New Davide Cali ‘heart-warming and entertaining’: Canberra Times
A VERY positive review of What is this thing called love? by Canberra-based writer and reviewer, Stephanie Owen Reeder, in the Canberra Times of 16 July.
In What Is This Thing Called Love? (Wilkins Farago. 32 pp. $24.99), Anna Laura Cantone’s playfully constructed people, with their long noses and bulbous eyes, are sure to raise a giggle even before Davide Cali’s entertaining story is read. Emma really wants to know what love is, and she asks the experts––her own family. Each answers according to their own interests: Mum tells her that love blooms slowly like a flower; Dad says that it is something that takes you by surprise, like a last-minute soccer goal; Grandma says it is soft and fragrant like a newly baked cake; while Grandad compares it to a finely tuned car engine. No wonder Emma is confused! But Emma shows that she understands love when she gives each member of her family something that is special to them, and they reciprocate when she gets sick and they all bring her something to make her feel better. And then there is the final little twist when Emma’s friend Matt comes on the scene. This is a heart-warming exploration of a difficult concept, presented in quirky but entertaining illustrations and with a gently humorous text which does not take either itself or the subject too seriously.