Preserving Knowledge
and Promoting Reading

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