Friday, February 11, 2022

Meet the illustrator Ivar Da Coll from Colombia and Venezuela


This is my last "Meet the illustrator" post where I share with you some of the thirty-three illustrator nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.  The jury begin their deliberations on Monday 14th February.  In my next post I will list all of the illustrators and give you links to my posts. 

Ivar da Coll was born in Bogota in 1962 to an Italian father and Swedish mother. He was previously nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen award in 1999.

Ivar da Coll's nominated books are “¡No, no fui yo!” (No, it wasn't me!), “Tengo Miedo” (I’m scared), “Chigüiro viaja en Chiva” (Chigüiro travels in Chiva), all three published by Babel Libros, “José Tomillo” (published by Edciones SM) and “Hamamelis y el secreto” (Witch Hazel and the secret, published by Ediciones Ekaré).

Ivar has written a series of books about a capybara or the Chigüiro. His series of wordless picture books of the endangered mammal, Chigüiro has had an especially lasting and positive reception. Chigüiro and his other characters are strong and memorable, facing the fears and embarrassment of childhood directly. The images are simple and inquisitive and the stories are funny, intelligent, warm and imaginative.


Image Source: Wildwelfare.org


Wordless story about a capybara who finds a pencil and draws his wishes that instantly become reality: a bicycle, an ice cream, a bed. The illustrations are expressive and telling enough to recount the adventures of the protagonist and the flight of his imagination with a pencil on a white tapestry and that makes one think of the imaginative and dreamy capacity of children.



Wordless album book of the most famous character in Ivar Da Coll's work, Chigüiro. On this occasion, Chigüiro evokes Colombian culture by travelling in a chiva, a public bus without doors that traditionally travels through rural areas carrying peasants and the food and merchandise that they usually sell in the market place. With humor and tenderness, the book tells the adventure of Chigüiro, the driver monkey and a peasant hen when the goat is punctured and Chigüiro has to find a recursive solution to be able to continue the trip.



As Hamamelis is famous by his discretion, Miosotis, his best friend, carries a secret to his home. Hamamelis keeps it in a chest, so carefully, together with a sword, a prince’s crown and a striped ball. But the secret begins to move and make strange noises, and Hamamelis must fight against the curiosity and the temptation he feels to open the chest. More important, he has to be strong enough to avoid being convinced by her friend (Calendula) Marigold, who offers him some delicious cookies in exchange for revealing the secret. What a problem!





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