Il-Familja Frattarija u d-Dar li Tagħtas
Il-Familja Frattarija u d-Dar li Tagħtas (or the family Frattarija and the House that Sneezed) is my first children’s storybook published by Merlin Publishers and translated to Maltese by Simone Inguanez. The story follows the family Frattarija, in particular the mishaps and adventures of the youngest twins – Stella and Tizja, and their encounter with one fat cat and a house..that sneezes.
Blurb from the book
“Tgħidlix li tagħmel bik ukoll il-kurżità! Jien naf żewġ qrempuċiet, joqogħdu f’gorboġ. L-hena tagħhom, kif jaqbad jidlam, jidħlu nkiss inkiss bejn il-friegħi. Jittawlu minn xi tieqa. Jissindikaw. Immaġinahom … Bil-buz tal-lasktu u l-inċirata, f’lejla ta’ Novembru, ibewxu fix-xita rxiex u l-ħaxix iħaxwex. U jsibu ruħhom fi storja … Kif tibda tissindika, ma tiqafx—”
Winner of the Terramaxka Prize for Literature 2021
The work has been featured in the Malta Illustrators Annual 2020
The process for the work was by far one of the most interesting I have explored. Since the story was rather character-centred, I spent a great deal of my research time exploring all possible aspects of all the characters and how their image would feed into their actions and purpose within the story. Additionally I explored the style for the work by merging experiments done by ink and digital illustration.
Below are a few sneak peeks of the illustrations, you can purchase the book from Merlin Publishers here and enjoy the rest of the illustrations and of course the wonderful story!
