My friend Alex (13) and his parents came to see us last Saturday, and when I showed him my book (O Risco e o Fio), his reaction was: “Have you got a sheet of paper? I want to make something for you”. And he made me a beautiful origami lily. Today, looking at it, I felt like colouring it and playing with watercolours. If anyone else wants to join the chain, let us know!

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Julia and Sylvia

Julia and Sylvia are two friends who are very different: Julia is a curly and loud cloud, while Sylvia is a shy sea shell. They get on very well together, so they decided to go to a pop concert, to see the singer Sylvia loves most, a beautiful beetle.

At the end of the show, the beetle passed close by, but Sylvia immediately lower her eyes and could only hear: “Gorgeous curls, girl!”

“It’s always like that”, she thought, “everyone only notices Julia.”

But, wait a minute! When Sylvia finally raised her eyes, what she saw was Julia coming back from the ladies. So…if Julia wasn’t with her…

“He said that to me! The beetle said that to me!!”

It was the first time ever Sylvia realized she too had gorgeous curls, so she started rolling around to try them. This was how she finally learned to rock-and-roll.

Illustrated by Elisa Panerai

We had a few days in Barcelona, and came back home inspired, wanting to make things. Are we going to?

I’ve just had my first book published! It’s called “O Risco e o Fio” .

The book will soon be in bookshops in Brazil and is already available through the publisher’s website.

As you can imagine, I’m very happy and excited about the possibility of it reaching many hands and hearts!

The broom and the storyteller

There was a witch who went to a party and drank so much magic potion, that she ended up really dizzy. So dizzy, that on her way back home she couldn’t ride her broom in a straight line, but only in zigzag. The birds kept avoiding her, but one big crow who was a bit distracted, listening to music on its headphones, crashed into her, throwing the witch to one side and the broom to the other!

The broom fell immediately, as it could only fly when ridden by the witch. Down and down and dooooown… Splash! “Where am I?”, it thought. “It’s wet and dark!”

When it realized that it was all surrounded by walls, the broom started trying to climb them, sweeping its way up.

“Uhuhu… ohoho…” The walls were shaking and laughing, they were walls of a very ticklish well.

“How can I get out of here if you keep moving?”, asked the broom.

“Don’t worry, just jump into the bucket and I’ll pull you out!”, shouted the well.

As soon as the broom got out, passing through its big mouth, the well started telling a story of the time when a bull fell into it. Then another one of a fairy. And one more of a squirrel. And even one of a flea. The well was, in fact, a storyteller. The broom enjoyed the stories so much, that it decided to live near the well and help it with the cleaning. Well, the broom had never liked the witch anyway.

Illustrated by Paulo Cesar Rocha

I wrote this Mini a long time ago and have been trying to find someone to illustrate it. Finally, my friend Paulo accepted to do it, playing with typography. And I’ve now realized that this is a second story with ticklish characters! This might say something about me…

The illustrator, by himself:

Paulo loved to draw, but became a graphic designer and fell in love with letters. He thought nothing could be better than letters to illustrate the story of a storyteller.

Hello!

I’ve just realized that the last post was from three months ago. Time flies! I went to Brazil for Christmas and since I’ve been back I’ve kept busy with one thing and another… but here I am. As a present from my trip, I thought it would be nice to share some photos of these wonderful waterfalls I went to see in Foz do Iguaçu. It’s definetely worth a visit!!

Tom, the toaster and Lolly, the ice cream

It was a cold evening, but Tom decided to go to his friend’s party on the beach anyway. In fact, as there was a lot of dancing going on, no one felt cold at all. On the contrary, from time to time, someone would need to stop and sit, to refresh a bit. One girl in particular, would do it more often than the others. Tom noticed her and thought she was the prettiest girl in the party, so he decided to go and talk to her.

“Hello, I’m Tom”, he said.

“Hi, I’m Lolly”.

“Would you like to dance?”

“Sorry, but I’m melting! I need some rest for now”.

“What about a slow wander on the beach then?”

“OK, that sounds good”.

They walked and chatted and chatted, “What a nice guy!”, Lolly thought. And chatted and chatted, “What a lovely girl!”, Tom thought. They chatted all night long until dawn was coming and they had to go, but arranged to meet again.

Tom and Lolly started going out and they enjoyed being with each other so much, that they soon decided to get married. But now they had a problem: Tom, as a toaster, preferred warm weather, while Lolly, as an ice cream, couldn’t stand the heat. Where would they live?

“I have a nice flat in the freezer”, she said.

“But it is too cold, and there is no work for me in the freezer!”, Tom answered.

They couldn’t agree on where to live, so they split up, but the truth was that they really missed each other.

Lolly, who was a writer, wrote a poem for Tom:

“Beside you my heart used to gallop,
now it can only lollop.
My head aches, but I don’t need paracetamol,
I need your shoulder upon which to loll.”

Tom was deeply touched by the poem. “That’s it”, he thought, “I only need a heavy coat and heavy blankets. And I can go out to work everyday!”

He proposed to Lolly, they got married and lived happily ever after in the freezer. Of course Tom needs to cool down after work, before coming back home, so they usually meet at the beach for a stroll. But they don’t stay for too long, to avoid silly children having silly ideas when they see Lolly…

Illustrated by Aimee Dolich

The illustrator, by herself:

Aimee is a dreamer and illustrator living in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She thinks the British word “lolly” is much prettier than the American word “popsicle”.

As requested by my friend Matilda, I’m posting some more of Ken’s cards. The last one inspired me for an illustration I created for my book. Thanks again, Ken!