OUR BOOKS

OLIMPIA MEDICI & ANDREA DALLA FONTANA

Elisa Puricelli has been working for years as an editor, translator and writer. She has published several novels with Salani, Solferino, Lapis, Einaudi Ragazzi, Rizzoli, Giunti and Il Battello a Vapore. Her books have been translated into several languages, including exotic ones such as Japanese and Indonesian. In 2013, she won the Bancarellino Prize with the long seller Cuori di carta, Einaudi Ragazzi. With Il segreto del pettirosso (Zelda: The Secret of the Red Robin), Salani, she was a finalist for the Orbil Prize and the Bancarellino Prize in 2021.

A screenwriter, director, writer and film critic, Manlio Castagna has also been involved in the artistic direction of the Giffoni Film Festival for more than 20 years. He made his debut in children’s fiction in 2018 with the bestselling Petrademone trilogy (Mondadori), which has been translated into several languages.
Since then, he has explored many different genres: from historical fantasy with La notte delle malombre (The Night of the Malombre) and Draconis Chronicon, to horror with Goodwill and Le Belve (The Beasts), passing through the “story” of cinema with the manual 116 film da vedere prima dei 16 anni (116 Films To See Before You’re 16) and the novel Dedalo & Dharma, up to social noir with Barriera (all for the Mondadori group).
La reincarnazione delle sorelle Klun (The Reincarnation of the Klun Sisters) and Prova a non dormire (Try Not to Sleep) are his adult fiction books. In 2022, he made his film debut as a director and screenwriter with “Il viaggio degli eroi”, produced by Rai Cinema and rewarded with record audience numbers on Rai1.

Born in San Donà di Piave, and with a degree in Veterinary Medicine, Guido Sgardoli is a full time writer. He has collaborated for several years on newspapers, magazines and websites dedicated to road trips, dealing with the history and traditions of the United States. He has long been interested in Ufology, Paranormal Phenomena, Astronomy, Archaeoastronomy, and the History of the United States and the Native Americans. In addition to animals, he has always loved books, since he was a child. And as happens to many, one day he wanted to write a story all of his own. Since then he hasn't stopped, and in 2004 he published his first book, and then many more: adventurous, funny stories full of various “animals” that are much loved and widely read by children and teenagers.

An author whose books have been translated into 25 languages, in Italy Davide Morosinotto won the Super Andersen Prize in 2017 with Il Rinomato Catalogo Walker&Dawn (The Pocket Watch Gang), Mondadori, and the Strega Children’s Prize 2021 with La Più Grande (The Greatest), Rizzoli, with which he also entered the IBBY Honour List 2021. A finalist at the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and winner of the Penzberger Urmel in Germany, he has also won the Prix des Bouquineurs en Seine and the Grand Prix des Lecteurs du Journal de Mickey in France, the Vlag en Wimpel and the Zilveren Griffel in Holland, the KJV in Flanders, the Protagonista Jove prize in Catalonia and he was nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2022 in the United Kingdom.

Giada Pavesi is a writer from Cremona, where she lives with her snobbish cat and a few too many plants, but whenever she can, she takes her yellow suitcase and travels.
So she could read all day, she started studying foreign languages and literature at the University of Milan and then Leicester, in England. She has worked as a waitress, entertainer, translator, librarian and probably more.

Jacopo Olivieri was born in Verona nel 1966. He spent his childhood in the countryside just outside the city and the Ivory Coast, thanks to the work of his father (who was an architect and set designer). Since he was a boy he has had a passion for reading and drawing and has cultivated interests that are now found in his books: the imagination in general, ancient legends, prehistoric animals, museums, monster stories, venturing into abandoned and mysterious places… After finishing classic high school, and after a brief attempt at natural sciences at the University of Bologna, he dedicated himself to his first career, as a comic author. At the same time, he spent decades involved in the theatre (set design, costumes) at home and abroad and tried his hand as a designer wherever he happened to be (stationery industry, Swatch shops, scholastic publishing, records, toys…). Until he had the adventure of meeting Pierdomenico Baccalario, who suggested that he write children's books: since then he has published with the major Italian publishing houses, as well as a few abroad.

Lucia Vaccarino studied communication with a specialisation in TV, cinema and multimedia. She has dealt with branded content, has been a creative producer of cartoons and live action (fiction and non-fiction), and is a PM for books and comics where necessary. And she writes. She likes baking, sewing, gardening, and in general all hobbies that keep her hands occupied and let her mind run wild. If they're things she doesn't know how to do well, it 's even better, because having room for improvement puts her in a good mood.

Born in Rome, Olimpia Medici has a degree in languages from the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice where she studied Russian and English, took many vaporettos and crossed a lot of bridges. In addition to writing books, she works as a translator, support teacher and nature guide. Her great passions are reading, travel and the mountains. If she manages to put the three things together it's even better and lately she's been doing it rather well.

Andrea Dalla Fontana works with all aspects of graphics, from food packaging to social campaigns.

His passion for illustration led him to collaborate with Book on a Tree. In October 2018, the first two volumes of the series The Fetid Four (Piemme) were released, for which he took care of the illustrations and graphic project. He appears every Wednesday in the pages of the La Stampa newspaper with a humorous cartoon.