We started Libros de las Malas Compañías (Bad Companies Books) in the spring of 2014 with the publication of La mujer esqueleto (The Skeleton Woman), since then it has given us many joys and some worries. This last year we have made some great achievements that we wanted to share with all of you.
To begin with, El rey solito (The king Alone) has been included in the Cuadernos de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil (CLIJ) Honour List. It is among the 100 best books of 2017, in the 6-8 years category.
CLIJ is a magazine specializing in children's and young adult’s literature, and it was first published three decades ago with a dual objective: to dignify literature that, because it is aimed at children, has always been considered less important, and to defend the cultural importance of reading from childhood onwards.
The OEPLI has included El pollo Kiriko (The Chicken Kiriko) and Los cuentos del erizo (Tales of the hedgehog) in the OEPLI Catalogue 2017, which is reserved for the best books published during the year. These two books have also deserved a place in the sample that the Public Libraries of the Community of Madrid make to bring the best books chosen by those who know the most about books, the librarians, to places in the Community of Madrid that do not have access to specialised bookshops. They are also included in the catalogue published to accompany the exhibition and have been exhibited during the Madrid Children's and Young Adults Book Fair.
The OEPLI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, publishes the catalogue catálogo LITERATURA INFANTIL Y JUVENIL ESPAÑOLA. Selección OEPLI 2017 (Spanish children’s and Young Adult’s Literature). A book/catalogue with a bibliographic selection of the best books for children and young adults by Spanish writers and illustrators, published over the past year. Works that, due to their quality, are worthy of being part of this list of honours as they are considered significant within the large existing production.
Considering that children's and young adult’s literature produced in the official languages of Spain has reached an important level of quality and publishing, in order to stimulate better dissemination in international linguistic spheres, to encourage the purchase of translation and publishing rights and to create a support of quality parallel to the logical commercial interests, the catalogue has been produced in Spanish and English.
The book/catalogue contains a selection of 200 titles composed of the different territorial sections of the OEPLI, and among the 200, there are two very special ones for us, The Chicken Kiriko and Tales of the hedgehog.
Finally, The Chichen Kiriko has been included by the Cuatrogatos Foundation in its selección de las 100 mejores obras (selection of the 100 best works) written in Spanish and published in Spain and Latin America.
The Cuatrogatos Foundation is a non-profit organisation created in Miami, United States, by writers Sergio Andricaín and Antonio Orlando Rodríguez to work in favour of culture and education. Among its main objectives are the research and study of publishing production in Spanish dedicated to children and young readers.
3 of the 4 books we published in 2017 have been chosen to form part of the Honour Lists, considered among the best of the year. This encourages us to continue with our publishing project based on caring for people (authors, illustrators, booksellers...), the environment (we do not print in China and our paper complies with the FSC standard) and culture (we produce literature without labels), and this fact proves it: 3 of the 4 books we published last year have earned distinctions that fill us with pride and fan the flame that set us on our way.
