A buen paso
Catalogue 2014
www.abuenpaso.com
DONKEY. THE BEGINNING Juan Arjona (text) Luciano Lozano (illustrations) 21 x 26,5 cm / 40 pp / hardback NEW TITLE Rights for all languages available Donkey lives close to a weeping willow, and when the weeping willow cries, Donkey cries as well. One day he decides he’s had enough of crying and goes for a walk. He meets a nice little she mouse who, after a few accidents, ends up with a beautiful red bow she’s bought in the town’s market. Donkey falls in love with her, but her personality has suddenly gone sour and she treats him poorly. Donkey has the greatest idea: he will disguise himself as another animal and get to talk with her again. Despite finding mouse’s despise again, Donkey believes that he’s really good at coming up with costumes, and starts creating quite a few. Nonetheless his good humour doesn’t resist rejection after rejection. He then goes walking away, thinking… And he reaches the market where the little mouse bought her bow. He will discover that there’s something wrong about that place and the ribbon must be enchanted. So good as he has become with costumes, he creates a new astonishing one with the aim of going back and save the mouse. This way his legend begins.
THE GOOD LUCK BOOK Sergio Lairla (text) Ana G. Lartitegui (illustrations) 22 x 30 cm / 56 pp / With poster jacket that becomes asnakes and ladders game NEW TITLE Rights for all languages available This book on one side tells the story of Mister Good-luck, but, if you turn it upside down and start reading it from the end, then you will read Mister Bad-luck’s adventure. Both guys live in the same building, but they do not know each other. One is an extremely tidy and organized person who takes life as it comes. The other guy, who’s a real mess, is always grumpy, and is always fighting against everything and everything is always fighting against him. Fate will lead them to go on holidays to the same place at the same time. They find themselves in a remote island. Over there, Mister Good-luck manages to lose the winning ticket at the lottery, but he will also find true love. Mister Bad-luck will find a lost lottery ticket… the winning one! Who is the luckiest guy between them both? What’s luck? How dos everyone contribute to create his own luck? The illustrations of this book hide 1,793 little details that invite the reader to think about the mechanism of chance and the curious fate that determines our lives.
ROCK DUST Nono Granero (text) Géraldine Alibeu (illustrations) 19 x 23 cm / 40 pp / hardback NEW TITLE Rights for all languages available Who says that rocks are lifeless beings who do not eat, nor drink, love? The main character of this short story knows exactly what she wants: there’s a whole world waiting for her and she will discover it. Her being so insistent will drive crazy a geologist who is only capable of believing in what he learnt reading books. With his mallet he will turn the rock to dust, thus making her dream come true. A delicious story, told through precise and poetic words, whose rhythm will lead the reader to cross oceans and deserts.
A philosophic fable about a rock who wants to see the world and a irascible geologist who, without realizing it, will make the rock’s dream come true.
WHO IS THE STRONGEST PERSON IN THE WORLD? Alberto Sobrino (text) Julie Escoriza & Joan Casaramona (illustrations) 21 x 26,5 cm / 48 pp / hardback NEW TITLE Rights for all languages available Some people are strong, extremely strong. I’m sure you know some of them, but do you know what makes them so strong? The funny narrator who tells this story will lead you to meet the people who live in his block. Each one of them somehow possesses an enormous strength. You will meet Petro Pancho who saves his friend from the bully Bruto Brutótez, or Bertoluchi Venancio who donates his blood, and Venancia Herbidia who gets home late from work and still has enough strength to read a story to her child before they go to sleep. And what about the Strongman and lady Braulia who ran for weeks and months only to meet her sister again? The list of strong people is long and probably never-ending, so that the reader himself will be invited to think about his or her own strength. The colourful and fantastic illustrations of this book have a scent of the avant-gardes of the Twenties. In these images all the characters of the book come to life, meet each other and get slowly acquainted, thus creating the web on which we normally base our daily life.
