Childrens book inspired by Covid launched in Gibraltar

A Spanish language childrens book inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic was launched in Gibraltar last week.

Joaquina Cañada, a well-known writer and poetess, from in the Andalucia area authored the book using experiences from the pandemic.

The project was launched in collaboration with cross-border social group Mar del Sur and aims to help children deal with what was happening at the time with Covid.

Ms Cañada has launched her books previously in Gibraltar and one of her books ‘Cartas al viento’ was launched at the John Mackintosh Hall just before Covid.

Her newest book ‘El Mago de los cuentos y la troupe de super heroes’ was launched at the John Mackintosh Hall, with local ventriloquist and lawyer Levi Attias narrating the stories with his puppet Janoj the skunk.

Also narrating was Diego Navarro as El Mago.

In her stories, Ms Cañada openly talks about the tragic Covid deaths and her characters speak of ‘los heroes’, doctors, nurses and organisations trying to combat the virus.

Some two years ago, Ms Cañada had a select group of people narrate some of the stories which would be broadcast every day on Cadena Joven, a radio station based in La Linea.

Mr Attias was approached and asked if he’d be interested in narrating some of the stories, where he did so with Janoj.

Other narrators also added their voices and every day throughout the Covid-19 lockdown Cadena Joven would broadcast the stories.

They were mainly geared for children and the project went on air daily from March 24 to June 18 2020, every single day.

The stories turned into the book ‘El Mago de los cuentos y la troupe de super heroes’ which was launched at different venues in Spain and in Gibraltar.