author/illustrator: Lisa Loffredo
ages: 4+
40 pages
19.5 x 25 cm
hardcover
French
Palomita
Rights sold: world English, Korean, Complex Chinese
The Fountain
It all started on a Tuesday morning, with a hat. Around lunch time, a drum popped out of the water. Next, it was a rocking horse followed by all sorts of other interesting items.
Sometimes the gifts were enormous, sometimes delicious, with a moustache, or on wheels. The villagers began to gather in the village square, more and more of them each day, wondering about the origin of these gifts. Even experts came to study the phenomenon.
But one Tuesday morning, like any other, something strange happened. Instead of the fountain, there was a sign that read: "Closed for holidays." The villagers gathered around the sign, stunned. The fountain was gone… A crazy story, in which the main character is neither a living being nor a fantasy creature, and yet acts for the good of a community.
A theme that resonates particularly in a time when human interactions are becoming rarer and villages are emptying. A delightfully absurd story that leaves room for everyone's imagination. What if this fountain was just a pretext to bring the villagers together?
Lisa Loffredo is one of the winner artists of the 2025 Bologna Book Fair Illustrator's exhibition and she won the 2026 Nami Concours Purple Island Prize.
IN THE MEDIA
"A visually inviting fable of magic-tinged abundance(...) Satisfaying echoes of 'the Magic Porridge Pot', Tove Jansson's 'Finn Family Moomintroll', and Tomi Ungere's 'The Hat"; and drooll text and linework that will fully immerse readers" - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review.