posted on 24 Jan 2021

The Odyssey adapted from Homer by Giorgio Ferrero and  illustrated by Manuela Adreani

This 2016 extravaganza of a book from publisher, White Star Kids is a huge visual feast. Giorgio Ferrero has edited the original Homer into an adventure story that younger readers can follow without having to worry too much about getting to grips with the traditions of the Classical world. I’m always impressed by authors with the skill to translate complex adult material into a story that is accessible for a younger audience without compromising the spirit of the original.

But skilful as Ferrero has been, his text inevitably plays second fiddle to the illustrations provided by Manuela Adreani. The large format pages give the drawings plenty of space to expand and impress. There are definite echoes of Lizbeth Zwerger, the great Austrian children’s book illustrator in Adreani’s style – and I don’t say that meaning, in any way, to denigrate the drawings. If you’re going to be influenced by anyone, a great like Zwerger is not a bad role model to have and she brings definite elements of her own style to it too. Some of the double-page spreads as truly breath-taking – bright and uncluttered depictions of action give the pages a tremendous sense of drama and movement.

Adreani is an illustrator whose work we have reviewed before on the Letterpress website and the Turin-born Italian artist now has a very impressive portfolio of classic children’s literature that she has illustrated. It’s worth taking a look at her profile on http://manuelaadreani.blogspot.com/ to get a sense of the sweep of her work. What especially impresses me about her approach to book illustration is the way she is able to approach a depiction of a scene in a fairly straightforward, conventional set-up but she’s also able to change the viewpoint dramatically on the next page, providing an oblique or unexpected angle or observation that suddenly puts you in a totally different relationship with the story. So as a reader you can be an outside observer at one minute and inside the action the next.

For anyone interested in collecting children’s illustrated books and who is looking for the next wave of illustrators who will the classics of the future, I would strongly recommend Manuela Adreani to you. Her books are still remarkably affordable in first edition formats and they’ll make a great addition to your bookshelves.

 

Terry Potter

January2021