Sicilian education: Silvia’s silence tale

Silvia Petrucci tells us her mother’s vision of social relations and Sicilian education, and she does it with the oldest instrument available to man: the art of word and writing, weaving a tale that feeds itself on imagination and everyday life.

Everything that happens around us is extraordinary in a way or another, the problem is that we do not want to be aware of it. Then let’s stop staring at smartphones, focus on the analogue present and turn on our hunger for memories; the world is one and a hundred thousand.

I. Hello Silvia, can you talk a little about your book “The Silence Talk?”– “The tale of silence” is one of the stories I invented for my daughter and that she has selected: the ones that were asked more frequently have become written texts, presented to “Leima editore” and illustrated by a very good professional of Palermo, Chiara Buccheri.
The story tells an educational fragment of a mother to her son: while waiting for a bus, many things happen and only those who are not distracted or alienated with their phone can catch them, enriching their baggage of curiosity, attention, listening and immersing in reality. It is curious that the most successful stories – those frequently-asked by my daughter and then selected for writing – are fragments of teachings that communicate messages which are the basis of children’s education: even the other ones that are about to emerge in the next months have this characteristic.

II. Which were your goals when you decided to write this book?
– The purpose of telling a story was to build a relational and imaginary moment even in the absence of books (all stories are born at times when we did not have the opportunity to read); the purpose of publishing it is to leave a trace of a particular growth-moment to my daughter and to share stories that, as in the passage between oral and written tradition, have the strength to embody listener’s memory.

III. In the coming days in Palermo will be held the even “Marina di Libri”: how will your book
be transformed in a workshop for children during one of the days of this wonderful event?
– During “Marina di Libri” the book will firstly be presented, then read, and finally an illustrator will present children some illustrative maps dedicated to the theme of Tale.

IV. In case of missing the event, where could the book be purchased?
– The book is distributed all throughout Italy: for example in Milan it will be in Feltrinelli and Mondadori Duomo from June 15th. It will also be possible to ask for it in many bookshops.

Dear, thank you so much for the time you spent with us, we wish you all the best!