Picture books
The Rainbow of Time
by Jimmy Liao
Special mention for the BolognaRagazzi Award 2020 in the Special Category dedicated to Cinema “Papa, why are you crying?” “It’s nothing. It’s just that the ending of this film is so moving.” When she very little, the girl lost her mother. Whenever the girl cried for Mama, her Papa would say: “Let’s go see a movie!” He’d say: “After all, Mama used to love to watch movies, so maybe one day we’ll run into her at the cinema.” The girl always fantasized that one day she would come across her mother at the movie theater, and she always projected her own life into the dramas being played out up on the silver screen.... One day she met a boy who liked the movies as much as she did. The two would go to the cinema after school and passionately discuss the film on the way home. Not long after, the boy emigrated overseas with his whole family, and they lost contact. But they had promised each other that one day they would meet again in the cinema. After graduating from school, whenever she felt exhausted from work, she would escape to the cinema to enter the quiet, secluded world of a film. She met him in a movie theater, and he worked in the film world. He told her ideas about the many films he wanted to make, and she told him about the many films she wanted to see. Their love was like the kind depicted in films, where the lovers would form a small household together. But like some films, life can be unpredictable. One day, they parted at the door to the cinema. It would be the last time that she would ever see him. But she discovered that she wouldn’t have to go the movies alone—because she had a young life growing inside her belly....
