Almost 12 months elapsed between the release of Jon Klassen’s latest work, The Rock from Heaven, in Spain and the arrival in bookstores of Más allá del bosque, an illustrated album whose approach portrayed the atmosphere of this isolated community so well evoked filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan in the film The Forest. In between, dozens and dozens of books for children and young people in a publishing industry, that of children’s and young adult literature, in a permanent effervescence. In this selection are 10 of the most outstanding titles of the fruitful literary harvest 2022.
up to eight years
Author: Jon Klassen.
Translation: Salvador Figueirido.
Editorial staff: Cloud eight, 2022. More than 5 years.
Format: Hardcover (100 pages, 16.90 euros).
Jon Klassen’s understated and deceptively dry style once again hits the mark with The Rock From Heaven, an existential and almost metaphysical tale steeped in black and absurd humor that makes each of the Canadian author’s new works an event. In an unusually large format for what is common in the illustrated book world (100 pages), but supported by five short stories with seemingly simple dialogue, Klassen crafts a treatise on doom and uncertainty.
Author: Ellen Duthie.
Illustration: Javier Saez Castan and Manuel Marson.
Editorial staff: Miracle Miracle, 2022.
Format: Hardcover (40 pages, 14.95 euros).
A puppet show leaps from the stage onto the pages of a book to dazzle readers with an extraordinary and wacky story about identity. With a frenetic pace and a very intelligent sense of humour, written in a state of grace by Ellen Duthie, with great characters beautifully illustrated by Javier Sáez Castán and Manuel Marsol, A Pair of New Eyes inevitably recalls Maurice’s classic titles Sendak covered by Gloria Fuertes.
Author: Claudia Novaro.
Illustration: Armando Fonseca.
Editorial staff: Kalandraka, 2022.
Format: Hardcover (44 pages, 15 euros).
De papel could be read as a hymn to differences and a celebration of everything that makes us unique. However, the poetic texts of Claudia Novaro and the no less poetic illustrations of Armando Fonseca are much more: a brilliant metaphor of life as a blank canvas that over the years is filled with texts and illustrations that express illusions, disappointments, joys and sorrows. The end of the story is of a moving beauty.
Author: Leah Maze.
Translation: Lucia Bermudez Carballo.
Editorial staff: Astiberri, 2022. Ages 8 and up.
Format: Hardcover (96 pages, 18 euros).
In Last Goodbye, the unforgettable twins Celine and Colin will finally try to uncover a criminal gang that has found a niche business in their parents’ graveyard. The agile and fresh dialogues (translation by Lucía Bermúdez), the fast-paced plot and the powerful and emblematic illustrations by Léa Mazé make this title the final touch to a trilogy that has conquered thousands of readers around the world.
Author: Juan Berrio.
Editorial staff: Bunk bed, 2022.
Format: Hardcover (56 pages, 23 euros).
Eduardo Berrio was about to win the BolognaRagazzi Award with this original large format informative illustrated album that, following the aesthetics of the comic, transports us to a world of anagrams, palindromes, calambours, pangrams, word searches and optical effects that show the potential of literature as game on. As Mariana Sández wrote in A House Full of People: “Life is not a dream. life is a game And literature is a Rubik’s Cube, it’s all games in one game”.
from nine years
Author: Isabelle Zieli.
Illustration: Noemie Marsily.
Editorial staff: A Fin de Cuentos, 2022. Also in Basque and Catalan.
Format: Softcover (104 pages, 18 euros).
A campsite in summer, families of different nationalities mingling, and between all the people and all the hustle and bustle, two injured children who, although they don’t share a language, seemed destined to meet to understand each other and to heal their wounds lick. Just a few texts – a screenplay by Isabella Cieli – and the simple and evocative images of Noémie Marsily are enough to bring closer to the magic of childhood summer holidays that can mark life forever. A story that contains a beauty so simple and devoid of decorations that it moves.
Author: Kiran Milwood Hargrave.
Illustration: Tom of Freston.
Translation: Patricia Mora Perez.
Editorial staff: Bamboo, 2022. Ages 10+.
Format: Hardcover (216 pages, 11.90 euros).
Written by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (translation by Patricia Mora), the story combines all the ingredients of the great jewels of children’s literature: impeccable writing that doesn’t shy away from complex subjects such as mental health, powerful and moving illustrations by Tom de Freston, a marine species who, though the Greenland shark appears real, almost mythological; and a well-rounded one-girl family story, Julia, growing up tough during a summer holiday in the Shetland archipelago.
Author: Raphael Salmeron.
Editorial staff: Anaya, 2022. Ages 12+.
Format: Hardcover (176 pages, 12.95 euros).
Rafael Salmerón has won awards in 2022, including the National Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, with La rama seca del cerezo, a major work that combines the Hiroshima of the atomic bomb with the current one – with the Fukushima nuclear accident as a backdrop -. A beautiful and emotional tale of overcoming and redemption – the kind that leaves a mark – about a teenage girl whose fate is changed by the chance appearance of a child and a ragged old Hiroshima survivor.
Author: Rosanne Parry.
Illustration: Monica Hermelin.
Translation: Alexander Black.
Editorial staff: Anaya, 2022.
Format: Hardcover (184 pages, 18.90 euros).
There is something reminiscent of Joseph Smith’s The Wolf in Rosanne Parry’s A Wolf Called Wander. It is this wolf that speaks, the wonderful portrait of the wildest side of nature, the relentless struggle for survival. And it is above all the life lesson that left behind this wonderful fable starring an animal that represents a little bit of us all. Beautiful black and white illustrations by Mónica Armiño add the finishing touches to this novel for discerning palates.
Author: Jonathan Auxier.
Translation: Gemma Rovira.
Editorial staff: Blackie Books, 2022.
Format: Hardcover (336 pages, 23 euros).
An absolutely Dickensian setting and protagonists, a central character, the chimney sweep, who, despite sporadic appearances, hovers over the entire novel and inevitably reminds of Guido Orefice in Life is Beautiful; a charismatic and brave girl and her loyal friends, a mythological creature made of ashes, movie villains and endless adventures. With these ingredients, Jonathan Auxier – translated by Gemma Rovira – fashions a magnificent and enduring novel to be gifted a thousand and one times.
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