"Rawiri's courage and love of life are an example for our young readers"

Cristiano lives and works in Italy as a freelance illustrator and photographer. He uses a variety of media, from acrylics to oils, pastels and watercolour and has illustrated a number of successful children’s books. He also regularly contributes to bestselling travel magazines as well as working on advertising campaigns. Cristiano loves travelling and gets his inspiration from the colours and cultures of the countries he visits.

"If I were a squirrel, I would be a flying one"

Estella Guerrera was born on a windy November Sunday at noon, just in time for lunch. She grew up among books, pictures and pencils, nurturing her love for drawing with watercolors and reading everything that came into sight. She graduated in Infant Psychology and has been working for years in social care, both in Italy and in the Balkans, as she is sure that a pinch of cooperation and kindness can make the world a better place. Estella is currently studying Art Therapy in Bologna; she loves writing, taking photos, and being with her dog.

"Henry Harris is a friend of mine from long ago. And one of my heroes."

Maria Cleary is a freelance author, editor and teacher trainer. She has written and contributed to a number of ELT course books and culture courses. She is the series editor of Helbling Readers and Helbling Young Readers and passionately believes that reading develops all language areas increasing motivation and self-esteem and opening the door for children to make language their own.Maria loves reading and spends a lot of her free-time making up stories and then picturing them in her mind.

"For me, kites flying in the sky show our happiness to the world"

Stefano Misesti is an illustrator, cartoonist and painter who lives and works between Milan and Taipei. He has illustrated the children’s section of La Provincia di Como for years, as well as Popotus, the children’s insert of Avvenire magazine. He took part in the Giffoni Film Festival 2008 with Tiptoe Evolution an animated film with a surreal take on the evolution of man. He also regularly gives illustration workshops in both Italy and Taiwan.
Stefano is particularly interested in integrating cultural diversity and crossover in his work.

"I imagine the day when we all meet up in one story"

I work in the world of graphic design, publishing and the web. I love keeping up-to-date with new technology and its impact on how we communicate. My job is to place words and images inside cages which are ready to be burst open. Publishing, especially children’s publishing, is one of the areas where it is still fun to find the perfect balance between form and function through colour, illustration and text. I often go walking with my camera in search of light and shadow. I listen to music and it hurts me each time a tree is cut down.

"Each new character offers new challenges but Barney Bunny was particulary demanding"

Lorenzo Sabbatini is a freelance illustrator specialising in children’s books and advertising. Lorenzo creates his illustrations using both traditional and digital techniques using a whimsical dynamic style to give movement and life to his characters. He enjoys experimenting with styles and colours and each new commission is a new world of characters and situations to be explored.

"This story is for my child, Santiago, who asked me one evening what was inside clouds"

Adrián N. Bravi, was born in San Fernando, on the banks of the Paraná river that runs through Buenos Aires, and remembers his childhood as a series of floods and rowing boats. He came to Italy 20 years ago where he works as a librarian and writer. He has written a number of successful novels and he writes in both Spanish (his mother tongue) and Italian (his father tongue as his likes to define it). He contributes to various literary magazines and has co-hosted Fahrenheit a popular radio programme. Recently he has started writing children’s stories.

"I'd love to sit on the back of a whale and travel around the world"

Rick Sampedro is an English teacher, ELT author and teacher trainer. He firmly believes education is the key to making our world a really wonderful place for everybody. Apart from stories and reading, he loves music, travelling, photography, meeting up with friends and being with his wife and their two kids – Alvaro and Steve.

"My dream is to play guitar in a band on a Greenpeace ship."

Steve Sampedro is a young man who very often helps his dad with ideas for stories. He plays basketball and enjoys reading, playing computer games and listening to music.

"Each tree hides a fantastic world of its own"

I was born in 1978 in Agrigento in Sicily. 14 years ago I moved to Milan to study Design at the Polytechnic and, I've been living and working since then, in this black and white town. After graduating in 2001, I’ve worked on numerous graphic design projects, advertising campaigns as well as doing illustrations, in various mediums, for books and magazines.
I’m currently a lecturer in Layout and Visualization Techniques at Naba, New Accademy of Art, in Milan.

"Don’t be afraid of the dark, let the dark be afraid of you... Read!"

Andres Pi-Andreu does lots of different odd jobs like assisting Firefighting-mail-cows assistant and selling boring dads. He also moonlights as a multi-awardwinning children’s literature author and senior bilingual editor for educational materials. As a kid, Andrés wanted to be a nuclear physicist and a writer. Now he is a physicist and a writer, but he wants to become a kid again, that’s why the heroes in his stories are always children.