Elephants & Butterflies

Un milione di farfalle is a 2007 book written by Edward van de Vendel and illustrated by Carll Cneut.

I photographed its beautiful pages a year ago, and they have been waiting in my iPhoto archives way too long!

The story describes the strange adventure of growing up and falling in love for the first time. 

The young elephant Stach starts seeing butterflies. His parents explain that this sign means

 that he has to leave the security of his home and go travel the world. Alone, Stach starts

looking for someone who can also see butterflies and share what he is going through.

 When he finally meets a special someone, all the butterflies flutter in his stomach...

 Born in Belgium in 1969, Cneut studied graphic design and worked as the art director of an advertising agency

 until 2000, when he decided to dedicate himself full time to illustrating. Since his 1996 debut, his children's

books have won many awards and have published around the world. Un milione di farfalle is available

in Italian, French, German, Spanish and other languages, while as far as I know there is no English edition yet.