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Italians appreciate 'Campo Bravo'

At the end of August, Stefan Boonen and Melvin, creators of Beware of Grandma, travelled to Italy for the launch of their latest book ‘Campo Bravo’. This took place at the 11th edition of children’s literature festival Libr’aria in Albinea. Flanders Literature provided a grant for the book’s translation and covered the travel expenses of both author and illustrator.

Stefan Boonen and Melvin at Libr'aria 2019
Italian children at one of the workshops
Italian children at one of the workshops

During a performance for children and their parents, Stefan Boonen told the story of Theo’s adventures at Camp Bravo, while Melvin supplied the accompanying illustrations. In addition, they tutored 15 children at a three-part workshop, teaching them how to create a character in words and pictures and helping them devise story lines and a setting. The Italian audience got a real taste for ‘Campo Bravo’: the writing duo was asked to sign quite a few books afterwards.

Illustrator Melvin during one of the workshops

THIRD TRANSLATION

'Campo Bravo’, translated by Laura Pignatti, is the third Italian translation of Boonen & Melvin to be published by Sinnos. This independent publisher in Rome has embraced Flemish children’s literature: every year it publishes several picture books and young adult novels and quite a few authors and illustrators have been invited to come to Italy to promote their books. Later this autumn Bart Moeyaert will travel to Milan and Rome to present ‘Bianca’, the translation of Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays.