Ceccoli, Nicoletta

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Ceccoli, Nicoletta

Personal

Born in San Marino. Education: Attended State Institute of Art (Urbino, Italy).

Addresses

Home—Via 28 Luglio, 184, 47893 Borgo Maggiore, Repubblica di San Marino. E-mail—nceccoli@omniway.sm.

Career

Illustrator. Exhibitions: Work exhibited at Bologna Children's Book Fair, Bologna, Italy; L'Art a la Page, Paris, France; Ottogallery, Bologna; Storyopolis, Los Angeles, CA; and Daimuru museum, Osaka, Japan.

Awards, Honors

Three-time recipient of Communication Arts award of excellence; Andersen Prize for Best Italian Illustrator, 2001; Society of Illustrators Silver Medal, 2006.

Illustrator

Anna Lavatelle, La superbarba, Maresche (Italy), 1996.

Guido Quarzo, Talpa lumaca pesciolino: tre piccole storie di bambini, Fatatrac (Florence, Italy), 1997.

Vanna Cercenà, A immagine e somiglianza, Fatatrac (Florence, Italy), 1998.

Riccardo Geminiani, Nuvolando, Arka (Milan, Italy), 1998.

Paola Pallottini, Maria Moll Cappero, Fatatrac (Florence, Italy), 1999.

Gail Gilles, Il respiro del drago, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 1999.

Carmen Martin Gaite, La torta del diavolo, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 1999.

Beatrice Masini, L'uomo della luna, Arka (Milan, Italy), 1999.

Vanna Cercenà and Nicoletta Codignola, Teseo e Arianna, Fatatrac (Florence, Italy), 1999.

Chiara Carminati, Il mare in una rima, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2000.

Italo Calvino, La foresta radice-labririnto, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2000.

Maria Vago, La bambina bianca, Arka (Milan, Italy), 2000.

Dacia Mariani, La pecora Dolly e altre storie per bambini, Narrativa Fabbri (Milan, Italy), 2001.

Carlo Collodi, Le Avventure di Pinocchio, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2001.

Bianca Tarozzi, Storie di Matilde, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2001.

Riccardo Germiniani, Teresa è nervosa, San Paolo (Milan, Italy), 2001.

Adriana Merenda, Il mistero delle luccipietre, Nuove Edizioni Romane (Italy), 2001.

Charles Perrault, Fiabe classiche. I racconti di Mamma Oca, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2001.

Sara Boero, L'estate del non ritorno, Fatatrac (Florence, Italy), 2001.

Ornella Pozzolo, Anna senza confini, Arka (Milan, Italy), 2002.

Stella Blackstone, An Island in the Sun, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

Francesca Lazzarato, Sei fiabe di gatti, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2002.

Miguel Ángel Asturias, L'uomo che Aveva tutto tutto tutto, Mondadori (Verona, Italy), 2003.

Tanya Robyn Batt, The Faerie's Gift, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Josephine Evetts-Secker, reteller, Little Red Riding Hood, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Tanya Robyn Batt, reteller, The Princess and the White Bear King, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Malachy Doyle, The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Lynda Gene Rymond, The Village of the Basketeers, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005.

Joseph Helgerson, Horns and Wrinkles, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Dashka Slater, Firefighters in the Dark, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Carol Ann Duffy, The Tear Thief, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Brian Keaney, The Hollow People, Knopf (New York, NY), 2007.

Lynda Gene Rymond, Oscar and the Mooncats, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2007.

Kate Bernheimer, The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum, Schwartz & Wade (New York, NY), 2008.

Also illustrator of Rapunzel, Ta Chien (Taiwan); Der sonne und mond, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag (Basel, Switzerland); Romance Poetry and Fruit Gathering, Grimm Press (Taiwan); and Gli indagatori del mistero and Fiabe ebraiche, Mondadori.

