10 picture books to give this Christmas 2021

Poetry, stories and Japan are some of the protagonists of the novelties in the format of picture book that arrive as the perfect gift for these holidays.

‘Once upon a verse (revisited fairy poems)’

Various authors. Nordic. € 19.50

Up to 24 illustrators, such as Ignasi Blanch, Ana Juan, Noemí Villamuza or Agustín Comotto, who have published with Nórdica in the 15 years that Diego Moreno’s editorial is now serving, illustrate as many poems by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Silvia Plath or Leonard Cohen that give a twist to classic fairy tales. Along these lines, Anne Sexton does the same in the verses of ‘Transformaciones’, a Nórdica monograph illustrated by Sandra Rilova.

‘The year of the rat’

Mariana Enriquez and Dr. Alderete. Red Fox books. € 19.90

Provocative and disturbing pop illustrations by graphic artist Dr. Alderete accompany these 60 unpublished, dystopian, sharp and paranormal texts, by the author of ‘Our part at night’, illuminated in 2020, the year of the rat, according to the Chinese calendar. The brilliant Argentine narrator encourages us to reflect on this critical moment of humanity, moving from the everyday to the supernatural terror.

‘The drawings’

Franz Kafka. Galaxia Gutenberg. 45 €

The author of ‘The transformation’ drew all his life, and with artistic ambition. Now, this careful edition brings together for the first time all the illustrations, 163, Kafkaesque in their line and their message. 122 of them are unpublished; They remained 63 years in the safe of a Swiss bank, despite the fact that Kafka specified in his will that they be destroyed, as well as his texts, which his executor and friend Max Brod did not do. Includes a study by Andreas Kilcher.

‘Some complete stories’

Domingo Villar and Carlos Baonza. Siruela. € 19.95

The author of celebrated crime novels such as “The Last Boat” and “The Beach of the Drowned” had an ace up his sleeve. This book reveals his facet as an author of stories, a genre that he has sown in private, as fun to be read and sent to his friends. The linocuts of the painter Carlos Baonza illustrate these ingenious and surprising stories.

‘Nick Carter and André Breton, a surreal investigation’

David B. Trains. 20,50 €

Shocking and disturbing graphic display of the renowned French comic artist who, sheet by sheet, in rigorous, labyrinthine and gloomy black on white, embarks on a surreal journey, how could it be otherwise, through surrealism and its avant-garde founder, an André Breton who here hires Detective Nick Carter, taken from the pulp novels.

‘Flor Fané’

Sara Morante. Astiberri. € 18

After ‘The life of the walls’ (Lumen), Sara Morante hybridizes again illustration and story to tell the story of a girl, Olga, suffocated by a controlling father. With watercolor, ‘gouache’ and pencils, the illustrator puts the digital aside and affects how the little girl takes refuge in the imagination to survive the violence that surrounds her.

‘Spirits and creatures of Japan’

Lafcadio Hearn / Benjamin Lacombe. Edelvives. € 32.90

The art of the French illustrator Benjamin Lacombe, as he did in ‘Ghost Stories of Japan’, magnifies in this carefully detailed volume nine of the fantastic tales of ghosts and apparitions of the Japanese oral tradition that the japonologist Lafcadio Hearn compiled and rewrote in the second half of the XIX century. For Lacombe fans, another novelty, this one for children and with Sébastien Perez, ‘The best mom in the world’ (Lunwerg, € 19.90)

‘The glowing miniature’

Emily Dickinson / Lucila Biscione. Red Fox books. € 19.90

A delicate and at the same time surreal work on cut paper converted into floating illustrations by the Argentine plastic artist Lucila Biscione wraps this atypical volume that brings together 185 poems unpublished in Spain by Emily Dickinson. These are quatrains that he wrote “like little amulets and sent them as if they were gifts, accompanying flowers, or embedded within the prose of his letters”, explains María Negroni, translator and prologue of the edition.

‘Japan’

Sandrine Bailly. Lunwerg. € 35

The fascinating universe of Japanese art and culture captivates with the almost 200 images (in Chinese ink, engravings, lithographs, photographs or scroll paintings) that feed this careful album that transmits the sensitivity of the Japanese soul: the ‘wabi sabi’ (the perishable of things) or the ‘yûgen’ (the hidden beauty of the world).

‘Brassens’

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George Brassens / Emilio Urberuaga. Nordic. € 22.50

The art of Madrid illustrator Emilio Urberuaga nourishes this beautiful edition of cloth covers that commemorates this 2021 that ends the centenary of the popular French singer-songwriter, the poet of the everyday. The color plates accompany a selection of his songs and verses (also in the original version), with landmarks such as ‘La mala reputa’.