“Help me to discover who lives in the sea”: the illustrated children’s book by Laura Bonato
Hi Laura! Nice to meet you! Tell us how your ideas become reality and how they evolve in your creative process. My creations come to life from an image that I visualise in my mind during my daily life. I reproduce the image with a draft that becomes final almost immediately, since the image is already clear ‘in the eyes’ of my brain.
How did the idea for the book “Help me to discover who lives in the sea” come about?
In September, my first book, published by Rusconi, will hit the bookshops! The book, which I designed, is the result of a joint effort: the texts were developed together with Gianni Caputo, who also took care of the graphics and some interactive games, while the digital illustrations were created by Elisa Enedino. The idea came from playing with my son Alvise, who was two years old at the time. I liked to draw the human hand and then transform it into different animals. From that very moment I said to myself: why don’t we play with hands and numbers?So I drew the outline of the hand and, by lowering my fingers, I created numbers and imagined characters in the fantastic stories that took shape.
The book is designed to teach children numbers using an innovative approach: thanks to the shape of the hand and the help of the fingers that make it up, the child can learn the numbers from 1 to 10 by associating them with the illustrated characters. In this way they will also become familiar with a part of their body, their hands, and develop self-awareness. Ten amusing illustrated characters will help the child to discover numbers, a seabed will act as a game board, and a nursery rhyme will help him remember numbers thanks to the association of number-word-image. Interaction with adults will help children discover numbers and shapes and develop mnemonic and manual skills.
How do you imagine yourself in 5 years’ time? I imagine myself working in the field of children’s illustration with many authors and publishers to develop all the projects and ideas that come into my head. All this would represent an endless source of freedom for me! A daydream that I intend to realise soon with determination and passion.
