The Adventures of Cipollino by Gianni Rodari and Dasha Tolstikova

Gianni Rodari (1920-1980), who wrote hundreds of stories, poems, and songs for children, was born in 1920 in the town of Omegna in northern Italy. Over the course of his life, he worked as a teacher, an editor, and especially, as a journalist. Spared army service on account of ill health during WWII, he joined the Resistance and became a Communist Party member, and began writing for children in party-affiliated outlets in the 1950s. A Communist until the revelations about Stalin surfaced, Rodari maintained an interest in utopias.

His great respect for the intelligence of children is evinced in every aspect of his writing. Commenting on the child’s game peekaboo and how infants like to disappear the world by putting their hands over their eyes, he writes: “The philosopher who investigates the question of Being and Nothingness, using the capital letters that these respectable and profound concepts deserve, does not do anything substantially different than continue that children’s game at a higher level.”

As regards his stories, it’s unclear whether they’re intended for adults, teenagers, or precocious children, an ambiguity that attests to the universality of his work. He is remembered and loved in Italy the way English-speakers cherish Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak, and William Steig.

Before Dasha Tolstikova became an illustrator, she was a photographer, a reporter, a newswire translator, a sales clerk, a cargo van driver, a film producer, and a decorative painter—not necessarily in that order. She is a graduate of the SVA MFA Illustration program. The Jacket was her debut into the world of picture books. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her dog Peggy.