Yota K. Alexandrou A drop of beauty
picture book | 6+
ISBN: 978-960-594-121-5 • Price: 14,40€ • 23×33 cm. • Pages: 40
The book | This book opens a window onto the world for younger and older readers and encourages them to seek its real beauty. Yota Alexandrou’s writing and Theda Mimilaki’s illustrations take the reader to every corner of the earth, focussing on beauty that inspires admiration, that embraces everything with love and kindness and that connects to knowledge and wisdom.
In a sensitive, poetic and reflective way, Yota Alexandrou places the idea of beauty in the real world, but also in our inner world as an apprenticeship for achieving happiness.
Beauty is depicted on every page as a part of life. Τhe writer collects drop by drop, with the rhythm of maturity, real moments of everyday life, of relationships, of feelings and of human achievements. A remarkable book of high aesthetic quality whose pithy speech and eloquent images introduce beauty to children as a powerful emotional experience and highlight its universal value.
The author | Yota Alexandrou is an acclaimed children’s book author, preschool teacher and actress, with a Masters degree in Drama and the Creative Arts in Education from the University of Exeter (U.K.).
She has also worked over the years as a drama teacher and children’s animator, running educational programmes and drama and theatre workshops based on her books.
To date, Yota Alexandrou has had 17 children’s books and two books of theatre plays published. Many of her books have been short listed for literary awards.
Yota Alexandrou has done author visits to schools throughout Greece and abroad (Cyprus, U.K., Belgium and Luxembourg). In April 2023, Yota was key author for the Greek section of the European School of Brussels III. Here, she ran experimental workshops for children aged 4 to 12 based on four of her books. The books’ themes covered volunteering (“A Red Nose, a Violin and a Dream”), the rights over one’s own body (“Only if I Want To”), diversity and visual impairment (“Fenia, the Fairy of Sounds”) and bullying (“The Bullies of the Deep and Robin of the Seas”).
In May 2024, Yota was invited by the Day Nursery (Garderie) of the European Commission in Luxembourg to present interactive theatrical performances of “A Red Nose, a Violin and a Dream” to Greek-, English- and French-speaking children.
Theda Mimilaki received her Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Athens School of Fine Arts, majoring in painting. Additional interests included graphic design, multimedia and printmaking. She has participated in digital arts festivals and joint exhibitions around Europe and Asia. Over the last years, Theda Mimilaki has focused on educational aspects of visual arts in primary schools and on illustration of children’s books.