Translated from Spanish, this is a beautiful story for our times about rewilding and treating our planet with the kindness and care it deserves.
THE ADVENTURES OF TOLETIS, AMENOPHIS AND FRIENDS
by Rafa Ruiz
illustrated by Elena Hormiga
Neem Tree Press, October 2017
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)
The trees and grass are disappearing to make way for a new section of road. Toletis, his dog Amenophis, friends Claudia and Tutan are on a mission to find ingenious ways of replacing them and turning their little valley town, set deep in the mountains, lusciously green again. The odds are stacked against them. Can they succeed… with some very unusual help?
Rafa Ruiz is journalist and author who has a staunch commitment to culture, art and the environment, and the majority of his career has been focused on these three topics. He spent 10 years at Spanish newspaper El Pais and 15 years at their weekly supplement. He has written numerous children’s books and he co-directs the Mad is Mad art gallery in Madrid which gives a space to up-and-coming artists. He is also one of the partner-founders of the Press Association for Environmental Information (APIA).
Elena Hormiga is an illustrator with a sense of humour. Her fun pictures are imbued with irony and metaphor. She studied and worked as an engineer and later turned to illustration. She currently works creating images for stories, articles and posters. She also enjoys writing, cooking and origami.
Osaik is an eight-year-old boy. He is charming and has an unusual ability to hear things no one else hears. But his world is thrown into disarray when a debilitating disease takes his mother from him. Despite his grief, he has to find a way of saving his little sister, Eghe, from the same disease. Alongside his dad, and Kompa his dog, they begin a race to get her all the help she needs. In this dramatic, fast-paced story of loss, faith, and hope, the limits of love, sacrifice, friendship, loyalty, and family ties are tested as the struggle to save his sister’s life brings Osaik and those around him to a new knowledge of the world they can see, the world they cannot see, and the part of themselves they never knew existed.
The tale is brought to life with the discovery of the Thuillier photos that were taken in Vignacourt, France, during World War I. These images hold answers to some questions raised by a current-day character,
Despite being more popular than ever, women’s sport is in danger. Modern gender ideology, which denies fundamental differences in human biology, is undermining the integrity of women’s sport.