Ledicia Costas: “You can write about death for children; humor may be the key.”

Galician children's author Ledicia Costas said that "you can write about death for children," but you have to find the key, which can be humor. Costas , author of children's books such as Escarlatina, la cocinera cadavera (2015), explained at the Frankfurt Book Fair that with this book she wanted to "break the taboo surrounding death."

“ In Galicia, we have a special relationship with death . My grandfather used to take me to the cemetery to change the flowers. Nowadays, this isn't something that's done. Out of a desire for protection, children aren't told about death, or they aren't told the truth,” Costas said.

Escarlatina is the story of Ramón, a 10-year-old boy who asks his parents for a cooking class, but they're going through financial difficulties and can't afford it. So, they find a cooking class on a website about Escarlatina, a girl who died of scarlet fever 150 years ago . This takes the boy to the world of the dead, where he finds his grandfather.

Costas was born in Vigo in 1979 and studied law, but abandoned a legal career to pursue literature because she always wanted to be a writer, she said in Frankfurt in a conversation with German journalist Brigitte Kleine, organized by the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Winner of the Lazarillo Prize for children's literature in three editions in 2015, 2017 and 2021 , she wrote Escarlatina because she wanted to “break the taboo of death.”

Costas grew up in a rural area in Galicia, where her grandmother corresponded with a witch , and she secretly read these letters, through which she began to become familiar with death, witchcraft, and the Holy Company.

From there, he began his interest in Gothic literature and the horror novels of American writer Stephen King, author of numerous works such as It , Carrie, Miseri, among many others.

This year, Stephen King rewrote the classic “Hansel and Gretel,” his first children's book for younger children, ages 5 and up, published in Spain by Lumen.

“I embraced Stephen King as a teenager and never let go,” said the Galician writer, who now also writes novels for adults.

Witchcraft is also a theme present in children's literature in Germany, such as in "Hansel and Gretel" (Hänsel und Gretel), which the Grimm brothers (Jakob and Wilhelm) collected and modified from German folk tales from the region of Hesse because they were from Hanau, a German town near Frankfurt, which is in that region.

Costas, winner of the 2015 National Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature , also addresses a complex topic in Feriópolis with humor, childhood depression , through the story of Lola, a 10-year-old orphan girl who lives with her uncles and with whom she does not get along.

He writes first in Galician and then translates his own works into Spanish, languages ​​from which they have been translated into German, Korean, Bulgarian, Czech, and Persian, for example.

Costas explained in Frankfurt that several co-official languages ​​are spoken in Spain : Catalan, Valencian, Basque, and Galician, which coexist with Castilian in their respective regions.

"The best act of love for a language is to write in that language," according to Costas, who lamented that fewer and fewer young people speak Galician in Galicia.

The Galician author also highlighted that the current outlook for children's literature in Spain is extraordinary in all official languages.

“ Children's and young adult literature is produced in Spain with such quality and diversity . We're writing about themes in Spain that are the first time these topics have been addressed anywhere in the world. We're pioneers, and we're producing extraordinary books,” Costas emphasized.