A lively guide to the history and decorations of Turin’s historic Palazzo Madama, the booklet is designed for younger readers and visitors. It follows a historical path illustrating the complex story of the building, from its Roman foundations to its medieval extensions, and from the stately Baroque palace to D’Andrade's interventions, and on to the Subalpine Parliament and the site of the Risorgimento to the more recent restoration work that has given the city a place that is a symbol of Turin and its history. The texts by Ivana Mulatero are accompanied by a character called Farinello, illustrated by Petra Probst.

The Belgian artist Panamarenko is described by Nico Orengo as the toy maker from Antwerp because of the ludic and experimental peculiarity of a great many of his works.
The character of the children rhyme is Panamarenko/Pepto Bismo, a sculpture of the artist and a flying little man who, after leaving his studio in Antwerp, allows himself a journey by flight and by sea. Then he is fished out for being exhibited at the Biennale of Venice. But Pepto Bismo has a free mood-attitude and, on board of a white improbable airship, he will run away to come back to the stillness of the countryside, after visiting Giotto at the Cappella degli Scrovegni, where he will test new “Unidentified Flying Objects”.

Nico Orengo (Turin, 1944-2009), has written, among others, A-ulì-ulè. Filastrocche, conte, ninnenanne, (Einaudi, Torino, 1972) and Spiaggia, sdraio e ombrellone (Einaudi, Torino, 1999), Dogana d’amore, (Rizzoli, Milano, 1987), poems like Cartoline di mare (Einaudi, Torino, 1984), Terre blu (Melangolo, 2000), a touching and philosophical fairy tale for adults with the title L’allodola e il cinghiale (Einaudi, Torino, 2001), illustrated by Luigi Mainolfi, and the much praised novel La curva del latte (Einaudi, Torino, 2002) about the political and cultural changes of the late 1950s.

Panamarenko (Antwerp, 1940 - Brakel, 2003), artist and inventor, he was one of the most relevant personalities of the Belgian panorama in the 70s. Between ’62 and ’64 he experiments, together with Hugo Heyrman, with new materials, chiefly polyesters, which enabled the most varied of objects to be made. Prolific, visionary, experimental, Panamarenko has created an incredible set of objects with which “to play”, in which Utopya plays an important role. His first, real “machines” such as Prova-Car, a white metal model of a futuristic racing car, or the human-propulsion Airship (also called Six-bladed Helicopter) as well as the flying machines he was to build later, are the superbe result of an alchemy made of sofisticated calculations and archaic construction which evoke the poetic, epic dimension of human flight, lost since Leonardo da Vinci, and restore the nostalgic image of the pioneer, of adventure and exploration. 

The Dignitaries of Destiny get together to decide a birth: a new life will be soon assigned to a woman who wishes to be a mother. But the decision is taking too long, and the person who's going to be born decides to ask whether to choose their destiny. Here begins the exciting adventure of their birth, full of hopes and expectations, but also of unexpected events that run the risk to prejudice the Call to Life. But finally the miracle is made and what they have just imagined becomes true... From the synergy between Miguel Angel Mendo's words and Chen Zhen's images, a tender and fun fable telling children the mystery of birth through a simple and poetic language, that goes with the colours and shapes of Art.

Chen Zhen (Shangai, 1955 - Paris, 2000). His artistic style had as its basis the encounter between Western and Chinese culture. The artist drew from Taoism, as well as Buddhist religion and philosophy, re-elaborating their meanings, and using them to represent an alternative to the negative influence exercised by the consumer society. The artistic value of his sculptures and installations lies in his constant striving for harmony between body and spirit, which leads to the enriching of one’s inner life.

Miguel Angel Mendo (Madrid, 1949). A graduate in psychology, he began working as a psychotherapist in close contact with the world of children and alternative pedagogy. He has written books for children, but also for the theatre, and in the past has been a teacher of cinema, a contributor to various periodicals and an editor for television and radio programmes. The following have been translated into Italian by Edizioni Piemme Junior: Per un maledetto spot which won the Lazarillo Award in 1989, one of Spain's most prestigious prizes for books for the young, and also Un museo sinistro e Che i morti stiano zitti!

