Mariedl. A gigantic and rewarded story

"OPERA PRIMA 2023", awarded at the Bologna Children's Book Fair!

Text and illustrations by Laura Simonati, Versant Sud, Belgium, 2022

What the jury said:

An unusual story about being unusually big. Inspired by a true story from the rural Sud Tyrol in the 19^th century, the gigantic protagonist moves from invisibility to visibility on a physical journey that parallels her journey to self-acceptance. The impressive printing technique using an anti-technicolor approach and mixing of brown, dark green and pink creates a down to earth, grounded feeling throughout the book, and the naïve folk-art style painting is very modern in it’s approach. The interplay between the painted images and hand lettering, presented in a sequence of double spreads each with an original layout, enables the reader to share the story from a personal point of view. This is a strong debut, and we would like to commend the bold selection of subject matter and upcoming artist.