Barcelona, Oct 18 (EFE).- The works Madame Esvelt, by Carles Sala, and Predestinats, by Jesús Castillón, have been the winners of the 39th edition of the El Vaixell de Vapor prize and of the 33rd edition of the Gran Angular prize, for literature children's and youth in Catalan, respectively.
The two prizes have a financial prize of 11,000 euros each and the two works will go on sale tomorrow, October 19, Cruïlla editorial reported this Wednesday.
The executive editor of Cruïlla, Anna Pauner, has highlighted that the two winning works are "a perfect reflection of completely different ideas" and thus, while Predestinats is "a perfect cycle of perfectly intertwined events, Madame Esvelt is a fun story, with rhythm and with an endearing and moving atmosphere".
For her part, the director of Cruïlla, Nuria Melgosa, explained that these awards "want to be an incentive for children to enjoy reading" and "reinforce our ideas regarding children's and youth literature as a speaker of social, ethical and humans".
"As a cultural reference, we want to give the importance it deserves to an area as fundamental for our education and personal growth as literature," added Melgosa.
The jury of the El Vaixell de Vapor 2023 award has chosen Madame Esvelt as the best work of children's literature for being "a story that engages from beginning to end", with "archetypal characters that are very well constructed and the names chosen by the author are very eloquent."
"The turns in language are also very fun, the references to classic stories are evident and this can help the reader connect more quickly with the text so that they are some of their cultural references," highlighted the jury.
The work tells the story of Madame Esvelt, an unfriendly baroness who has lived in an abandoned mansion in a village for many years and who casts a strange curse on the village children.
Carles Sala is a trained teacher, although since 2008 he has been professionally dedicated to literary creation. The winning novel, aimed at children between 8 and 10 years old, has 120 pages and has illustrations by Anna Baquero.
In relation to the work of youth literature Predestinats, the jury has assessed that Jesús Castillón explains a story as "a perfect circle that opens with a very shocking event and that closes giving meaning to everything that happens in it. The structure is surprising and this hooks you from the beginning".
The book presents a world in which men have become extinct and society is made up exclusively of women.
When the time comes to choose her university studies, Aurora chooses the Visitor School, a faculty surrounded by secrecy and strange rules where students are prepared to search for a remedy that will allow them to have male children again.
The novel, also 120 pages long, has a cover made by Ignaci Font and is recommended for young people ages 14 and up.
Jesús Castillón Motta was born in Barcelona and graduated from the UAB as a teacher specializing in music education.
Since 1984, the Cruïlla publishing house has been dedicated to publishing books for children and young people, focusing on both educational and literary aspects, and supporting authors with the El Vaixell de Vapor literary awards for children and Gran Angular for adolescents and young people. EFE
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