L´altalena

A balancing act

Enzo Mari has had a great influence on design, picturebooks and culture, not only in Italy, but all over the world. He is known for his industrial design, but also for the groundbreaking series of wordless picture books published together with his wife Iela Mari (one of her books, Mangia che te mangio, is reviewed here). He also produced toys, and "L´altalena" is clearly inspired by his most famous one: A set of 16 animals ("16 animali") that can be balanced and fit together in all sorts of interesting ways.​​

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As many other leporellos, "L´altalena" comes with a separate cover where the title is printed. Mari has generously printed the title in both Italian, English, French and German: "L´altalena, See-Saw, Balancoire, Die Wippe". The book starts with a picture of the simplest of see-saws: what looks like a plank on top of a cirular object. The animals, direct copies of the animals from the toys, do all kinds of fun and crazy moves, falling, building and cooperating throught the book..

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This book  will not appeal not only to librarians and lovers of picturebooks, but also to teachers of mathematics and the very logical children. It is a tale of weight and numbers, scales and balance. The pictures are very stylished, black animals against the brown see-saw, and it almost looks as if the original toys have been used as stamps in order to make the images. The animals are masterfully shaped, showing off Mari´s talent for going straight to the core of what he wants to illustrate, the result being both beautiful and minimalistic.

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"L´altalena" is a fun and different book, a very interesting publication of high artistic value. My only objection is that the publication does not have the same quality. The paper is too thin to make the pages stand by themselves, and it seems like a lost opportunity, for think about how much fun that would have been, to pair the leporello with the set of animals and combine them for playing and exploring? Also, the peritext is printed on the leporello instead of on the cover, missing the opportunity of the leporello being completely wordless. These objections aside, this is a wonderful book which can be used to make up imaginative stories about animals, or to teach balance and mathematics.

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​The set of 16 animals is still being produced by Danese Milano, in limited editions of 200 sets every year. They look gorgeous, but you do need to have 400 Euros to spare...