books and book covers

Winner of the H.C. Andersen Award – Baia delle Favole. 2025. "Illustrators" Category
“The Chocolate Meadow” (“La pradera de chocolate”)
Written by Pina Spinella, illustrated and translated by Geraldine De León

To be published: Winner of the H.C. Andersen Award – Baia delle Favole. 2025. "Illustrators" Category

This story tells the tale of Dario and Lorenzo, two chocolate children, each of a different color, who discover that true friendship goes far beyond any differences.
Through a sweet and vibrant world, this story celebrates cultural diversity and reminds us that, by coming together, we can create extraordinary things.
“The Chocolate Meadow” aims to teach young readers that all children—no matter where they were born or the color of their skin—deserve to grow up in a world full of opportunities, friendship, and dreams.
Because, in the end, we are all made of the same cocoa.

Accordi

COME RIACCORDARE LE RELAZIONI CON LA MINDFULNESS E LA COMPASSION

"Accordi" (2025) is a book written by Laura Bongiorno, Letizia Ferrante, and Giusy Morabito, founders of Mindful Sicilia, that explores relationships and awareness. Published by Algra Editore, the book investigates how mindfulness and compassion can help re-harmonize our relationships — both with ourselves and with others.

For this book, I created illustrations that are more conceptual in nature, as both the title and the content refer to the breath as a tuning fork. The guiding visual thread is the idea of how breath helps us tune in to the music around us, bringing harmony to various aspects of our lives.

Here you will see some empty staves that evoke the silence that comes before music, sometimes representing the lack of communication in relationships, other times as blank spaces ready to generate harmony with others. In some images, the empty staff symbolizes the silence of pain; in others, the silences needed to reflect before arranging the notes. In some, they are empty because even silence carries its own message.

There are also staves filled with notes, bass clefs and treble clefs, symbolizing the process of expression, of memories, melancholies, but also of joys.

The note “LA” appears repeatedly because, according to some research I found, the natural frequency of the universe is 432 Hz, and Pythagoras’ “LA” was tuned to this frequency, considered a magical number with cosmic and healing powers. Tuning into the universe through its frequency can help us feel better, to connect with something greater , which perhaps simply means tuning into ourselves.

You’ll find many naked characters, because here it’s about baring the soul; many in black and white, because that’s how musical notes are, black and white, and so is much of humanity, black and white, which over time has blended into color, in search of relationships, battles lost and won, love, disagreements, and agreements (harmonies).

Forgive me if many of these illustrations are quite personal, part of my race and my story, of my current geographical location (Nigeria) but for me it’s hard to express myself any other way, without what defines me beyond words, also because, in the end, music and illustration meet at one point: that of the unspoken, but felt, what resonates deep within our being.In short, these illustrations try to capture that moment when silence breaks and frequencies emerge, when breath becomes art and the soul allows itself to be heard through the sound of the awareness of being alive… the sound of breath.

Illustrated video book

"Tomorrow is September" Poetry by Guillermo de León Calles - Video book illustrated by Geraldine de León

Enjoy it...!

This poem was published for the first time in 1983 in the book, "Songs to lull grandparents" by the Falconian poet Guillermo de León Calles.

The audio that accompanies this poem (on the video) is a live declamation, in the Ríos Reyna Hall of the Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1996 and in the voice of its author during a concert for the 25 years of artistic life of the group Venezuelan musical "Serenata Guayanesa ". Also, this audio is part of the album "Una Amistad de 25 años" Vol.1 by Serenata Guayanesa.

This poem accompanies me every August 31 with my heart in Falcón State, Venezuela, because I went to school there every September of my childhood.

These illustrations try to decipher with images those words that are images themselves, so these are just a version that was going around in my head since when I was much younger and I went to that presentation and heard that in live declamation in 1996 at the Teresa Carreño that left me full of love for this beautiful poetry. Of course this is a tribute to Uncle Memo, who this 2023 turns 80 years old.

Geraldine de Leon.

P.D: Over there in the distance you can hear a "chuchube" that cries joy

ILLUSTRATED BOOK

Matteo and the Sicilian pupets

"Matteo e i pupi siciliani" escrito da:

Pina spinella e giovannina Russo

Illustrato da: Geraldine de león

Published on December 2023 by Algra Editore

Matteo and the Sicilian puppets

"Matteo e i pupi siciliani" written by:

Pina Spinella and Giovannina Russo

Illustrated by: Geraldine de León

Published in December 2023 by Algra Editore

Matteo is a curious child and passionate about fantastic stories. One night he is awakened by a terrible three-headed dragon that enters his room. Pilusu, the dragon, actually turns out to be a fun adventure companion. For several nights he will take you, flying, to a magical world: that of an ancient puppet theater in Acireale. Here he will learn about the fascinating art of Sicilian puppet opera which, despite having been declared oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2008, is at risk of disappearing along with its characters. Matteo will listen to them with emotion and promise to help them. An exciting story in which paladins, maidens, heroes and traitors will become spokespersons for an epic-chivalric world that fights "for religion, love, glory and loyalty."

Anime Animali vol.1/2 di Valentina Selgi

Rhyming stories for today's kids and for those who were before

Once again Valentina Selgi contacted me to shape the layout of her book and make the bookcover, that is nothing more than herself with all the animals from her stories. This volume features 8 and 6 truly cute stories.

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emocionate

Experiential Book

This is not a book. It is an illustrated journey, to be "tasted" with the eyes and "going through" with the heart.

Written by Laura Bongiorno, Letizia Ferrante, Giusy Morabito and illustrated by me.

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Algra Editore

(available for now only in Italian).

This book is about emotions, and I took each one of the emotions and connected them with a symbol of Sicily. You can find nice illustrations in a form of sometimes ironic cartoons.

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Mariposa

A book by Valentina Selgi

While Valentina was writing this novel, the image of the protagonist of her story "Mariposa" came to her mind, she drew it and then contacted me to find out if I could turn it into the cover of her book, for which I made some digital interventions on her original illustration... and I had to dress her in red, which in my opinion went very well with Mariposa's white skin.

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