The Adventures of Cipollino

A 2026 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book!One of 100 Scope Notes’s Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children’s Books of 2025!A Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview selection!One of New York Magazine / The Strategist’s Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025! Featured in The Strategist (New York Magazine) Holiday Gift Guide: “Carefully Selected, Unusually Special Gifts Under $50!”“Heroes are made, not grown-unless you happen to be a salty little onion, the titular star of the Italian children’s author Gianni Rodari’s farcical novel of vegetable rebellion, The Adventures of Cipollino, originally published in 1951 and translated into English for the first time by Antony Shugaar… The vivid character names, Dasha Tolstikova’s lush watercolor illustrations and the prominent theme of freewheeling underdogs triumphing over a stuffy bureaucracy will carry young readers effortlessly through this anthropomorphic adventure.”

– Jennifer Hubert Swan * The New York Times *A metaphor for power and the fight for justice. A rather good topic for children in 2025, wouldn’t you say? This is very much a novel intended for kids 10+… Ideal for a teacher readaloud. – Betsy Bird * A Fuse #8 Production (A School Library Journal blog) *“I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this little onion… Cipollino is the voice of a generation!” – Kristina, Bookseller * Books Are Magic (Brooklyn, NY) *An absolute triumph, a book with stunning, colorful illustrations on nearly every page-one sure to delight readers from 9 to 90… The little onion boy who once fought against the produce monarchy now belongs to all of us. Once a story is out in the world, it can’t be contained; it grows wild, sprouting wherever someone needs it most. – Sophie Hoffer * Warm as Toast *Wry text by Rodari (The Book of Whys) presents the adventures of young Cipollino (or ‘Little Onion’), one of seven brothers living in a whimsical world populated by anthropomorphic fruits, vegetables, insects, and animals… As an introduction notes, ‘insurgent ingenuity triumphs over the petty corruptions and caprices of overripe oranges, steamed tomatoes, and bitter lemons’ in this witty tale… Tolstikova portrays Cipollino’s quests via emotive, mostly unlined watercolor illustrations of the fruits, veggies, and more, which are peppered throughout the rambunctious narrative. * Publishers Weekly *Tolstikova’s watercolor-style illustrations, which are new for this first English edition, brighten nearly every spread with scenes of anthropomorphic figures topped by fruit or vegetable heads and joined by the occasional animatedly talking spider, mole, or other animal… Sly, silly fun with political and class-war overtones. * Kirkus Reviews *It’s no surprise Rodari won the Hans Christen Andersen Medal in 1970… Rodari’s canny resolutions, community diversity, and silly heroics show that his hope in the future lies with his young characters and young audience: stay clever, have fun, help each other out, be yourself, and eat right! Ideas which resonate across time and place, no? … This new edition features beautiful illustrations from Dasha Tolstikova so for these alone, put this on top of your ‘to read’ piles. – Luke Steere, Wilson Middle School (Natick, MA) * Youth Services Book Review *One of New York Magazine / The Strategist’s Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025! “The illustrations are so mischievous, funny, and gorgeous, it makes it even more of a delectable read.” – Author and illustrator Ruth Chan * The Strategist *

Italian author Gianni Rodari wrote many beloved children’s books and was a recipient of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He was also an educator who understood the liberating power of the imagination. He is one of the 20th century’s greatest authors for children, and Italy’s greatest. Decades after his death in 1980, Rodari’s writing remains as powerful and innovative as ever.

Antony Shugaar is a writer and translator. His translation of Rodari’s Telephone Tales received the 2021 Batchelder Award for Most Outstanding Children’s Translation and was awarded the 2020 Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs English Translation Prize.

Dasha Tolstikova is the author and illustrator of A Year Without Mom, which received four starred reviews and was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. She is also the illustrator of several of her own books, and her illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn.