The Mysteries of Mercury
AA.VV.
The Dust King’s Window
Historical
Picture book
In an attic in the Lublin ghetto is the kingdom of Henio, a Jewish boy.
He has a secret, and he shares it with his best friend, who isn’t Jewish. A marvel is hidden behind the dusty glass of one of the attic windows: a different world, perhaps a place of peace, different from the horror of war that can be seen from the other window. For those who are Jews, the time comes to flee. So, on the night of the 16th of March, Henio runs to his friend to convince him to run away together, but his friend is scared and stays. On the morning of the roundup, Henio is missing. His friend looks for him everywhere, even in the attic, where a big surprise awaits him: on the glass of the window, children’s fingerprints and a name that is a goodbye.
- Pierdomenico Baccalario and Alice Barberini give us a moving story that removes the dust from the history of the Lublin ghetto and imagines a different epilogue, for Henio Zytomirski too.
Publisher:
Orecchio Acerbo
Target:
8-10
Year:
2023
Author
Pierdomenico Baccalario
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 major Italian and foreign publishers. He has collaborated with Lucca Comics & Games 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.
Author
Alice Barberini
Born in 1977 in Cesena but always from Rimini, Alice Barberini studied art in Ravenna and, after graduating, her interest in restoration led her to Florence, where she worked as a restorer for several years. In 2007, she discovered the world of illustration and decided to change her career. Along this second training path, she was fortunate to meet great masters such as Mauro Evangelista, Carll Cneut, Gek Tessaro, Dusan Kallay, Camila Stancolvà, Luigi Raffaelli, and Giovanna Zoboli. Since 2012, she has been working with the Nie Wiem Collective: eight illustrators determined to spread quality art and illustration across the country. She illustrated "La finestra del re di polvere" (The Window of the King of Dust) based on the text by Pierdomenico Baccalario (2023), "Ernest e Biancaneve" (Ernest and Snow White) based on the text by Luca Tortolini (2022), "In the Tube" (2020), "Hamelin" (2017), and "Il cane e la luna" (The Dog and the Moon) (2015), which won the Giacomo Giulitto Prize.
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