Muñeco de barro, with illustrations by Carme Solé Vendrell and text by Emma Reyes, published by Libros del Zorro Rojo, receives the Fundación Cuatrogatos 2021 Award in the category of “For those who dare with challenging books”.
The text of the book comes from one of the letters in which the Colombian painter Emma Reyes (1919-2003) evoked her childhood memories.
The Fundación Cuatrogatos was established in 2014 to contribute to the dissemination and reading of high quality books created by Ibero-American writers and illustrators. Each year, after reading, analyzing and discussing a wide and representative sample of children's and young people's fiction books, published in Spanish by small and large publishers of Iberoamerica and the United States, a readers' committee selects the winning titles contest.
Muñeco de barro shows how games and imagination will help a group of children, who seem condemned to the most sordid and miserable of lives, to survive.
The jury has highlighted the testimonial nature of the story “which turns the social complaint and the vindication of fundamental rights of childhood into more powerful, as the dramatism and strength of the illustration reaffirm the vulnerability of the characters and the precariousness of their environment”.
The Cuatrogatos Awards are chosen by a team of professionals of multidisciplinary formation - philosophy, education, journalism, sociology, librarianship, drama, plastic arts - that share the interest for the creation and study of children's and young adult's literature. The Jury looked for quality, intelligent proposals, fun, touching and disturbing, that make the reader think.