Foreign rights

AKIARA was founded in Barcelona in February 2018 by Inês Castel-Branco, continuing the vision she had created while Publisher at Pequeño Fragmenta, with books translated into over 10 languages.

The publishing house’s name refers to both the Catalan expression “aquí i ara” which means ‘here and now’ (but written with a K, to make it more playful—like children’s books should be!), and the Japanese word Akira, meaning ‘clear, bright, happy.’

AKIARA publishes beautifully-illustrated children’s books focusing on ecology, spirituality, tales from other cultures, social justice, psychology, philosophy, education, interculturality, and mindfulness. Its titles aim to stimulate children´s curiosity by encouraging the art of reading, thinking, contemplating, dialoguing and getting to know themselves.

We are very proud to have sold the rights of our books in several countries and hope to find many more homes for them abroad!

For more information, please contact Veronique Kirchhoff, from Vérok Agency, who represent our books in the most important Fairs, such as Frankfurt and Bologna: vero@verokagency.com.

 

Download  FOREIGN RIGHTS CATALOG 2019

  • Sailer on Land

    Laia de Ahumada
    Gemma Capdevila
    It’s John’s first summer in the mountains, alone with his grandmother, after having lived all his life on a sailing boat with his parents. He will discover the value of soil and come to appreciate it as he did the sea. With summer and the imminent beginning of high school, it will also be time for him to take the path from childhood to adulthood. He confides in the logbook his mum gave him before leaving to help refugees and shares there all his new feelings and experiences.
    All rights available

  • The Beach of the Lazybones

    Alex Nogués
    Bea Enríquez
    Anna Llisterri
    ‘My name is Sofia. I am 11 years old and when I grow up, I want to be useless’. So begins the innocent, impromptu, profound and moving story of a little girl who loved to play on the beach in winter, who preferred Mozart and Kandinski to mathematics and who couldn’t bear her father telling her that, one day, she will have to ‘earn a living’. In praise of uselessness in a technological, cold and hasty society.
    All rights available

  • The Path

    Mario Satz
    Yara Kono
    An entertaining poem dedicated to the art of walking, filled with disconcerting questions. Yara Kono’s illustrations play with words and take every page apart to bring reflection. Even though we don’t always know where we are going, walking is always a pleasure. Amongst many and varied ones, there is a path that is or will be ours. To find it, we will need attention and patience.
    All rights available

  • My Pirate Grandpa

    Laia Massons
    Zuzanna Celej
    Every sunday, grandpa was telling stories to his grandkids, sitting on the bench of the park next to their home. Pirates stories or childhood memories that came to his mind or from his own story. Until, one day, he was taken to the hospital and everything changed...
    All rights available

  • Parco

    Alex Nogués
    Guridi
    Parco decides to come back to this world to say goodbye, another time, to his wife, children, friends... A beautiful and humorous picture book about the passing away of our dear ones and how much we miss them.
    Rights sold in RUSSIAN

  • Where Do Ideas Come From?

    Jordi Amenós
    Albert Arrayás
    On a rainy day, Julia and her friends are busy drawing but Julia struggles to find inspiration. Luke knows exactly what to do and brings them to the garden, where lives the Genie of Ideas, inside a tree with a very large hole. A story about inspiration, creativity and the birth of ideas.
    All rights available

  • Why Do We Cry?

    Fran Pintadera
    Ana Sender
    Tina Vallès
    «Why do we cry?», asks Mario to his mum. She answers by talking about the clouds, the sea, chests and walls. A delicate picture book, filled with poetry, defending the right and importance to cry.
    Rights sold in ITALIAN

  • Breathe

    Inês Castel-Branco
    "Mum, I can’t sleep tonight. I am nervous and so many thoughts are going through my mind.” “Let me show you how to breathe…” A beautifully illustrated picture book that will enable children to overcome their anxieties through playful breathing, stretching and relaxation excercises they can relate to.
    Rights sold in ENGLISH (for North America), FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, PORTUGUESE (for Brazil), POLISH & CHINESE SIMPLIFIED

  • The Two Wolves

    Wilfred
    Each one of us has a good and a bad wolf inside, explains an Indian legend. “Which one of them will win?”, asks a little Indian girl to her grandfather… His answer results brief and surprising.
    All rights available

  • The Feather

    Maria Beitia
    Tina Vallès
    A feather breaks away from a pigeon and falls into a bush. When a mother finds it, she gives it a new life.
    All rights available

  • The Drop of Water

    Inês Castel-Branco
    What happens to the drop of water when it falls into the ocean? The drop disappears. But what am I, the drop of water or the water in the drop? Nothing happens to the water. Death won´t be different from life. An adaptation of a text from Raimon Panikkar, this beautiful book explains death to children, in a serene and natural way, in the year of the 100th Anniversary of the philosopher’s birth.
    Rights sold in GERMAN, PORTUGUESE (for Brazil), KOREAN & RUSSIAN

