The Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI) and Editorial Estrella Polar present the story "Les aventures de la Bio i la Medi" by Pilarín Bayés and Martí Gironell, to bring science and health closer to children. The IDIBGI has promoted the development of this story with the aim that children can have a first contact with the functioning of the human body, and also, in turn, that the story is a first seed to encourage future scientific vocations.
The book arrives in bookstores on November 22, and will be presented next Tuesday November 28 at 18h in an event at the School of El Foment of Girona open to everyone. The event will be attended by the authors Pilarín Bayés and Martí Gironell, as well as representatives of IDIBGI, and will be organized by Llibreria 22.
This pioneering project is an exceptional collaboration between two authors of reference in Catalonia, the illustrator Pilarín Bayés and the writer Martí Gironell, in conjunction with IDIBGI, the only biomedical research institute in the province of Girona. The initiative has been made possible thanks to the Joan Oró 2023 grant from the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI).
In this story, Bio and Medi, two twins with an innate curiosity, begin to ask questions about the human body when Bio suffers from a cold. Thanks to a magic potion, Medi travels inside Bio's body to the lungs, exploring the respiratory system and meeting characters with an important role in the immune system. The story, in addition to captivating young readers with the illustrations of Pilarín Bayés, promotes a positive vision of health, connecting with IDIBGI's biomedical research, from the story by Martí Gironell.
"As a children's book illustrator, having Martí Gironell as a partner is an extraordinary privilege," says Pilarín Bayés. "I really enjoyed doing the story because it is an opportunity to bring together the charm of a story, the emotion and suspense it arouses, whose theme will be useful for children in their health and in their way of understanding how to live better. I am happy to have done it and I am looking forward to presenting it", says the illustrator.
"For me, these adventures of Bio and Medi have a double objective: to encourage curiosity so that children ask questions and have the desire to know, and at the same time try to encourage them to read," says the writer Martí Gironell, who adds: "And there would even be another, a third objective: to encourage future vocations of medical researchers!"
"From IDIBGI we are excited to be able to collaborate with two renowned personalities in Catalonia to disseminate science among children. As a CERCA center in biomedicine, we have the responsibility to raise awareness of health research, which is what provides solutions to the diseases that affect us," explains Marga Nadal, director of IDIBGI.
To write the story, the authors have counted on the advice of Olga Tura, a researcher in the research group on Respiratory diseases at IDIBGI and the Trueta Hospital, offering accurate information about the respiratory system from her experience. "In our group, we investigate the cause of respiratory diseases, as well as new treatments or therapies that can be transferred to clinical practice. We hope that this story will inspire children who, when they grow up, will want to continue on the scientific path we are on now," says Olga Tura, IDIBGI researcher.
According to Jordi Mas, general director of the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI), the entity that annually awards the Joan Oro Grants, the book that we present today "represents an agile, lively and original communicative format, a story that aims to influence the curiosity of children, stimulating knowledge about the human body and the immune system". In his opinion, this project "contributes to strengthen scientific dissemination in Catalan with an innovative approach in the approach of the content and the image that accompanies it".
For Patrizia Campana, publisher of Estrella Polar: "At Estrella Polar we are committed to publishing works that transmit positive values for society and bring science closer to children. In this sense, we are very proud to have Les aventures de la Bio i la Medi in our catalog, and even more so when it comes from two prestigious authors, such as Pilarín Bayés and Martí Gironell, and the support of IDIBGI, which has helped us a lot in our work and in the dissemination of this initiative".This story is a valuable educational resource for children, families and schools throughout Catalonia. It seeks not only to awaken the scientific curiosity of the youngest, but also to normalize the use of the Catalan language in the biomedical and scientific research context. With initiatives like this, IDIBGI reiterates its commitment to scientific dissemination and with the aim of promoting future scientific vocations among the new generations.
Synopsis of "Les aventures de la Bio i la Medi"
Bio and Medi are very curious twin sisters. They love to know how all the elements around us work and what they are made of, from devices such as telephones and televisions to plants and animals, but one day Bio gets sick and they both realize that they don't know how the human body works! To help her sister, Medi takes a potion to make herself small and enter her body to find out what's wrong... There she will meet Mon, an immune system agent who will teach her all the nooks and crannies and secrets of the human body, and together they will find a way to fight the evil viruses that have attacked Bio.
About Pilarín Bayés
She was born in Vic in 1941 and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Barcelona. In 1964 she published her first story for children and began to collaborate with the magazine Cavall Fort. He has published more than a thousand books, some translated into several languages. She has collaborated in countless publications and exhibitions, and her drawings have been applied to all kinds of media and formats: aucas, posters, large murals, without forgetting her sculptor facet. When she was young she started working for the magazine Cavall Fort and for the publishing house La Galera. Although she has mainly targeted children and young people, Pilarín has also tried her hand at caricature in periodicals such as El Correo Catalán, Oriflama or El 9 Nou. In 1991 the Generalitat de Catalunya gave her the Cross of Sant Jordi and, in April 2011, Vic awarded her the Gold Medal of the city. For this reason, a large traveling anthological exhibition was held: Benvinguts al circ de la Pilarín.
About Martí Gironell
With a degree in English Philology and Journalism, he collaborates in media such as El Punt Avui, La República and L'Illa dels Llibres. His books include El pont dels jueus (2007); La venjança del bandoler, which won the Néstor Luján Historical Novel Award in 2008; L'arqueòleg (2010); L'últim abat (2012), and El primer heroi (2014). In 2018 he won the Ramon Llull Prize with La força d'un destí. He has also published the illustrated albums Un talp al meu jardí (2021), Un talp a l'antic Egipte (2022) and Un talp a l'antiga Roma (2023). Paraula de jueu (2020) was his last novel. In 2022 he won the Prudenci Bertrana Prize with the novel El fabricant de records.