The Dignitaries of Destiny get together to decide a birth: a new life will be soon assigned to a woman who wishes to be a mother. But the decision is taking too long, and the person who's going to be born decides to ask whether to choose their destiny. Here begins the exciting adventure of their birth, full of hopes and expectations, but also of unexpected events that run the risk to prejudice the Call to Life. But finally the miracle is made and what they have just imagined becomes true... From the synergy between Miguel Angel Mendo's words and Chen Zhen's images, a tender and fun fable telling children the mystery of birth through a simple and poetic language, that goes with the colours and shapes of Art.

Chen Zhen (Shangai, 1955 - Paris, 2000). His artistic style had as its basis the encounter between Western and Chinese culture. The artist drew from Taoism, as well as Buddhist religion and philosophy, re-elaborating their meanings, and using them to represent an alternative to the negative influence exercised by the consumer society. The artistic value of his sculptures and installations lies in his constant striving for harmony between body and spirit, which leads to the enriching of one’s inner life.

Miguel Angel Mendo (Madrid, 1949). A graduate in psychology, he began working as a psychotherapist in close contact with the world of children and alternative pedagogy. He has written books for children, but also for the theatre, and in the past has been a teacher of cinema, a contributor to various periodicals and an editor for television and radio programmes. The following have been translated into Italian by Edizioni Piemme Junior: Per un maledetto spot which won the Lazarillo Award in 1989, one of Spain's most prestigious prizes for books for the young, and also Un museo sinistro e Che i morti stiano zitti!

A tower builder undertakes a long journey in the hope of finding new ideas and building the most beautiful tower for the King’s son. The journey becomes a metaphor for an arduous artistic search and the town of Trees, the Bar of Stones and a rocky road travelled together with a car salesman are the places in which new shapes, colours and scents are found. Time passes inexorably and the tower builder’s search does not seem to bear fruit; neither the places he visits nor the people he meets along the way suggest a brilliant idea. Only the peace of a moonlit night will give him the right inspiration and save his life.
Fabrizio Monetti’s images and the words of Guido Quarzo’s story offer the stimulus that brings children closer to the world of primary sensations.

Guido Quarzo was born in Turin in 1948. He graduated in pedagogy from the University of Turin and taught in primary schools for many years. Considered one of the most interesting children’s writers, in 1995 he was awarded the Andersen Baia delle Favole prize for best author. For hopefulmonster he has published Luì e l’arte di andare nel bosco and Storie di pietra e d’altro.

Fabrizio Monetti has performed in several theatre companies and has also worked as an actor in films such as Portami via and Benvenuti a San Salvario, as well as in radio and RAI television series. As a painter he exhibited in several personal and collective exhibitions until 1994. He has Il costruttore di torri as the basis to stage a production for a single actor, which has been performed in schools, libraries and theatres.

Child Gino Enn introduces one by one his classmates, which he describes by taking cue from their physical faults and behavioral habits that characterize them and that, highlighted by an entertaining perspective inversion, determine their role as monstrum: Cucco Fulvo, for example, has ears that resemble speakers and a pulsing nose that make him look like a television; Foffo Frino blows up like a balloon every time he breathes and soars up in the sky, while Ciaba Brina cries fruit candy and the Fritti Fratti twins transform into bicycles. 

The little monsters’ classroom that Piero Gilardi paints and Sebastiano Ruiz Mignone narrates is the metaphor of an ideal world where the lack of prejudices and the tolerance towards each other allow to take on a positive turn on anyone’s faults and habits, and get to know each other in a moment of authentical magic. 

Piero Gilardi (Turin, 1942). Artist who has, since the Sixties, been centered around the difference between the terms Nature - to which “reconstruction” he applies since the first Tappeti natura in polyurethane - and Culture, particularly the technologic culture to which the artist has vastly contributed with the creation and activities of Parisian association Ars Technica. In La classe dei mostriciattoli, Gilardi takes from his own academic background and his experience in the social field. 

Sebastiano Ruiz Mignone (Santo Stefano Belbo, Cuneo, 1947). Theatrical and cinematographic set designer, he has written for television and radio; he was a finalist for the Città di Verbania prize - Il Battello a Vapore in 1994 for his novel Guidone Mangiaterra e gli sporcaccioni.