This Sant Jordi has been exceptional in every way: in number of book sales but also in number of walkers and authors present. The good weather led to the search for the fan moment, a meeting with the signatories that is gaining more and more followers among children and young people. What’s more, some of the longest queues of this and other past Sant Jordi, have been from young authors who are in the top sales. We also had our fan moment, few, due to the crowds of people we had to get around, but that’s how we immortalized those we could see and greet.
Joana Marcús, the young Mallorcan author of the Fire Trilogy, has once again been this Sant Jordi one of the most visited by fans. She signed everything -because there were not a few readers in the queue who carried several of her books-, but above all she stamped her signature in Three months (Montena), the last installment of the trilogy Months by your side. Marcús also starred on the cover of La Vanguardia that same day together with the group of authors with whom this newspaper opens the Sant Jordi Day each year.
The creator of Los FutbolÃsimos (SM), Roberto Santiago, traveled to Barcelona with his superhero saga up his sleeve, but many kids came to see him with copies of his most popular series under their arms. Santiago is in the middle of the creative process putting together a Spanish-style Marvel, with sagas of kids who, when they turn 11, develop their powers. Los Once, Las Princesas Rebeldes, Los gamers piratas and Squadron K (Destination for Children and Youth) are the four collections from this multiverse of superheroes that landed in Barcelona to the delight of many, including ours.
The Italian author Elisabetta Gnone, creator of the fantastic universe of Fairy Oak, repeated Sant Jordi -we were able to greet her last year- but on this occasion she did not hesitate to reserve time during her stay in Barcelona to meet with a small group of small fans followers of the series before the start of the signing marathon. Gnone, who arrived in Barcelona with The Destiny of a Fairy (Duomo), a very special book where for the first time the author takes the floor to explain the history of this fantastic valley from her perspective as someone who knows all the secrets and details of the saga. The little fans and avid readers were able to listen live as Elisabetta explained part of her creative process.
One of the most beloved firms in the youth romantic novel, Alina Not from Logroño, arrived in bookstores with How to call you love, loudly and How to call you love, in whispers (Cross Books-Planeta), Haley’s initiation story in her first year from college and that gray-eyed guy who yells “trouble” all over him. The queue that added up all day was not wasted and the fans, most of them readers, carried more than one book from her favorite author. They all endured stoically, because as one of them said out loud, “reading her books has saved me.”
The best seller Miriam Bonastre, Catalan author of the manga Hooky (Mr-Planeta) whose second installment has been one of the novelties of this Sant Jordi in the youth field, was full. How not to be: she is the best-selling European author of 2022. This success is thanks to Hooky, the fantasy genre work that she took by storm on the Korean free online comic platform Webtoon. That success led Bonastre to publish Hooky on paper, first in the United States, through Harper Collins, and later in Spanish bookstores, with MartÃnez Roca, from the Planeta group. The EntreDos publishing house has published the first installment in Catalan. Now we can only hope that the devotion that they feel for this neighbor of Pineda de Mar in other parts of Spain has just taken off. The tail that the author had in Sant Jordi is more than a good omen.
This was what our Sant Jordi gave us of itself. For next year we propose the challenge of achieving the most original signature of children’s and youth authors with whom we manage to hit the signatures of 2024. But that will be another story.
