UominiAnimali (PeoplesAnimals)

UominiAnimali (PeoplesAnimals) is an animal collection inspired by vintage school wall charts, written and illustrated by Yoko Heiligers. All 25 animals are divided in seperate segments, which represent different views on that specific animal.

UominiAnimali is the result of Yoko’s love and respect for animals and her observations on different ways peoples approach animals. For example: some animals are pets to us, some we eat and others we admire at the zoo. Animals are intertwined with our lives: they are in our stories, we name constellations after them and we wear their skin as clothes. These and other aspects Yoko tried to depict in this informative and associative book, to share her fascination on the complex relationship between peoples and animals, as well as their beauty.

UominiAnimali was selected for The Unpublished Picturebook Showcase 3 on dPictus with the highest number of publisher’s votes and has been published by Orecchio Acerbo (Rome, Italy) in september 2022. Translations are on the way for Chinese (simplified), Korean, French and Dutch languages. UominiAnimali has been awarded with the Premio Orbil 2023, it was selected for the BRAW Amazing Bookshelf 2023 at the Bologna Bookfair and it was selected by the dPICTUS guest curators for the 100 Outstanding Picturebooks 2023. Also it was selected for the IBBY Honour List Italia 2023.

Yoko Heiligers (1983) was educated as an illustrator at the ArtEZ Arts Academy in The Netherlands. She creates (editorial) illustrations for various publications, but also comes up with and illustrates her own children’s stories and picture books. Her picture book Wauw Pauw won the Vlag en Wimpel 2017 (Special Mention of the Silver Pencil Jury 2017).