A book to read with the kids: today's recommendation is from Mercedes Rodrigué, from La Brujita de Papel.

Mercedes Rodrigué has done almost everything there is to do with a book : she studied Literature at the University of Buenos Aires, worked at Editorial Sudamericana, at Círculo de Lectores, and is currently an editor at La Brujita de Papel ; and she has written several titles for children, including Picarona, Un ratón comilón, Un sapo enamora , and La mensajera de los dioses, among others. She says that she was driven to reading by an illness: "Those big, black, fat tomes cured my boredom while also turning me into a devourer of books," she tells Clarín .

A mother of five children and seven books, she treasures this image: "From childhood, I remember Dad sitting in his orange armchair, the one he used to read, trying to teach me the first letters by reading newspaper headlines (a method that proved largely unsuccessful)." However, he learned early and has enjoyed the magic of words ever since.

If she were a girl, she says, she would really like the book Miedo (Fear ) by Graciela Cabal . And at Clarín 's request, she reviews the role of books in her life and recommends two must-reads.

–If you were a kid now, what book would you never miss?

–If I were little, I think I'd really like the book Miedo (Miedo) by Graciela Cabal; and since I'm a romantic (I used to read Primor, why not admit it!), when I was a little older, I'd definitely get hooked on Caro dice (Caro says) by María Inés Falconi.

–What do you remember from your childhood readings?

–From childhood, I remember Dad sitting in his orange armchair, the one he used for reading, trying to get me to learn my first letters from newspaper headlines (a method that proved largely unsuccessful). The teacher solved it much better. In any case, the books in the library, on the nightstands, or lying around the house were always at hand, like an inheritance, a mandate, or an invitation. But the first reading I remember on my own was from a collection of books called The Treasure of Youth, particularly the section on The Book of Interesting Stories. I was sick, in bed, and those fat, black tomes, full of prints and sections, cured my boredom while turning me into a bookworm. Later came the Robin Hood collection, Billiken, The Enid Blyton Five, and several forays into Minotaur publishing with The Wizard of Earthsea, Fahrenheit 451, and The Left Hand of Darkness . At school, my earliest memory is of my kindergarten teacher reading Dailan Kifki by María Elena Walsh, in the Sudamericana version with illustrations by Vilar. I was dying to know what happened to the fireman and the elephant, and all that nonsense had me enthralled, wanting to go back like in a serialized novel so they could read me the next chapter.

–How does the publisher choose the books it will publish?

–The books at La Brujita de Papel are chosen by a committee of “five witches”: my mother Gloria, my three sisters Isabel, Dolores, Teresa, and me. The text has to appeal to everyone, and if that doesn't happen, it can be effectively defended and convincing; but if that's not achieved, the text is discarded. After this step, an illustrator is found and the collection is defined. My sister Isabel does the planning and design. We work as a team and with consensus. We listen, we discuss, we edit. Almost everything undergoes transformations, like someone polishing a stone so that it shines. The process takes at least three months, from sketching to coloring to proofreading. Then there's also the choice of printer, the material (whether it's illustration paper, cardboard, hardcover, or paperback), and finally, once printed, we consider its distribution in bookstores and its visibility in the press and on social media.

–Which title in the publisher's catalog has a special history?

–From our catalog, we know and love all of our books; they all have something that justifies their selection. If I have to remember a specific story, I'd say it's the ones where we made mistakes: for example, in one called Colash , by Liza Porcelli Piussi and Cos, we skipped a paragraph and had to design a guitar-shaped sticker so it looked like part of the drawing and could be incorporated without it being noticeable. The book was moved to my mother's house, and we had the whole family glue it one by one. Another one I remember a lot, which happened last year, is that we realized, when the book was printed and ready to go to bookstores, that we had made Hiccup Doesn't Sleep , by Pablo Bernasconi, without his name on the cover. Horrible! When you realize these things, your heart just stops. At that time, talking with Pablo, we made the decision to distribute it in bookstores anyway, thinking that his identity as an artist was so strong that his illustrations would speak for themselves. We were right. The second reprint was with her name on the cover, but I suspect those from the first edition will one day be highly sought after. In any case, each book in our catalog has its own story. But the main thing when choosing a book is based on that dream of creating such an unforgettable reading experience that we've gained a reader for future generations.