Giorno bestiale

The letter A comes from the Phoenician letter aleph, which in turn comes from the Egyptian hieroglyphic for ox. If A corresponds to the ox, how many other animals are hidden in the alphabet? And how many different stories can we see in the signs we use to write? In this book, numbers, letters and animals come together to tell the story of a beastly day.

A child, a glass jar to catch a tadpole, a summer evening along the river: this is how Alessandro's adventure begins, with games and endless runs through the woods. When it begins to get dark, the main character of Giorno bestiale takes refuge with his tadpole in the village church and on the walls, he discovers a fish (or maybe a dolphin), a parrot, two knights and even a dragon... These fascinating characters keep him company until he hears his mother's voice calling him from the next street: it is time to go home.

Alice Lombardelli's gentle and evocative text is accompanied by Jonathan Pierini's drawings, which transform symbols and letters of the alphabet into places, characters and animals, demonstrating that the most basic signs are enough to tell a story.
The book is inspired by the works of art in the church of San Francesco d'Assisi in Mercatello sul Metauro, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, and the author's experience of teaching workshops there.