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Three Lines are powerful
Gusti
Gusti
GUSTI is a renowned author and illustrator of children’s books just as much as a passionate activist for people with disabilities and for the conservation of nature. He was born Gustavo Ariel Rosemffet Abramovich in Buenos Aires in 1963. His interest in illustration from an early age led to high school studies at the Fernando Fader Art School. At the age of eighteen, he started doing commercials at the Catu animation studios and then worked for the Hanna Barbera Studios and contributed to two Argentine magazines, Billiken and Cosmik. He was working as an illustrator for children’s magazines while writing and illustrating books for children and young adults when, in 1985, he moved to France and eventually settled in Barcelona, Spain. His illustrations soon won many prizes, including a Golden Apple at BIB’89 for Pip i el color blau (Pip and the Colour Blue) and the National Award for Illustration for El Pirata Valiente (The Brave Pirate) in 1990 and the Premio Lazarillo for La pequeña Wu-li (Little Wu-li) in 1991, all written by Ricardo Alcántra. His own work La Mosca (The Fly) received recognition at the Salón del Libro de México in 2005. For more than a decade he has been teaching courses in illustration at the EINA-University School of Design and Art, in Barcelona. He has taught illustration courses for children, students and professionals worldwide, including in rural and indigenous communities. Gusti uses a wide range of techniques, pen, pencil and markers, collage and gouache, but he is above all a sketcher, drawing in his journals wherever he happens to be. He sees drawing as a tool for social inclusion and has worked extensively with children with disabilities. His story, Mallko y papá (Mallko and Dad, 2014) chronicles his close relationship with his son, who has Down syndrome. The book received wide recognition, including being chosen for the 2015 IBBY Outstanding Selection of Books for Young People with Disabilities, the 2015 Junceda Award, and the 2016 Bologna Ragazzi Award for the special category Disability. Gusti currently lives close to Barcelona and is working on several projects.
El camello Alberto (Alberto Camello)
Fiction, Illustrated, 4+, ca. 48 pp
Life is not easy for somebody who is as different as Alberto who is bullied and driven to tears by his fellow camels until finally the crowd realizes that they are all different, in shape, size and age and... bumps. Fine drawings in ocre tones and funny animals will make this a children's favorite and a parents delight.
— Sold to: Spain (Baobab/Destino), Germany (Knesebeck), Greece (Opera)
La medicina de los Animales de la Cruz del Sur (The medicine of the Animals of the Southern Cross)
Non-Fiction, Positive Psychology, Gamebook with 64 Cards (with Alejandro Corchs)
The sacred power of animals teaches us awareness, insight, decision, patience and all kind of values and gifts we need in order to become a better person and to handle our problems and questions of life. The included guidebook by Alejandro Corchs gives you spiritual advice for questions you yourself formulate while drawing from the deck of beautiful picture cards by Gusti.
— Sold to: Spain/LatAm (Océano)
El elefante encadenado (The chained Elephant)
Fiction, Illustrated, 48 pp (with Jorge Bucay)
The story about the elephant who is unable to break the chains he has been bound with in his childhood and becomes a busy traveller once he is freed from his spell became a classic of children's literature, with hundred thousands of copies sold all over the world.
— Sold to: Spain/LatAm (Penguin Random House), Germany (S. Fischer), Norway (Cappelen, rights reverted), Croatia (Fraktura), Greece (Opera), Slovenia (Mladinska Knijga), Serbia (PI Press)
Feos y feas (Ugly or not)
Non-Fiction, Illustrated, 54 pp (with Lola Casas)
Ugly is the new beautiful, isn't it? Gusti makes us see faces in a completely new way, claiming tolerance and the acceptance of diversity. A fun book against bullying that parents will love to explore together with their children.
— Sold to: Spain (Carambuco)
Viaje en lapiz (The sacred Pencil)
Auto-Fiction, (Project 2022, 200 pp approx.)
A sketchbook the author kept throughout his life, this is a very personal memoir of a lifelong ride on the back of a pencil, the "Sacred Pencil" as it has been called in a recent biopic about Gusti. It is a book where fine art and beautiful stories grow together in order to give us a unique, colorful and funny, and at times very thoughtful, reading and watching experience.
— Sold to: Spain/LatAm (Océano)
El niño gris (The grey Child)
Fiction, Illustrated, 38 pp (with Lluis Farré)
Grey Boy lives in a world empty of emotions and joy until his favorite pet turns sick and Grey Boy starts to worry. He discovers the importance of feelings and starts to accept them while his pet recovers from its sickness and - both - get well (again). Premi Hospital Sant Joan de Déu 2006 - Premi Serra d'Or 2007 - Premi Junceda 2007 (Il·lustració) - The White Ravens List 2007.
— Sold to: Spain (La Galera), Poland (Entliczek), South Corea (Bulklang)
Vivan las uñas de colores (Long live the painted Fingernails)
Fiction, Illustrated, 30 pp (with Alicia Acosta/Luis Amavisca)
Who has ever heard of a boy who paints his fingernails with colors? Well, Juan loves to do so! As a consequence he is being harassed at school and feels truly awful about it. When a friend comes to help him showing solidarity the problem is only getting worse. Until his parents show up at school with their own fingernails all painted in crazy colors. And everybody realizes that painted fingernails are beautiful.
— Sold to: Spain/LatAm (Nube Ocho, 6th edition)
Mallko y papá (Mallko and Dad)
Non-Fiction, Illustrated, 144 pp (with Mallko)
Mallko is a friendly and extraordinary little boy – and he suffers Down-Syndrome. In this very personal book, Gusti, Mallko’s dad, describes his deep concern and disorientation when Mallko was born. A long and rocky road took him from the very first thought that he could never accept this strange baby to unconditional love. The different artistic styles, like collage, cartoons and children’s drawings, turn the book into an outstanding work of art. At the same time, it’s also a parent’s guide and a book that teaches us radical humanity.
— Sold to: Spain/LatAm (Océano), USA (Enchanted Lion), Netherlands (Memphis Belle International), Poland (Dwie Siostry), Italy (Rizzoli)
La puerta azul (The blue Door)
Non-Fiction, (Project 2022, 80 pp approx.)
This is a project that centers around the death of two persons, the author's parents, who have died from Covid, in 2021. It is painted on pages from a book that is being used as inspiration for forms and pictures that grow out of the given structures and images on the existing pages. The concept of this project being an artistic one, we see it as wonderful materials for an exposition that will make an extraordinary catalogue, with texts, perhaps, from very different corners of the world reflecting upon the pandemic and how it reverberates in our societies.
— Not for sale