THE INTRUDER Pablo Albo (text) Cristina Sitja Rubio (illustrations) 19 x 16,5 cm / 36 pp / hardback NEW TITLE Rights for all languages available
From the very day when a ball enters into his room through the window, the child who is narrating this story won’t be at peace… What is this ball claiming? Maybe does it want to take the child’s place? The child observes how the ball creates a bond of friendship with his toys. The balls’ intentions must be ominous. Obsessed by it, the child will try to get rid of the intruder, and this way he will get things even worse. A slightly claustrophobic story that, using clear, concise, measured words, creates a beautiful contrast with the colorful images that depict a joyful, fantastic world. This story will promote conversation and debate about the relationship among the members of a group, new arrivals, and the place that each one of us occupies in the world.
That morning as I woke up, I saw it. Close to the legs of my bed there was a ball that did not belong to me. I don’t know where it came from. It showed up.
RASABADÚ Édgar Omar Avilés (text) Cristina Sitja Rubio (illustrations) 19 x 16,5 cm / 32 pp / hardback NEW TITLE Rights for all languages available Rasabadú is a paper dragon who lives in a gloomy warehouse together with tarantulas, flies, mice and other creatures. Rasabadú listens to the radio, reads the news printed on the newspaper used to create his own body, and repeats them without knowing exactly what he is saying. He walks through the warehouse, says hello to any creature he meets. He is happy, until one day he gets a cold. From that day on he will live trapped in doubt: will he sneeze fire, thus destroying his own self and all his friends, because he is a dragon? Or, since he is made out of paper, will he sneeze confetti? The tarantula is sure that Rasabadu’s sneeze will destroy the warehouse and their life; the other animals are not so sure; the uncertainty consumes Rasabadú. Cristina Sitja Rubio illustrates this story creating a cozy universe, giving life to this sweet dragon. The Mexican writer Edgar Omar Avilés has decided to give a portrait of Rasabadú in his most delicate moment, the moment when one is faced with his own self and his true character. An intense book that will lead to comments, discussion and conversation among its readers. A book to think about the identity of each one of us.
Rasabadú is a shy and naïve paper dragon who has to face his own true nature. Rasabadú is scared.
THE MARTIAN INVASION Catalina González Vilar (text) Miguel Pang Ly (illustrations) 19 x 23 cm / 40 pp / hardback Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte Rights for all other languages available
Now it’s time that the First Human Being who Met a Martian tells what really happened the day when the sky was suddenly filled up by quite many suns, and the Martian Marc and his broken refrigerator fell onto the narrator’s balcony. The truth is that Martians can’t live without their refrigerator. Nowadays everybody knows that, but back then humans had it all wrong about Martians. They didn’t know a thing and, of course, they would have never imagined what was about to happen. It all began thanks to the special way to communicate Martians possessed, so special that it changed life on earth forever. Miguel Pang Ly illustrates this story with images that are a burst of vitality and creating an unforgettable Martian character.
WHAT DOES A CHOPPED HEAD THINK OF Juan Carlos Quezadas (text) Carla Besora (illustrations) 16,5 x 23,4 cm / 112 pp / hardback
Rights for all languages available
Offshoot of a family of dragons breeder,Yan Pu enters Qin Shihuang court. Qin Shihuang has been the most bloodthirsty emperor ever, and, working for him, Yang Pu will be witness to a fierce struggle against death. In this story there coexists the secrets of writing, ghosts, and a terrible witch whose voice imitates a rat’s. This way you will disembark onto an island where nobody knows what death is, you will discover a unique technique to capture magical creatures as big as an ant’s leg, and you will get to talk with ghosts, those ghosts who always stand by your side, even if you don’t notice. And remember, if you feel curious as if you were about to begin a new journey, this is the occasion you were waiting for: open this book and get ready to dream.
