OUR BOOKS

Christian Antonini is an author of books for children and adults, with a passion for history, adventure and fantasy. He grew up among books, comics and games. His novel Fuorigioco a Berlino (The Berlin Offside), Giunti, won the 2017 Bancarellino Prize and the Il Gigante delle Langhe prize. In 2023, he entered the Italian IBBY Honour List with La Musica nelle Ossa (Bone Music), Mondadori.

Christian Hill is an author and screenwriter. He has written many children’s stories including Il Ladro dei Ceili (The Sky Thief), Rizzoli, winner of the Cento Children’s Literature Prize in 2019, and Olga, una Storia di Pace in Tempo di Guerra (Olga, A Story of Peace in Wartime), Rizzoli, which entered the Italian IBBY Honour List in 2023. His works have been translated into several languages, some of which he can recognise and some of which he can’t. He loves music, role-playing games and his armchair.

Daniele Nicastro was born in 1978. He currently lives in a small village in the province of Cuneo, where he writes everything: novels, postcards, messages in bottles and phrases on the walls. He began telling stories as a boy, to his mother, whenever he came home late without warning her. Over time he made a profession out of it. He made his debut with the novel Grande, which won the Legenda Junior Prize and was shortlisted for the Bancarellino Prize 2018. He has consolidated experience in several genres, from adventure novels to funny stories, but always focused on themes related to growing up.

Eduardo Jauregui is a Spanish psychologist who specialises in humour, play, laughter, mindfulness and well-being in general. His books, for adults and young people, have been translated into 20 languages. When he grows up, he wants to be a Jedi.

Giuseppe Festa has a degree in Natural Sciences and is involved in environmental education. He’s published several novels, including La luna è dei lupi (The Moon Belongs to the Wolves), Salani; Cento passi per volare (A Hundred Steps to Freedom), Salani; I figli del bosco (The Children of the Forest), Garzanti; and Una trappola d’aria (An Air Trap), Longanesi. He won the 2021 Rodari Prize, the 2022 Bancarellino Prize and the prestigious Kadaitosho Prize in Japan. He is the founder and singer of the band Lingalad, with which he plays concerts in Italy and abroad. Protagonist and screenwriter of the award-winning documentary film Oltre la Frontiera, he’s also the author of nature reports broadcast by Rai. He has written articles and reports for National Geographic, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica.

Mariapaola Pesce is an author and coach. She has published picture books, novels and comic biographies for children which have been translated in various countries around the world.

PierDomenico Baccalario has been writing children’s novels since 1997, when he won the Il Battello a Vapore literary prize with La strada del Guerriero (The Way of the Warrior) using his neighbour’s name. Since then, his bestsellers have been written under as many pseudonyms (the best known being Ulysses Moore and Irene Adler), translated into more than thirty languages and published with the major Italian and foreign publishers. He has collaborated with the Lucca Comics & Games organisation for more than twenty years, has written for Repubblica and is a columnist for the newspaper Corriere della Sera’s La Lettura literary supplement. In 2014, he founded the Book on a Tree creative agency in London. Today he is considered one of the most important Italian children’s authors, and the most translated in the world.

Sarah is an editor and children’s book author. She has worked passionately in the children’s literature world for more than a decade, for all the most important publishers around. She lives in the woods surrounded by winds, deer and books.

An illustrator from Genoa, for some years Alice Piaggio has been living in Ticino, Switzerland, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, green meadows and chestnut woods. Selected in 2021 among the 20 most promising young Italian illustrators by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and exhibited in the “Eccellenze Italiane - La nuova generazione degli illustratori italiani per ragazzi” exhibition, she collaborates with Italian and foreign magazines and publishing houses.

An illustrator from Rimini, Marianna Balducci has a degree in fashion and works on advertising and publishing projects for children. She likes to experiment with combinations of traditional and digital tools, combining drawing and photography in particular. With her photo-illustrated books she has received the Nati Per Leggere prize (2018) and the Andersen prize (2021). For ten years, she has accompanied her drawing with a visual communication seminar for the fashion department at Rimini (Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna). She holds workshops in collaboration with academies and training institutions in the field of illustration.

www.mariannabalducci.it