What better way to start the year?
While we are fixing appointments for Bologna Book Fair and working on the new Spring catalogues, we have received the excellent news that Mariana Ruiz Johnson artwork will be showcased at the BCBF Illustrators Exhibition, 58th edition. Her work was selected from more than 3500 submissions by artists from all over the world.
Mariana’s works published by Combel
Mariana is a renowned author and illustrator, based in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Our first collaboration dates back to 2018 and it was a great success!
She illustrated the lift-the-flap book Nicolasa, Where is your Home? by Mar Benegas. After eight reprints, we’ve sold more than 25.000 copies. To delight the little ones, Mariana Seeks the Silver Thimble followed with new adventures of Mariana the frog and her good friend Nicolasa the whale.
We fell so in love with her work, that when she presented us the “Lullabies” series, we didn’t hesitate to publish it. It’s three cute board books with rhymes to accompany the little ones in their daily routines.
Our latest collaboration is “Quisicosas”: two-tone board books to let toddlers imagination take over. The series takes a fresh look at everyday objects. Playing with the shapes of a potty and a pencil, each book allows young children to explore and make sense of the world around them. While guessing which are the possible uses of such ordinary objects, kids learn vocabulary and develop their creativity.
You will find Mariana’s poetics in each and every one of her books, published by Combel: the narrative power of the image, anthropomorphic criatures, the use of colour as a compositional element, night scenes, childhood, the force of nature, humour and magic. Above all, magic. As one of her characters says: A pencil can hold a whole world.
See you in Bologna, Mariana!