I AM SMALL Juan Arjona (text) Emilio Urberuaga (illustrations) 21 x 26,5 cm / 36 pp / hardback Portuguse (Brazil) rights sold to: WMF Martins Fontes Rights for all other languages available A book that can be read like a poem, and in which the small main character of the story, due to his small size, is forced to have a peculiar vision of the things surrounding him. Playing with imagination and the proportions of reality, Juan Arjona and Emilio Urberuaga recreate the everyday life and the world where the small narrator of the story lives. He always finds someone willing to help him, and to save him from any uncomfortable situation. A sweet, cosy and familiar book that wraps its small readers (and their parents and grandparents) into a warm hug. A book so small that it ends up being big. By the same author: AMIGA GALLINA Juan Arjona (text) Carla Besora (illustrations) 21 x 26,5 cm / 28 pp / hardback
A whole world to discover. The journey of three friends: dog, pig and hen.
Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: SM Ediรงoes Rights for all other languages available
EL ÚNICO Y VERDADERO REY DEL BOSQUE Iban Barrenetxea (text and illustrations) 19 x 23 cm / 80 pp / hardback Brazilian rights sold to: Companhia das Letras Rights for all other languages available It is the last Autumn day in the birch wood somewhere in the North, where in a tiny little wooden house live the brothers Jaska and Kaspar and their sister Masia. At dawn we are about to see how the chain of circumstances that is about to begin will change completely their lives, as well as the life of somebody else. Jaska is as tall as stupid, Kaspar is as arrogant and small as easily scared, whereas Masia is a practical and decided woman, who today wants to get a fox scarf and who, for this reason, has sent her brothers to the wood. The plot will be complicated by a wonderful and cunning fox that has got into an argument with three black crows; the arrival of the royal guard lead by the King himself, King Primus the First; a party night and, the next morning, by the arrival of the first snow. A hilarious story written in Iban Barrenetxea’s rich and elegant prose and detailed illustrations, that will not only indicate the rhythm of the story, but also will offer to the reader tender but even ironic and sometimes caustic winks. A story where it will be clear who is the one and only King of the Wood.
By the same author: THE TALE OF THE CARPENTER
19 x 23 cm / 52 pp / hardback with 4 pages gatefold -Libro Kirico Prize, 2011 -Euskadi Children Literatura Prize, 2012
24,5 x 29 cm / 48 pp / hardback -Plaque at the BIB, Bratislava, 2011 -Euskadi Illustration Prize, 2011 -Finalist at the CJ Picture Books Award,
Korean rights sold to: Whale Story
A pacifist fable that reminds Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to Companhia das Letras us how important it is Rights for all other languages available to do a good job. By the same author: BOMBASTICA NATURALIS
A compendium of the deepest knowledge and surreal inventions of the great natural philosopher Bombastus Dulcimer.
French rights sold to: Éveil et DÊcouvertes Russian rights sold to: Polyandria Japanese rights sold to: Nishimura Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte Rights for all other languages available
THE HOUSE
Daniel Nesquens (text) Mercè López (illustrations) 19 x 23 cm / 56 pp / Hard Back with poster jacket and a red PVC spread Rights for all languages available The house is a story that in 12 chapters tells what happens the day a child and his father go to the grandfather’s funeral. The grandfather was a lonely and withdrawn man, whom the child never got to meet in person. Now the child has his first chance to enter in the old family house. The truth is that he house is a living creature, where nothing is what it looks like, so that you can end up being swallowed by the carpet in the living room. In order to escape from this and other adventures, father and son will have to be as clever as possible, and cooperate closely.
As they move forward in the corners of this story, the reader and the child hero will end up thinking about the relationship between a father and his children, about the meaning of growing up and finding your own self. The illustrations propose the same ambiguity as the text as the y play with hidden figures. The reader will have to put a clear red plastic sheet onto each image in order to discover what is hidden beneath reality. The cover of the book can be opened into a poster where the reader will find, on one side, the front of the house, and, on the other one, the interior filled with many weird and exotic objects. If the reader wishes so, and we really hope that she or he does, she or he will have the chance to invent his or her own stories based on all these objects.
