Nicoletta Costa

Nicoletta Costa is one of Italy’s best-selling and best-loved children’s author. She has illustrated over 350 books and has even written most of them. She was born in 1953 in Trieste, where she lives and works. After graduating in Architecture at the University of Venice in 1978, she worked for some years in her father’s firm; but she soon left the profession to dedicate her time exclusively to her real passion: writing and illustrating children’s books.

Since 1980 Nicoletta has been narrating stories with words and images expressed from a child’s perspective; her simple, yet striking, personal graphic style makes her illustrations instantly recognizable and very easy for children to imitate.
Her amusing chatacters live adventures that help children feel more confident and self assured. Very often teachers use Nicoletta’s stories as a pedagogical strategy to help children cope with the various developmental stages of their lives.
Her most loved character is Julio Bunny, a sweet, shy rabbit, and a very loyal friend, often scared but always able to find the courage to overcome everyday challenges, with the help of his friends.

Nicoletta Costa’s books, published by the major Italian Publishers and some foreign Publishers, have received many International Prizes such as the Catalonia d’Illustraciòn Award (1986), the Golden Pen Award (1988), the Grinzane Junior Award (2002) and three Christian Andersen Awards, the last two for her most loved character Julio Bunny, who became also a character at a TV series.