Christmas in August!

It's August and still very hot in Japan but I've already got my Christmas present!  Guess what arrived today!



わたしのはじめての絵本作品の見本が家に届きました！
レイチェル・カーソンの「センス・オブ・ワンダー」と、マツに止まるイスカの群れにインスピレーションを得て作った、森に出かけクリスマスを探すお話です。
昨年のボローニャ・チルドレンズ・ブックフェアに持ち込み、運良くスイスのAtlantis社の編集者の目にとまり出版契約を結ぶことができました。あと数日後の8月19日に発売予定だそうです。日本のアマゾンでも取り扱ってくれています。



I can not help smiling with my first published picture book in my own hand. It is printed very beautifully!
The book is about a girl and her mother going for a walk in the winter woods and looking for traces of Christmas.

I started developing the idea in early 2012 after watching a flock of crossbills on a conifer.  The scene somehow reminded me of my favorite book, "The Sense of Wonder" by Rachel Carson.   And with the great help of my illustrator friends, Rosemary, Ruchi and my mother, I created a rough dummy book, which I brought to last year's Bologna Children's Book Fair.   And it was very luckily picked up by a lovely editor, Seraina from the Atlantis verlag!  I really enjoyed working on this book because exchanging thoughts and ideas with Seraina was such a fun.  Thank you so much all for your support.  Without you, I would never have made such a beautiful book! 

◆◇◆ Weihnachtsspuren im Winterwald (Looking for Christmas)◆◇◆
by Narisa Togo, translated into German by Seraina Staub.
publisher: Atlantis verlag
The book will be out on the 19th August (at least in Switzerland). It's in German but you can find it here on Amazon uk!