The forest of fireflies

In the heart of the Sibillini Mountains of the Marche region, in our imagination, there exists a remote village where the lives of Paolino and Adele—the only children growing up there—seem to flow uneventfully. It remains a mystery, then, how a harmless bite of a delicious coconut biscuit can unleash the wrath of the Fairy Sibyl herself, guardian of those mountains and their ancestral forces, which only she knows how to govern.
And why, from behind that laurel bush sacred to the god Apollo, who once bestowed her powers on the Fairy, does a voice filled with irreverence and sarcasm resonate? In the moment suspended between an unseemly, furious argument atop a treetop boat and the tale of an ancient legend told by the gruff Signora Elvira, our two lost and adventurous protagonists will venture along the path that leads to the firefly forest. There, a nocturnal vision will make them accomplices in a no small task: to reawaken in the "grown-ups" a true respect for the innocent, silent poetry of Nature.

Barbara Cerquetti lives and works in Civitanova Marche, where she has been running a bookstore for several years, focusing on children's books. She has also been involved in reading aloud for children and adults, and promotes initiatives such as animated fairy tales, meetings with schools, and literary afternoons. She has already published "The Firefly Forest. A Story of Friendship in the Sibillini Mountains," "The Lost Island. A Journey through the Memories of Conero," "I Ricordnati," "The Trap and the Mathematical Solution," and "The Butterfly Garden and Other Butterfly Stories" for Giaconi Editore.