Gianni the Barn Owl

Alice Rohrwacher & Mara Cerri

Two sisters find three warm eggs when their father demolishes the oven in the garden. They place the eggs under a light bulb, but only one of them hatches. Thus begins an unforgettable summer for the two little girls. The chick is fed with worms and grows more and more every day. They realize that he is a beautiful barn owl and call him Gianni Barba. White, large and mysterious, it goes hunting every night and then returns at dawn. Until one day something happens that the little girls will never forget.

This title is part of TERREMOTI, the new series from Orecchio acerbo. Sudden accelerations, sudden changes in gaze, discoveries, transformations, traumas. In other words: childhood, a land of small and large “earthquakes”.

 

Selected for the White Raven 2024, with the motivation:

“When a father knocks down a wall, a nest with three lukewarm eggs is suddenly revealed. Although kept warm under a heat lamp, only one egg is pecked open. A strange-looking chick hatches. This is the beginning of an unforgettable summer for two sisters, the protagonists of the story. They become the chick’s mothers, feeding it worms at first, then pieces of meat, mice and moles. And slowly this mysterious bird grows up into a gorgeous barn owl – a »barbagianni« in Italian – which they then name Gianni Barba. White, large and sensitive to light, he begins to fly at night in search of prey, returning only at dawn, until, at the end of the summer, he disappears forever. Alice Rohrwacher tells the story of the barn owl slowly growing up and the childlike excitement of the sisters who raise it in precise and vivid words. Mara Cerri accompanies the story with striking, enchanting pictures.”

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