Solo una notte
By: Andrea Antinori
Publisher: Corraini, Italy, 2026 (First published by Ediciones SM, Spain, 2024, Solo una noche)
Format: Hardback
A night to remember
Andrea Antinori is a well-known Italian illustrator, who has won a number of awards, both for his individual works and for his illustrations for Italian and international publishing houses. He has a very distinct illustration style, and creates illustrations that have clear, beautiful colors, original layouts and lots of humor. (His almost-wordless book "L'arancio" is a Readsilentbooks-favourite, in our opinion one of the funniest children's books on the market!)
Solo una notte translates to "Just one night". A hiker leaves his house and heads out in nature. It is a long and strenous walk, across narrow bridges, curvy trails and high mountains. He finds the perfect camping site and eats his supper by the bonfire under the starry night sky. Then he settles in his tent and goes to sleep.
By this point, the observant reader will already have understood that not everything about this mountain is ordinary. There are little gnomes hiding in the bushes, there are bear cubs and mice using fishing rods, a mole wearing sunglasses and mysterious eyes hiding in the dark. The hiker seems oblivious to all of this, he just goes about his business.
As soon as the protagonist goes to sleep, the pages explode with colors and adventure. There seems to be no end to Antinoris vivid creativity. He presents numerous intervisual references to literature and folklore, like Batman, Santa Claus, witches, UFOs, ghosts and a great big giant, alongside all the funny and charming creatures from his own imagination.
Antinoris characters all have very distinct personalities, which really adds to the storytelling. An example of this is a full spread where a large flock of bats (and Batman!) fly over the tent: All the bats have different facial expressions - some look happy, some scared, some bored, some sad. Because of this, the one spread of bats alone can be used as inspiration for so many different stories.
The pitch black of the night makes all the other colors pop. This is expecially striking when a large, beautiful comet flies over the tent in a magnificent series of three consequtive spreads. The majority of the illustrations are full spreads like this, which is needed to give enough space for the swarms of details and creatures. But Antinori also uses panels and close-ups as very effective storytelling tools, which both add rythm and extra interest to the reading. They are also useful for explaining a series of events, like when an alien lands on Earth. In some spreads, he offers a bird's eye view, where the reader do not see the night sky at all, just the green grass, a very interesting visual effect that adds to the dream-like feel of the book.
When the daylight returns, all is quiet. Our protagonist enjoy a cup of coffee and a silent morning outside his tent, with a crow as his only companion. He packs up and reurns home. Was it all a dream? Did it really happen? Maybe the last spread will give you a clue...
In a visual rollercoaster of funny, endearing, scary and magnificent illustrations, Solo una notte invites readers of all ages to explore the limits of both reality and imagination. This book offers endless possibilites for storytelling, laughs, scares and fun. Let' just hope the ants release Santa Claus in time for Christmas....
