Tick-tock, tick-tock, it’s time for monsters. The clock runs or slows along with the upside-down heart of a child struggling with his fears. Tick-tock, tick-tock, it’s 3pm, the alarm clock is ringing and the nap monster is about to pop out! Have you ever thought about how many monsters live in our lives? Monsters that at any age animate our deepest anxieties, ready to grow or almost disappear following the rhythm of our heart. Like the fear of being alone, that need to be loved and reassured that young and old live.
The story for children aged five and up is entitled “Monster of the nap” written by Lorena Dolci, a journalist from Messina who lives and works in Catania, for twenty years the face of the regional telecolor broadcaster, also a collaborator of Repubblica and L’Unità accompanied by illustrations by Amalia Caratozzolo, also from Messina, lecturer at the IED in Rome, illustrator for Corriere della sera who has worked, among others, with La Stampa and Castelvecchi editori. The volume will be in bookstores from 22 April and will inaugurate the series of children’s books “Piccoli lunatici” by Lunaria Edizioni from Catania.
The nap monster is “extensible and rascal, capable of going unnoticed in the eyes of adults, almost likeable when it is tiny, frightening in the extra-large version”, presents Lorena Dolci, author of “Evelina and Marcelino”, “written with four hands with a bum », sui Street Boys of all latitudes, published by “Sensibili alle leaves”, and translator of the children’s book “The great adventure”.
“This story started when my son was little and we shared everything. We went through many adventures together and it came spontaneously ». Confined in a drawer for several years “it was discovered by Amalia Caratozzolo and thus the book was born”, says Lorena who confesses to having been “a courageous child by day and fearful at night”.
But who is the nap monster? «It embodies our fears, it is the anguish of separation, this hunger for love for which we would always like to be close to someone while we have to learn to be alone. The monster is this sense of loneliness that we carry with us – the author emphasizes – But monsters are not always defeated and we get rid of them once and for all. There are fears we have to live with and sometimes it is also a victory to know how to control them and learn to understand that we are the ones who feed them. If we manage to keep our daily anxieties at bay, maybe they will become small, very small. Sometimes the “monsters” seem bigger than they really are ».
These scary creatures almost always show up at night, while Napping Monster prefers daylight. «The trigger is the mother’s nap, that few minutes, perhaps on the sofa, with one eye open and one closed, the door open and ready to jump at the slightest sigh that so many mothers experience exhausted by reconciling family and work. But this temporary separation triggers anxiety, the monster becomes threatening and our little hero does all he can to defeat him ».
The book, according to the author, is particularly suitable for children who go to kindergarten or to the first grades of elementary school «when there is separation from their parents, a delicate and important moment to be able to manage. The protagonist passes from the self-centered exaltation of today’s children, always at the center of the world, to impotence and fear. But the story is a bit cathartic: the warm and liberating embrace of the mother arrives and resolves everything. A physical contact that we took for granted and that we have never learned to appreciate as in this moment of pandemic. The hug is important for children and adults and we still miss it ».
To close the story “The game of the hours”. «I think it is important to teach children to have the perception of the sense of time, which flows fast when you are well and have fun, slows down in moments of crisis. The nap maybe lasts five minutes, but in the child’s perception it is an extended time that lives intensely ». Valuing our time. «The game helps to trigger a dialogue, to ask your child for the best and worst moment of the day and to tell their own. It can be difficult, because our lives are routine and if we don’t stop and look inside ourselves, we miss the moments that give meaning to the days ». Tick-tock, tick-tock, the clock runs: ready to fight our monsters.