The Little Girl Behind the Mirror
Stella, the little princess of the Village of the Mirror, disappeared years ago. The only hope for the end of her parents’ tears is the water spring in the woods and its mysterious message that no one really understands. One day a little gypsy girl appears, tender and bewildered, with two carefree pigtails and a milky-coffee mark on her cheek. She is the only one with the special gift of being able to speak to the spring. In the magic of its reflections, she comes to know Princess Stella who speaks of the coming of a red star.
The people in the village make fun of the little gypsy, but she has Patapa, the local madman who holds a surprising gift of wisdom in a box that everyone thinks is empty. Then there is Nini, a true friend who loves to fire at the leaves with his slingshot and run in the Field of Wonders. There is also the elderly Hale, who understands the appeal and the danger of the spring and knows that it hides a secret for each of us.
About Matteo Astone (Austin, Minnesota Author)
Matteo Astone is a scientist, a clown, a lover of the social circus and volunteer work. He loves it when all of this is put to play and used to educate whether in hospitals, in sheltered homes, in street slums, with children in all parts of the world. Children have taught him to wonder at the little things in life and dream large. He believes in the special power of children's stories to help us look at the world with new eyes, to talk about important things in a simple way and to touch the hearts of the young and not so young.
Matteo was born in Padua, Italy, in 1987. He currently works in a cancer research center in Austin, Minnesota. Over the years, he has been a volunteer worker in his hometown and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, and the Philippines, taking his red nose and love for children wherever he travels.