Simon Liar

Simon Liar is on the line between the reality and the imaginary of the youngest, able to give life to the characters that live in their imagination, even up to the point of making us doubt what is true and what is a lie.

Among the processes that govern creativity in infancy, fantasy is in a dominant place. The perception of reality and the interaction with the world through fantasy is always present in the diverse forms of child communication.

Simon Liar, the main character in this story, perceives and expresses reality as a fantastic game for a specific aim: speaking of wolves, foxes and cats that are in his imagination. But the fantasy has an ephemeral character and does not materialize in its perception ; for that, Simon, the same as the readers, will have to distinguish between reality and fantasy at the appropriate moment, what happens just at the end of the story.

Once again, Roberto Aliaga surprises us with a story using a simple but carefully chosen language, accessible vocabulary, short and emotional sentences within the grasp of young readers who can identify with Simon, their fears, games and fantasy.

The plastic art work by Simona Mulazzani represents a good example of artistic line which this Italian illustrator still upholds, framed in a proposal dominated by collage of diverse techniques (acrylic, pencil…) to bring a varied iconography arranged between simple schematic and mid-frame lines closer and a very personal and recognizable plastic narrative.

Mulazzani’s images occupy an absolute dominant space regarding the literary text, which especially underlines the plastic reading of the elements that make up the imaginary world in which the main character lives, in the sense of visions that successively appear throughout the work so that the reader is also kept alert and the imagination cannot out do reality.