Roberta Balestrucci Fancellu: Annie. Il vento in tasca.
Illustrated by Luogo Comune
In 1894 a twenty-three-year-old Lithuanian American Annie Cohen Kapchovsky (also known as Annie Londonderry) embarked on an incredible journey: to cycle around the world in fifteen months! With each conquered stage, Annie becomes more determined, self-assured and wiser. Along the way, she encounters diverse people, their customs, and lands, documenting her impressions in the New York World newspaper. Starting from America, she travelled to France, then Egypt, India, China, and Japan, before returning to the USA on March 23, 1895. She achieved her goal on September 12 of the same year, forty days ahead of the set deadline.
The protagonist of the story is the real-life person Annie Londonderry, the first woman to cycle around the world, greatly influencing the process of women’s emancipation. The story offers a wealth of topics for discussion, such as incredible determination, perseverance, and internal motivation for achieving goals as well as an analysis of the social conditions of the time and the fight for gender equality.
ROBERTA BALESTRUCCI FANCELLU is a Sardinian writer dedicated to children’s and youth literature, who combines writing with her passion for sport and with her civil commitment that has a lot to do with Sinnos Publishing house. With a lifelong passion for children’s literature and a profession as a storyteller, she conducts workshops in schools, provides training, and promotes reading at the Centro Servizi Culturali in the Sardinian town of Macomer.
LUOGO COMUNE is an Italian award-winning illustrator and mural artist, currently based in Bologna. Since 2017 he works as a freelancer, collaborating with several clients. Regarding his art practice, his works span across both indoor and outdoor spaces, using a wide variety of mediums. His illustrations appear in magazines, children’s books and in collaborations with art collectives. Besides his editorial work, his murals can be seen in Italy, Poland, Austria, England, Spain, Greece and Morocco.