I don’t change in something else but in myself.

We can start from the last verse of the nursery rhyme of changes by Bruno Tognolini in order to try to tell how Tuttestorie Bookshop has become in 2006 also a festival of literature by changing itself too. We are female booksellers of children’s literature who are used to accomplish a job that is made of small daily actions to promote reading, visible and invisible actions. With Bruno Tognolini we had been devising the festival program for children inside the Festival of Gavoi for two years, driven by the desire to weave together the two worlds (often too distant one from the other) of children’s literature and literature for adults. Cagliari didn’t shine for the quantity or the quality of the initiatives aimed for children and so we said with Bruno: why don’t we create a festival in our city, all dedicated to children’s literature? At the beginning our dream place was Bastione Saint Remy, but for a moment we also considered Poetto beach as venue, then eventually we’ve arrived at Exmà Cultural Centre, which became the festival home.

In “Blablà” square you can meet beards and diapers, eyeglasses and baby bottles, strollers and push scooters, schoolchildren celebrating, writers, illustrators, artists and children of any age under the watchful and amused eye of our colored t-shirts: our valorous volunteers! In the last years we’ve invited schools from all over Sardinia, guests from all over the world, writers, illustrators, scientists, journalists, artists, musicians, all available to explore with us and with the audience a common theme which is different every year.

We started from The Questions. And then we had The Disobedience, The Beasts, The Change, The Night, The Secret, The Incomprehensible, The Home, The Surprise, The Extra, The Courage, The Bonds, The Desires, The Land, The Body, The Travel, The Time, The Families.

The Poetical Office hanged out his laundry of children thoughts and the book stories intertwined with our lives. And since we like very much things that become intertwined, at Tuttestorie Festival the Children’s Literature has a lot of fun while crossing art, theatre, dance, cinema and new technologies.

Since 2010 the family has grown up and the home has become bigger: Tuttestorie Festival made its nest also in other municipalities, from north to south of the island, thanks to a network of librarians and passionate teachers who decided to join us for the party.

Since 2006 the festival has earned important accolades. The last in order of arrival is the EFFE LABEL, a quality mark that goes to the most important festivals in Europe. Tuttestorie Festival has been included among the 18 (out of 1200) most important literary events and book fairs in Italy according to the 1st Report about reading promotion in our Country, curated by the Book Forum Association upon commission of the Department for the Information and Publishing of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers: the only event dedicated to children’s literature along with the International Book Fair for Kids of Bologna. It has received the Medal of the President of the Republic, it has been awarded by the Centre for the Book by the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities as Best initiative of reading promotion for children and teenagers and it’s won along with Cagliari Municipality the National Award “City of Book” 2010.