Child's Play

Roberta Angeletti was born in 1964 in Civitavecchia, Italy.

After graduating from the Accademia delle Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) in Viterbo, she began teaching in junior and senior high school, dedicating time and effort particularly to school projects, such as drama activities, film clubs, exhibitions and workshops, etc.

Her career as an illustrator began almost by chance in 1995 when she participated in the Illustration Competition of the Bologna Children's Book Fair and was selected as one of the winners. In 1996 she was awarded second prize in the “Hopla” Young Illustrators’ Competition, and took part in a number of other exhibitions and competitions, which helped her work to circulate and receive good notices - DisegnoInsegno (I Draw/I Teach), Verbania, 1996; Immaginario (Imaginary), Venice, 1996; Pulcinella per Lele Luzzati (Pulcinella for Lele Luzzati), Genoa, 1997; Le Immagini della Fantasia (On the Wings of Fantasy), Sarmede, 1998; first prize with Arrivano I Mostri (Here Come the Monsters), Chioggia, 1998; S Zavel, first prize, Cassano Ionio, 1999, and others.

From 1996 to 1997, she took part in short illustration courses and workshops with Lele Luzzati, Kveta Pacovska, Maurizio Olivotto, and Arcadio Lobato.

Her works have been published by various foreign publishers since 1996 (Villarica Editora, Brazil, and Grimm Press, Taiwan), as well as De Agostini, for whom she illustrated four books in the series entitled A spasso con… (Travelling with…), supervised by the British Museum Press, the editor of the project. This series, co-published by a number of foreign publishers, was officially presented in the Louvre Museum Bookshop in Paris, where an exhibition of the original drawings was set up by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (1998).

Since then, she has illustrated about twenty books for various Italian and foreign publishers (Emme Edizioni, Castalia, Giunti, Falzea, Mondadori, Edicolors, Editions Belin, Grimm Press, Ragged Bears, Child’s Play, Kyowon, collaborations with Edumond...etc.) and since 2001 has edited the illustrations for various school projects of the publishing house Lattes in Turin (Musipratica Junior and New Literary Anthology for Junior High School).

She gave up teaching altogether in 2001 to dedicate herself entirely to her work as an illustrator, which also includes professional and educational training (workshops, seminars, collaborations with libraries and schools in activities aimed at promoting literature).

During the past few years, she has participated in a number of illustration exhibitions, some of the most important ones being Le Stelle Nascoste (The Hidden Stars), Turin, 2001; Lavagnette (Little Slates), Bari, 2002; L’altra metà di Pinocchio (The Other Half of Pinocchio), Genoa, 2002; Libriamoci (Let’s Get into Books), Macerata 2003; an exhibition of the winners and artists selected by the City of Turin Illustration competition, Turin, 2003; Sulle Ali della Fantasia (On the Wings of Fantasy, Sarmede and Rome, 2000/2006, Sirenette di carta e Soldatini d’inchiostro, Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2005, Immagini del Fantastico 2005, Anagni, Antichi incanti, Exhibition Bologna Children’s Book 2006. ITALIAN FESTIVAL, Exhibition of Italian illustrators, Taipei, Taiwan 2003/2004, I colori del Sacro, Padova 2005, Antichi incanti, Bologna’s Book Fair 2006, Peer Gynt a colori, 1°Rassegna di Illustrazione dedicata a H. Ibsen, Casamicciola Terme, Ischia (NA) 2006.

She received in 2006 an Award of Italian Illustration after the Selection for the Annual 2006 organized from Associazone Illustratori.

Her own one-man shows were held in 2001 at Palazzo Bruschi Falgari in Tarquinia (her hometown) and at the “A. Modigliani” Municipal Picture Gallery in Follonica, Grosseto. In 2004 another personal exhibition at Libreria Bibli, Roma.

She takes part in the organisation of Pagine a Colori Illustration Exhibition in Tarquinia, from 2005.

See books by Roberta