Today we talk about CLOUDY, a book by Mauro Lacovich, published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Mauro Lacovich, to get to know him better, what are the messages he wants to convey through his book CLOUDY, as well as in what way the illustrations empowered his story.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- Where and when did you find the inspiration to write your book?
Unusually but true, the story happened by coincidence while preparing a lecture on therapeutic stories for children. I came up with this story as an example to explain the importance of metaphors unrelated to the problem we want to deal with. After I wrote the story, I sent it to a colleague to ask her opinion. At that moment, a colleague had a situation with a three-year-old child who did not want to go to the toilet before bed. She read the story to the child, who immediately went to the toilet. That’s when I realised that the story deserves to have a life of its own. Why did I choose this topic as an example topic in that lecture? At that time, I often heard from people with small children that they were struggling with the problem of nocturnal urination, but at the same time, they were approaching this problem wrongly. An approach in which the child is forced to stop wetting the bed, or worse, in which the child is made to feel guilty because it happens to them, is simply wrong and unsuitable. In addition to prolonging the problem, it can create additional issues in children’s development. Since most of the people I trained had or worked with children, I assumed it would be an excellent topic to demonstrate how metaphors in therapeutic stories should be abstract enough not to be associated with the problem literally. There is no mention of urination or bed anywhere in the story.
- What is the message you want to convey to your adult and young readers?
My idea for the story was to help with the problem of bedwetting in children. Still, in reality, it turned out that the story inspires children to wean themselves from diapers without anyone mentioning it to them. The child of the previously mentioned colleague asked her about this story after some time with the explanation that they thought it would help them wean off diapers. I have a lot of feedback from parents and kindergartens about using the story around activities related to diapers and the toilet. The message that children indirectly get from this story is that they can achieve anything they want; that they have the strength and power to change. Like the main character who solved his problem by learning something about himself, his body and his capabilities. Children are thus enabled to identify with him and achieve what they want (leaving the diapers, going to the toilet, recognizing the moment to go to the toilet, etc.)
- What significant life experiences find expression in your book?
This is a difficult question, but one can recognise my epistemology as a psychotherapist in all my books and picture books (for adults and children). There is no objective truth, only subjective experience. I will never impose my idea as a universal truth, and I will always write or refine stories in such a way that many understandings are possible. It is precisely these personal understandings, or subjective experiences, that facilitate change in an individual. This is especially important if we consider that a metaphorical expression activates a broader part of the brain than a literal sentence. Greater activation enables the incorporation of more diverse experiences, memories and knowledge that we possess into the problem we are dealing with at that moment. Even if we don’t have a problem, a story can help us deepen or change some insight about ourselves or something that troubles us daily. A story about a boy/girl who wets the bed at night would have much less effect than a cloud that fails to hold the rain inside. Cloud and rain are much more abstract and can be associated with bed, night, diapers, going to the toilet, recognizing the moment to go to the toilet, etc. Every child will find in it exactly what he needs. In a literal story with a bed and night, the experience of the story would be limited.
- In what way have the illustrations empowered the story you told in your book?
The illustrations, which the artist made in a warm and childlike style, allow children to identify with the main character and learn something valuable about themselves that they can then apply in their everyday life. It is also important that the illustrations are made with a simple expression, allowing children to identify with them by recognizing a style close to them. Still, at the same time, it can encourage them to draw the main character and his new adventures, which happened.
- Are you working on a new writing project, you can tell us about?
I am currently working with a proofreader on the English translation of my first book, “There is a story…” which describes a psychotherapeutic process in which the psychotherapist, instead of giving advice, tells stories allowing the client, as well as the reader, to find their own answers. Because of that book, people named me the successor of Jorge Bucay. I am also working on the third part of the same because readers persistently ask for sequels. In addition, I practice illustrations through therapeutic picture books that I publish on Amazon. Probably the most important thing is that I’m also working on the sequel of the children’s picture book I made and illustrated with a group of children. I stared at a story, and a group of children added the elements I connected to one story. After that, the children made illustrations which I combined with mine into one, and we published a book. It’s important to say that it was an inclusive adventure that included different children. What came out is that the book significantly inspires children with special needs, so a seven-year-old boy with autism drew and wrote a sequel after reading the book. I helped him, and we published a picture book. I also recently published a picture book based on a story written by my three-year-old nephew.
Europe Books thanks the author Mauro Lacovich once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book CLOUDY. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, I wish that this book and its metaphors are of considerable support for parents and educators, and that through reading what happens to the child protagonist, children can get what they want because they have all the strength and power to change.
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy this very pleasant and enjoyable reading!
Your editor!