VIII. This album, which received the Etxepare Prize, has striking titles and covers. We always relate the term murderers to criminals, violence, evil and anti-society behaviors. And on the skin itself to clear the doubts, there is an axe… a piece of human body and the axe taken from the hand of that human being: the weapon the killer has.
The illustrator Leire Salaberria has won the Etxepare Prize for the second time and this time with a work that has two main features; in terms of the text, it is a text based on a set of words, while the images are illustrations based on pyro-engravings, a technique also related to the argument, as the images are burned or marked by burns.
The reader who enters the pages of the album is found with pages of few colors, with simple figures of color brown, black, gray… – a simplicity so worked in children’s literature – “The assassins dress in uniform. Black rubber gloves and boots.” And the image on the cover of the book is shown in its entirety -- taking the cover and the back cover -- "Some are wearing mustache, but it's impossible to see, because they also have their head covered," and while many people do many actions at a distance, we have the foreground of a person -- murderer -- with only eyes on the head hidden by a kind of head cover.
In the following pages we will see many things that murderers do, as well as their characteristics – extraordinary swimmers, strong, wait… – until at the end of the book it becomes clear who those murderers are: Fire!
Leire Salaberria’s book is a game: not only for the game of words, but also for the small details that appear when reading the pages and for the literary proposals of the illustrator. And all of this thanks to a creative proposal that starts from simplicity, from simplicity. In fact, as the reader advances on the pages, he will see how the clues and descriptions proposed by the author change his initial belief, going from a bad prejudice about the murderers to sympathy and a favorable attitude towards them. Who doesn't love the murderers?
In short, a curious and attractive book, to play, a proposal worthy of reading and being seen and read with the children. A clear example of what is being done well in the Basque letters in recent years.
Leaving behind books, libraries and their benefits in April, Kabiak Sahrawi wishes to recall the dark side of his history, which is of greater importance in defending the identity and survival of peoples. We are talking about the destruction of the age-old and usual libraries... [+]