  • The Awakening Of The Tree

    Dídac P. Lagarriga
    Albert Asensio
    A small tree wakes up after a long winter, barely able to see. As it grows, it is going to experiment the seasons and the interaction with the other trees, animals and humans.
    All rights available

  • Tao

    Manel Ollé
    Neus Caamaño
    How to introduce children to the philosophy of taoism? Trough selected extracts of the Tao Te Ching, talking about rivers, houses or trees, they will come to discover how to think about life in a diferent way.
    Rights sold in FRENCH

  • Haru's School

    Flavia Company
    Luciano Lozano
    Follow the five years apprenticeship of four students and their master Haru in a Dojo, through nine episodes focusing on Oriental disciplines such as origami, callygraphy, taichi, meditation, gardening, cleaning, playing, silence or archery.
    All rights available

  • Jatakas

    Marta Millà
    Rebeca Luciani
    A long, long time ago, some very peculiar animals with magic powers were born in Southeast Asia. They say that everywhere they went, they transformed shadows into light. Six beautifully illustrated Jatakas, old tales in which Budha and his disciples transmit love and respect towards their surroundings and others.
    All rights available

  • The Sixth Sense

    Laia de Ahumada
    Mercè López
    Next to the five senses, we must have another one that enables us to see, listen, smell, taste and feel what we can not see with our eyes, our ears, our nose, our mouth or with the touch: the sixth sense. A beautifully illustrated book about listening to what we feel inside, intuition and sensitivity.
    Rights sold in FRENCH

  • Coming and Going Day

    Alain Allard
    Mariona Cabassa
    For thousands of years people had been Nomads, following the rhythms of the earth, the passage of the sun and the dance of time. Now, however, they have houses and barely move. But, each year, they keep on honoring their wandering roots in a communal Coming and Going Day.
    Rights sold in PORTUGUESE (for Brazil)

  • Yoga

    Míriam Raventós
    Maria Girón
    Can you do many things at once? It’s not so hard... Well, many, many years ago, in India, some men realized that doing many things at once was fairly easy but they wondered what would happen if they only did one thing, the simplest, the most natural one of all: breathing… A beautiful introductory book to Yoga.
    Rights sold in ENGLISH (for North America), GERMAN, ITALIAN & UKRAINIAN

  • The Song of Silence

    Nina da Lua
    Gemma Capdevila
    “Where do the stars hide when the day comes?” asks a little boy to his mum. “What if we asked this to the silence?” she replies. In a sensitive and poetical text, reminiscent of Haikus, Nina da Lua takes us on a journey through pain, separation, friendship, dreams, hope… silent situations in which stars hide.
    All rights available

  • Dripperlipper

    Tina Vallès
    Gabriel Salvadó
    Dripperlipper is an unlucky boy. He has one distracted and one surprised eye and always walks around with an open mouth and his shirt soaked with a trail of saliva falling down. Boney is a colourless scrwany fish that lives in the fishes’ stall of a travelling funfair. One day the funfair moves into Dripperlipper’s street…
    All rights available

  • The Gentile And The Three Wise Men

    Ramon Llull
    Ignasi Moreta
    Àfrica Fanlo
    Once upon a time there was a gentile, that is, a man who wasn’t practicing any religion. His way crossed the one of three wise men, a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim. As each of the three men tried to convince him his faith was the real one, they came to realize this encounter was a chance to unite rather than to divide.
    Rights sold in FRENCH & ITALIAN

  • Where Is The Moon?

    Jordi Amenós
    Albert Arrayás
    One night, before going to bed, Pablo looks attentively at the moon for the first time. He finds it so beautiful, magical, big and shiny. But a few days later he realises it’s getting smaller and smaller…until it disappears completely. Where is it gone? Can his friends help him solve the mystery?
    Rights sold in KOREAN & CHINESE SIMPLIFIED

  • Your Song

    Inês Castel-Branco
    María Ella Carrera
    Xavier Melloni
    There is a legend that says that in an African tribe, when a woman discovers she is expecting, she rushes to tell the others. A few days later, at sunrise, they all get into the jungle to uncover, together, the song of the new child, the one they believe will accompany him his own life.
    All rights available

  • The Tightrope Walker

    Alex Tovar
    Àfrica Fanlo
    Life is like a thread we walk on every day, taking one step after the other, climbing high and going down, facing the rain and the storms, getting lost and crossing the path of people putting us in the right direction… making each one of us a tightrope walker in our own way.
    Rights sold in GERMAN & CHINESE SIMPLIFIED

  • Nasrudin's Stories

    Halil Bárcena
    Mariona Cabassa
    Nasrudin is a wise man who will disconcert young readers and adults alike with his spontaneity and unhibitions, so similar to those of children. His stories go much further than conventional jokes, they are an example of the transforming power of humor!
    Rights sold in PERSIAN