This 2022 has left in the Children's and Youth Literature that we have been compiling in this section of Tales that count. They have not only been good stories for children and not so children to enjoy reading, but also some interesting tools for them to become part of the discourse on the future that awaits us, from a critical perspective. Hence, we start with some titles that urge young people to think, to discern between what is true and what is false in an infoxicated environment.
"It is so dangerous not to know how to think that you know what you really do not know." The valuable Pensamiento crítico ilustrado / Pensament crític il·lustrat (Thule), by Professor Bernat Castany Prado, begins with this premise, a very practical book with clear concepts divided into two parts: the first focused on deception, which is addressed from the You ask who? Why? How? and whom? The second, more philosophical, focuses on the proposals of the Enlightenment and that are still valid today (13-14 years).
From the world of comics we are pleased with the appearance in a graphic novel version of the best-seller El mundo de Sofía / El món de Sofia (Siruela / Empúries), where the French cartoonist Nicoby makes an interpretation of Jostein Gaarder's philosophical novel. After the big question of who are you?, a torrent of questions is unleashed that will lead young Sofía to question her identity while navigating through the history of Philosophy (12-13 years old).
Through history, but from our ancestors, navigates the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, who has launched a series of four books to explain the history of humanity from an interesting perspective to the youngest. Unstoppables / Unstoppables (Montena / Estrella Polar) is the first installment that he signs together with the illustrations by Ricard Zaplana from Barcelona (8 to 11 years old).
A look at prehistory is what also brings Ug! An account of the Pleistocene / Uugh! A story of the plistocè (Ekaré), where the writers and illustrators Rafael Yockteng and Jairo Buitrago reproduce with graphite and white ink the journey full of dangers of a nomadic tribe towards an area of caves where not only the family will find refuge. There a young artist will find the way to represent her world (from 6 years).
Precisely Harari starts from the premise that we have evolved because we are curious by nature. And for the curious, the animals that populate the book by the Korean Eunsil Cha, which already with the title says it all: What is happening? / What's passing? (Books of the Red Fox). Well, a little turtle just out of the egg has fallen into a hole on its way to the sea, and all the animals in the jungle want to help it. But she wants to try it alone (3-4 years).
From South Korea comes unique new stories from Heena Baek, the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award recipient and whose award-winning Magical Candies was turned into a musical in her country. The Kókinos publishing house is bringing us closer to the peculiar work of this creator who works with photographed clay dolls in models capable of creating the most varied environments. On this occasion, some baths, where Doyky goes every week with her mother, but this time she will run into The Water Fairy / La fada de l' aigua. They want diversity in the stories, because here they have a good dose (3-4 years).
This year is being especially prolific in good stories. There is Mr. Lepron's soup / La sopa del senyor Lepron (A Buen Paso) by Giovanna Zoboli and Mariachiara Di Giorgio (illustrations), where they tell us how rich the broth is that Mr. Lepron, a hare, makes in his exquisite kitchen entrepreneur who manages to can her soup and export it to all corners of the world. Until one day he no longer knows the same... Has Mr. Lepron lost his touch, just as he has lost sleep? (6 years).
Toni Galmés with La trugua / La treva (La Galera), presents Tommy, a Belgian soldier on the front lines of World War I, who writes to his mother explaining the extraordinary event that occurred on Christmas night on both sides of the trenches. It all begins when the notes of Silent Night sound and on Christmas Day a robin appears. A story based on true events that is not bad to remember in the current context of war in Ukraine (6-7 years).
Joaquim Carbó continues his 90 years at the foot of the canyon and offers us a new adventure of his famous detective Felip Marlot, created in 1979. With an enviable, rich and agile Catalan, En Felip Marlot, els drones i els sensellar (Animallibres) is delves into the particular world of drones to highlight that robotics can also be very perverse (10 years). Màrius Serra, who is publishing a new installment of Napeu's adventures, has launched into explaining what his profession means in Why am I an enigmist? / Per què soc enigmista, one more title in the collection that Clar Books has launched to tell young people the ins and outs of, let's say, unusual professions.
Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, author and illustrator as well as brothers, capture the story of three generations of farmers through The old truck / The old truck (Pípala ), almost without words and ideal for observing the passage of time with the little ones ( 3-4 years).
The great illustrator Jim Kay brings back to life the deluxe edition of Harry Potter that Salamandra brings out for Christmas. It is the fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which includes the original text by J.K. Rowling with magnificent scenes that darken as the plot progresses. A gift book that the same publisher brings out together with another classic: The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry, a large format version for small collectors (7-8 years).
Who also returns with his artistic and playful proposals is the French Hervé Tullet. The book with a bite / El llibre mossegat (Cocobooks) is perhaps the most original, since the bite it presents on each page invites the reader to give free rein to their imagination (3-4 years), while The dance of the hands / La dansa de les mans (Kókinos / Cruïlla) follows the line of play that began more than ten years ago with A Book Now hands will do all kinds of juggling and balances on this large-format book to show that our fingers are one great gymnasts (2-3 years).
Another illustrious name of the LiJ comes from the hand of the Lóguez publishing house, which recovers an exquisite album by Rotraut Susanne Berner, The Flying Hat (3 years old), a circular journey through the heads of an endless number of characters. And for illustrious, this artist dog from Gosia Herba, who together with Mikolaj Pa narrate the life of Van Dog (Youth), an animal with a lot of class and a post-impressionist way of seeing the world (5 years).
A book in large format and many details to entertain yourself. In search of the artistic vein of young readers, Luisa Vera's proposal is also located in Con esta línea / Amb aquesta línia (Combel), where its fold-out pages follow the rhythm of an endless line and invite you to color part of the pages. drawings (3-4 years).
Nubeocho also recovers its award-winning El rebaño / El ramat (3 years old) by Margarita del Mazo y Guridi, where a sheep that helps Miguel fall asleep every night says enough and refuses to jump. In terms of knowledge books, we prefer Explora la Antártida en 360º / Explora l'Antàrtida en 360º (Zahorí Books) by Tania Medvedeva and Maria Vyshinskaya (7-8 years old), where everything we know today about the white continent is revealed to us. unfolds in all its splendor, and not in a figurative sense.
As Christmas-themed proposals cannot be missing, there are three: One, two, three, Christmas / One, two, three, Nadal és (Kalandraka) is a fun rhyming parade for many aspects of Christmas regardless of the culture to the one that belongs Reindeer, Christmas trees, Three Wise Men, Santa Claus, marzipan cookies, elves... (2 years old) coexist here. From the creators of The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, we receive several stories compiled in this magnificent gift-book The stick man and other stories / L'home pal i altres contes (Bruño / Brúixola) that begins with the story of man a stick, which, confused with any stick, is used to play by some girls, a dog, a family on the beach... taking him very far from his family, whom he misses, but, on Christmas night, a very dear will come to the rescue, (5-6 years).
For the same age group, Pedro Mañas, author of Anna Kadabra and The Dragon Princesses, together with Eleni Papachristou, offers an unexpected gift through a very long sock. And it all begins when old Soledad discovers that Santa Claus has not left anything in his. Maybe because it's too small, she thinks. So she knits An infinite sock / Un mitjó infinit (Children's Nordic). We hope that her socks do not appear empty this Christmas, and that they contain at least one or two books: make them very large.
