A book to read with kids: today's recommendation from Laura Leibiker of Siglo XXI

Broadcaster, journalist, and editor . There's no area where books live that Laura Leibiker hasn't explored. She's worked in TV, radio, and magazines aimed at children . So, if she were a little girl today and had to choose just one title, she'd respond almost with despair: "I find it very difficult to choose just one... because no book is enough for a good reader!"

Since 2006 , she has dedicated herself to publishing children's and young adult literature . She first served as Editorial Director of Children's and Young Adult Literature at Editorial Norma and is now editing the new children's collection for Siglo XXI.

And at Clarín 's request, Laura Leibiker reviews the role of books in her life and recommends these must-haves for boys and girls.

–If you were a kid now, what book would you never miss?

–I find it very difficult to choose just one… because no book is enough for a good reader! A book always awakens the desire to read another, to keep reading. Thinking about the girl I was, it has to be a big book, with many pages. I'm going to cheat a little: it's not one book, it's three, but it could very well be a big, big book: The Saga of the Confines by Liliana Bodoc. A trilogy that encompasses the world: power, love, struggle, fury, solidarity, and the idea of community and the future. If we think of a smaller "me," I'm leaning toward the A Series of Unfortunate Events saga by Lemony Snicket.

–What do you remember about your childhood readings? What books were there or arrived at your home, and what did you find at school?

–I was a very well-read child; I nourished myself with whatever was at home: from the telephone directory to the Robin Hood and Iridium collections, Constancio Vigil's books from the Atlántida publishing house ( El mono relojero, El imán de Teodorico ); An Elephant Takes Up a Lot of Space by Elsa Bornemann; Supersonic Reports by Syria Poletti. And everything I could get my hands on! Magazines, comics, and cartoons: from Smart magazine (a puzzle game) to the comics Susy, Secrets of the Heart; Patoruzú, Isidoro , and the brilliant Intervalo, El Tony, and D'Artagnan. Also Humor magazine, Mafalda comics, and storybooks like Caramelos surtidos or Cuentos para chicos by well-known authors . Some of my favorites were those by José Mauro de Vasconcelos: Let's Warm the Sun, My Orange-Lime Tree, The Japanese Garden, Rosinha, My Canoe ... and The Captains of the Sand by Jorge Amado. From my school readings, I remember Notebooks of a Dolphin by Bornemann.

–How does the publisher choose the books it will publish, and how is a children's book constructed?

Siglo XXI began publishing for children just over a year ago. The selection for publication is informed by the themes or themes that run through the adult catalog (science, political and social thought, nonfiction texts), to which we'll add books for younger readers and, soon, fiction texts. The editing process is very enjoyable: we generally start with a preliminary idea that we discuss with the authors of the texts; then we work on the editing (kneading the text, adapting it to the target reader, ensuring the appropriate length) and page layout. As we're a very new project, the initial developments included the collection's design (format, aesthetics, materials). With these issues defined, we create a layout and choose the illustrator we think is most suitable to complete the meaning of the text. We review the drafts, and we go back and forth several times between the writer, the illustrator, the designer, and the editor to finally shape the book we dream of. For the covers, we usually put together several sketches (both design and illustration) that are discussed with the editorial team: we want it to be attractive, stand out at the point of sale, and, at the same time, clearly express the spirit of the book that the reader will find when they open it.

–Which title in the publisher's catalog has a special story you can tell?

– A Sea of Little Fires , by Eduardo Galeano, illustrated by Poly Bernatene. Galeano's work is very important for the 21st century. That's why one of the first projects was to select some of his texts to create a children's book. We called on Poly, an illustrator with an incredible command of light and shadow in his work. We knew that Galeano's text is very popular, and everyone has a possible image of the "sea of little fires" in their head. We worked for several months with Poly, who reread Eduardo's books to find images, ideas, and concepts that would help him illustrate this book. The result is surprising and exciting, and is loved by both children and adults. That's why we're already thinking about other books with Galeano's texts for children.