Flowers are blooming and birds are singing. It’s spring everywhere but it’s still pandemic. How I wish we could go on a picnic to the beautiful parks or on the hillsides. Lately, Bologna was re-designated as the “orange zone” but we are not yet allowed to gather with wines and panini in public areas. But hey, I had a book that brings me picnic vibes. It’s one of the series of this iconic children’s literature born in Japan in the 60s and now translated in many languages. The protagonists are little twin mice, Guri, always dressed in blue, and Gura, dressed in red, respectively (that’s how we recognize which one is who!). In this book, they go on a picnic with tons of food they had prepared for lunch. I love this book. For example, it makes me giggle that they set the alarm at twelve for lunch, and when Guri says “now it should be lunch time already,” the clock still ticks ten. To wait another two hours they start jogging and then go into a little adventure in the woods. As I proceed th...

Joy of reading:  today I want to start by talking about it. What is it for you? Perhaps it is to gain knowledge, to be opened up to a new world, or to come up with some inspiration. Perhaps, if reading a picture book, it is to please your eyes with beautiful illustrations. These are commonly experienced by reading print and digital books, however, there are many other joys reserved for print books only. For this, I would always favour print books, no matter how much our everyday life is to be digitalised.  For example, I can easily go back and forth between the pages at my own pace; sometimes slowly, some other times quickly jumping from one to the other. Other joys can be materialistic. I like the texture of books bound in fine paper, warm colours printed on them, and smells of ink and paper that become peculiar with age.  And this precious book by Dahlov Ipcar, an American painter and author, gives me such joys of good quality. I found this book at a tiny book...