Toledo, Eymard
Juju und Jojô
A story from a big city
Translated from Portuguese by Michael Kegler
© 2019 Baobab Books
Original edition
40 pages, hardcover, 29 x 22.5 cm
CHF 25.00 / € [D] 19,00 / € [A] 19,60
ISBN 978-3905804-92-8
Ages 5 and up
Foreign rights available
→ Foreign Rights Catalogue
The twins Juju and Jojô live in a very, very big city, and if they want to see the sky, then they have to tilt their heads back very, very far. In the olden days, their neighbour tells them, her house was the highest in the neighbourhood. The girls can’t imagine that, for today her house is the smallest one in their street, and they don’t know anything other than life in the densely built-up city.
But there’s also a tree growing in front of their house. It's a Jabuticaba tree – also called a Brazilian grape tree. Their father planted it when they were still small and it's already grown as high as their balcony. It not only gives them its sweet fruit, but butterflies live in it, all sorts of different types of ants crawl up it, and crickets chirp away in its branches. At first Jojô doesn’t understand Juju’s fascination for these insects ...
Eymard Toledo’s highly detailed collage illustrate the texture of the big city: the crush in the bus, the bustling activity in the streets, the rows of houses. And right in the middle of it all stands the Jabuticaba tree, which braves its inhospitable environment and provides a universe of insects – who no one takes much notice of – with a living space. Juju observes it closely, however, and in this small world she discovers the big picture. When there’s another power cut and the lift gets stuck and the lights go out, then Jojô shares her joy at seeing a firefly.
The Author
Eymard Toledo was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. At the age of 25, after finishing her arts studies, she travelled through Europe on her own. It was Berlin where she decided to stay, and where she completed her education, earning a master’s degree in industrial design. She has been living in Germany for more than twenty years now. She is married and has two sons.
Her first book Bené, faster than the fastest Chicken was awarded as one of the Most beautiful German Books by the German Foundation Buchkunst, and selected as Book of the Month by the German Academy for Children’s Literature.
→ Eymard Toledo's website
