carefree life of Moominvalley fascinates readers, and the author's own life may not be as happy as the valley residents, who don't care about the eyes of the outside world, but often have to face the reality. conflict and compromise, and the lingering shadow of war.

The film presents the dilemma that young Yang Sheng faced in the early stage of creation: he was obviously good at drawing comics and illustrations, but he was asked to create works that were more like "adults". And Yang Sheng's emotional life, her sexuality, and her seemingly controversial relationship with married people also made their debut on the big screen. After watching the movie to learn about his life and then reading Yang Sheng's novels, you will find that the daily words that the residents of Mummi Valley seem to say casually are actually full of philosophy, reflecting Yang Sheng's persistence in wanting to live out himself nearly a century ago. ●( The original text was first published on the OPENBOOK official website on 2022-07-16)

Extended reading: Picture Book Master" Born Artist: Duo Bei. The innocent world of Yang Sheng and Mommy