Sidelights

Illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli was born and still lives in the Republic of San Marino, a little-known enclave that, surrounded on all sides by Italy, is actually the oldest constitutional republic in the world. Despite her political allegiance, Ceccoli represents Italy in the world of art, where in 2000 she was awarded the prestigious Andersen Prize as the best children's book illustrator in Italy. Although Ceccoli's illustrations have been familiar to Italian readers since she began her book-illustration career in the mid-1990s, for American children they have been a newfound delight. First appearing in the pages of Stella Blackstone's picture book An Island in the Sun, Ceccoli's soft-edged, almost surreal art has since been paired with texts by Joseph Helgerson, Carol Ann Duffy, Lynda Gene Rymond, and Malachy Doyle.

Cecceci trained in illustration at the State Institute of Art in Urbino, Italy, and received her first picture-book project in 1996. Quickly attracting the attention of larger publishers, she soon juggled projects from Verona-based Mondadori, Florence's Fatatrac, and Milan publisher Arka. Her Italian work, which includes creating art for Carmen Martin Gaite's La torta del diavolo, Italo Calvino's La foresta radice-labririnto, and Ornella Pozzolo's Anna senza confini, was represented three times at the prestigious and highly selective Bologna Children's Book Fair. In 2006 Cecceci earned the equally coveted silver medal from New York's Society of Illustrators.

Response to Ceccoli's work among English-speaking readers and critics has been enthusiastic. Reviewing her work for Tanya Robyn Batt's version of The Princess and the White Bear King, Linda M. Kenton noted in School Library Journal that Ceccoli's rich-hued pastel and acrylic paintings "magnify the adventure, offering varied perspectives and highlighting the magic of the northern landscape." Evoking what Booklist contributor GraceAnne A. DeCandido described as a "pleasant, dreamy and brightly colored" summer day, her images for An Island in the Sun feature "whimsically colored" details, while Laurie Edwards maintained in her School Library Journal review of the same book that Ceccoli's "surreal" and "memorable" illustrations are "stronger than the story." A Kirkus Reviews writer called her work for Josephine Evetts-Secker's retelling of Little RedRiding Hood "a glowing feast for the eyes," and cited in particular the illustrations' "luminous colors" and "deft combination of visual delicacy and richness." Calling attention to Ceccoli's characteristic "round-faced, folksy" characters, with their oversized heads and large, expressive eyes, Angela Reynolds noted of her art for Rymonds's The Village of Basketeers that these characters inhabit a unique world of Ceccoli's creation: "a curved, windblown world full of light and fantasy colors."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2002, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of An Island in the Sun, p. 1530; March 15, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Little Red Riding Hood, p. 1307; November 1, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Princess and the White Bear King, p. 486; December 1, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales, p. 50; September, 2006, Robyn Gioia, review of Horns and Wrinkles, p. 208.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April, 2004, Janice Del Negro, review of Little Red Riding Hood, p. 324.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2004, review of Little Red Riding Hood, p. 132; May 1, 2005, review of The Village of Basketeers, p. 545; August 15, 2006, review of Horns and Wrinkles, p. 842; October 1, 2006, review of Firefighters in the Dark, p. 1025.

Publishers Weekly, March 4, 2002, review of An Island in the Sun, p. 78; December 23, 2002, review of The Faerie's Gift, p. 69; February 2, 2004, review of Little Red Riding Hood, p. 76; November 8, 2004, review of The Princess and the White Bear King, p. 54; September 11, 2006, review of Horns and Wrinkles, p. 55; October 9, 2006, review of Firefighters in the Dark, p. 54.

School Library Journal, July, 2002, Laurie Edwards, review of An Island in the Sun, p. 83; August, 2004, Catherine Threadgill, review of Little Red Riding Hood, p. 107; January, 2005, Linda M. Kenton, review of The Princess and the White Bear King, p. 86; May, 2005, Angela J. Reynolds, review of The Village of Basketeers, p. 96; February, 2006, Miriam Lang Budin, review of The Barefooot Book of Fairy Tales, p. 116; October, 2006, Jayne Damron, review of Firefighters in the Dark, p. 126.