In Libros de las Malas Compañías (Bad Company Books) we are celebrating! The true story of the mouse who never asked for it (La verdadera historia de la ratita que nunca fue presumida in Spanish) has been included in the New York Times' list of the twenty-five best books for children and young adults.
We were thrilled to see this story make it to the New York Times. Every year, this important American newspaper publishes a list of the best books, according to an exhaustive analysis, of that year. Since their first selection in 1983, they have tried to be fair and include writers from other parts of the world, among them great women writers such as Elvira Navarro. However, it should be noted that among these twenty-five books, this is the only one written by a Spanish woman.
Ana Cristina, who introduces herself under her stage name Ana Griott, tells us in her own version, but borrowing from a version by the Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, the true story of the well-known tale of the "stuck-up little mouse". We know that this little rat became presumptuous due to the promulgation of the Moyano Law that established compulsory education. Many religious orders began to found Catholic institutions. Among these were numerous schools for girls that sought to educate them to be good wives, demure, and not to cause situations that would cause the husband to lose face. As these religious orders were influenced by German Romanticism and their taste for traditional tales, which they saw as a reflection of the national spirit, they took many of these to serve as examples and adapted them to suit their own interests. This is why the archduke's version was unknown. Ana wanted to make a new version of this famous tale to show that this little mouse is not and will never be conceited and that it is bad decisions that lead to bad situations because, if you choose a predator, you are in danger.
We are certainly very happy at the publishing house to be able to see how this book, which is not so much a female revision of a classic as the recovery of an original story, is reaching what are considered to be the most important literary lists in the world. We hope that more of our stories will reach the rest of the world and that we will be able to make known a little bit more of what we collect in our publishing house.
