Gentilezza (Kindness) (Book Project)
Text by Angela Valsecchi
Illustrations by Zosia Dzierżawska

Materials available:
• Text and full final illustrations, draft layout
• Draft English translation from Italian

Size: 18 x 32 cm closed (can be enlarged)
Pages: 32

Rights sold to Korean and Italian
Rights available for all languages

On November 13th we celebrate the World Day of Kindness.
In the dictionary, the definition of this word refers to manners, tones, education, virtue (in its oldest meaning, like Dante would say). So, courtesy, politeness, education, but also moral.
Kindness is saying thank you, please, you are welcome; respecting silence; listening to music with headphones to not disturb, not screaming if your little brother is sleeping.
Kindness is a way of relating to the world, to people.

So, if Peter respects the silent hour while miss Clara takes a nap, the final result will be a chain of respect and positivity that affects ourselves, others, the whole community that lives around us. It is easy, it is simple and it is necessary: kindness should be natural, but sometimes we forget about it.

It was 1982 when Anne Herbert said:

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty

This gentle “guerrilla” inspired this project that today seems more interesting and necessary than ever.

The Author
Angela Valsecchi was born in Lecco in 1980 and lives in Pusiano, a small town in the Como province. In 2017 she published a short story entitled Cortocircuito for Vogue Kids. Her first book E adesso? has been published in Italian by Piemme/Il Battello a Vapore in 2021.

The Illustrator
Zosia Dzierżawska is an illustrator and comic author from Warsaw, Poland, and a co-founder of Studio Armad’illo, an illustration and graphic design studio based in Milan. She works for a variety of international publishers. Her works have been awarded twice at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition, as well as at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Her clients include, among others: Candlewick Press, Oxford University Press, Nobrow, Rizzoli, Dargaud, Bayard Presse, The New York Times.