Bambini Nascosti

A little girl is in a room with her back to us, leaning against a completely blue wall. Her eyes are closed and she is counting. Beyond the door, the vast expanse of the world’s best-loved game unfolds—children hiding, waiting to be hunted down, caught in the tension between fear and the hope of being found. This is the starting point of Bambini nascosto, literally “Hidden Children”, the latest book by Franco Matticchio, one of Italy’s most celebrated illustrators and winner of the Extraordinary Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2024. Anxiety condenses all the emotions that the game of hide-and-seek has always brought with it: anticipation, surprise, the thrill of escape, and the race to safety. On page after page, Matticchio’s exquisite illustrations depict boys and girls hiding in unexpected places—among dense tree branches, crouching behind chairs, armchairs, and musical instruments, often in the most extraordinary poses. These illustrations accompany a minimal text, with just a list of proper names that echo the joy of those who have hunted down their playmates, a brief poem gifted by Vincenzo Mollica, and a Dantesque opening that evokes the profound, formative power of the age-old game of hide-and-seek. The search for the hidden meaning in the repertoire of names—with its wealth of allusions and references to characters from culture and history—is really a game for adults. The quest to find children hiding in the countless imagined places outside the all-blue rooms, on the other hand, is an ageless pursuit. And it is this that makes the book so wonderful.

Bambini nascosti
Franco Matticchio
Vanvere Edizioni, 2023