THE ABC OF THE IMAGINED BODY 27 HAIKUS Mar Benegas (text) Guridi (illustrations) 18 x 32 cm / 38 pp / Japanese binding Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte Rights for all other languages available The ABC of the imagined body is a work that with only 27 haikus and 459 syllables is able to talk to the reader of the lucidity and complexity of the human body, and how it fits into the world as part of the nature. Since the haiku is a synthetic poetical form, the writer Mar Benegas get rid of anything unnecessary leaving only the exact words, that become flash of understanding, the promise of something important. Guridi’s illustrations are based on the relationship between body and nature, so that flowers, leaves, blades of grass become clothes for the human being and for the emotions that compose his life. This book, that has a Japanese binding, also includes a short text where the writer explains the essence of haikus and also gives to the reader some instructions to write his or her own haikus.
Happiness is a lively lizard running in the sun.
ON A SLEPLESS NIGHT Gustavo Roldán (text and illustrations) 13,4 x 17,6 cm / 32 pp / Hard Back German rights sold to: Mixtvision Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte Rights for all other languages available
A book that, in just one second, will take the reader to cut his own room in the heart of a sleepless night.The images that create this book are made out of cut paper, this way the convert it into an expressionist, and at the same time primitive, synthetic, direct aesthetic proposal. This book, that has a small format, like a tiny secret, becomes the key to learn how to preserve something as important as the one’s own (intimate and little) space. By the same author: JOHN THE ANT and STORIES OF RABBIT AND ELEPHANT 25 x 27 cm / 64 pp / hardback Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: WMF Martins Fontes Rights for all other languages available
19 x 23 cm / 82 pp / hardback Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte Rights for all languages available
A beautiful book where funny and gracious ants remind us of the power of storytelling.
MISTER G. 13,4 x 17,6 cm / 40 pp / HB
10 witty adventures in the jungle, that will make you laugh and think about the true meaning of friendship.
-Special Mention Sweetest Character, Los Mejores del Banco del Libro 2011 -Vlag en Wimpel for the best illustrated children’s books in The Netherlands, Special Mention 2011
French rights sold to: Sarbacane Italian rights sold to: La Nuova Frontiera Dutch rights sold to: Van Goor Polish rights sol to: Tako Brazilian rights sold to: SM ediçoes Rights for all other languages available
THE GIFT OF THE GIANTESS
Guia Risari (text) Beatriz Martín Terceño (illustrations) 22 x 31 cm / 48 pp / Hard Back Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte
Rights for all other languages available The giantess represents the nature, its beauty, strength, delicacy, power, rage and –most of all– her consolation ability. Guia Risaris’s words create an evocative book that invites the reader to think about the nature that surrounds us, and of whom we are a part. Beatriz Martín Terceño’s hypnotic illustrations create –with great liberty in the strokes, lines and compositions– the giantess’s world, and fill it in with people, and among them a helpless child, who will keep moving from one page to the other until he becomes the recipient of the giantess’s greatest gift. A delicate book, that invites the reader to contemplation, and to take pleasure in this world.
INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Daniel Nesquens (text) Sergio Mora (illustrations) 22 x 30 cm / 48 pp / hardback -Premi Junceda, Special Mention, 2010 -White Ravens, 2010 -Premios Visual, Illustration Diplome, 2009 English rights sold to: Groundwood (North America) Italian rights sold to: Orecchio acerbo Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: WMF Martins Fontes French rights sold to: Éditions Cambourakis Dutch rights sold to: Meander Uitgeverij BV / De Vier Windstreken Rights for all other languages available
Cecilia Eudave (text) Jacobo Muñiz (illustrations)
Enric González (text) Riki Blanco (illustrations)
19 x 23 cm / 48 pp / hardback Korean rights sold to: Whale Story Complex Chinese rights sold to: 3&3 International Education Institute Brazilian rights sold to: SM ediçoes Italian rights sold to: Terre di mezzo
19 x 23 cm / 32 pp / hardback Portuguese (Brazil) rights sold to: Pensarte Rights for all other languages available
Rights for all other languages available
Juan Arjona (text) Lluïsot (illustrations)
21 x 15 cm / 28 pp / hardback -White Ravens, 2012
Polish rights of the three titles sold to Tako Rights for all other languages available