Mafalda: Book One
$18.00
Written and illustrated by Quino
Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne
Six-year-old Mafalda loves democracy and hates soup. What democratic sector do cats fall into? she asks, then unfurls a toilet paper red carpet and gives her very own presidential address. Mafalda’s precociousness and passion stump all grown-ups around her. Dissident and rebellious, she refuses to abandon the world to her parents’ generation, who seem so lost.
Alongside the irascible Mafalda, readers will meet her eclectic entourage: dreamy Felipe and gossipy Susanita, young-capitalist Manolito and rebellious Miguelito. You can clearly see Mafalda is small, when she is dreaming in bed or soaring on a swing — “As usual, as soon as you put your feet on the ground, the fun finishes,” Mafalda grumbles — but her hopes for the world and her heart are as huge as can be. Generations of readers have discovered themselves in Mafalda’s boundlessly adventurous spirit, and learned to question, rebel, and hope.
Published on June 10th, 2025
Praise
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Mafalda is a hero of our time.
— Umberto Eco -
Each Quino book is happiness.
— Gabriel García Márquez -
Though her family was solidly middle class, Mafalda didn’t let that fool her into thinking that everything was fine in her unequal society. She was too sharp for that, too observant . . . She worries about the kinds of things that many parents want to protect their children from even noticing—poverty and war and repression . . . The expansive, bighearted politics of Quino’s strip feel out of step with this terrifying moment, but, then again, that may be precisely why now is the right time to return to its heroine.
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Quino’s cartoons made sense of the absurd details of life and society. Each lesson is a wink of silent laughter turned to pure philosophy, social criticism, expressive gestures, and the most refined humor. What a great companion Malfalda has been.
— Ana Merino -
I can't imagine Mafalda except as the witty girl she was, is, and always will be. Comic characters have that privilege (like Peter Pan) of never aging.
— Roberto Fontanarrosa -
The real Little Prince was Quino.
— Miguel Rep -
An acerbic 6-year-old skewers societal foibles . . . With its forthright, articulate, and frequently bickering cast of children, comparisons to Charles Schulz's Peanuts are inevitable . . . Mafalda rails against Argentinian leadership, decries wars and social crises abroad, and stands as a staunch advocate for women's rights . . . A historical comic strip with ongoing relevance and plenty to laugh about.
— Kirkus Reviews -
Although the concept of universalism has been sneered at for the past 40 years, evidence of its existence can be found in the pages of Mafalda.
— Tom Bowden, Book Beat -
Mafalda was a heady mixture of irony and sweet naivete. Filled with subtle references, thinly veiled political debates, and ellipses . . . Quino’s characters formed a community of belonging—a progressive, left-wing, and rebellious sensibility that readers around the world could identify with. Quino’s Mafalda thus became a contemporary myth, a way of giving meaning to modern social existence.
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Even those unfamiliar with the historic circumstances of Quino’s world will be amused by this classic collection . . . Rarely has so much detail been compressed into such a small space without looking busy. Like Schulz and Watterson, Quino’s a master of the wordless panel, coming after or in between several dialogue blocks.
— Susan Harari, Youth Services Book Review -
Mafalda is huge. Think Peanuts but imbued with late 60s/early 70s Argentinian politics. Still, it seemed so odd that I’d never encountered her before. If she truly was so influential, where were the translations? . . . I had a chance to read the new Mafalda [in Frank Wynne's translation] and to my infinite relief it was everything that I’d hoped for and more.
— Betsy Bird, School Library Journal's Fuse 8 Blog -
[Mafalda's] running gag is that its heroine is too political. She knows far more than any six-year-old should, and she uses that knowledge to skewer grown-up cowardice and complacency.
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"This is seriously the comic that the country needs in this moment,” said Ricardo Siri, who grew up reading “Mafalda” in Argentina and now lives in Vermont. (He is also the author of “Macanudo” and other work under the pen name Liniers.) “Mafalda has her point of view, but she always accepts as friends people who are very different from her.” . . . When wider American audiences do meet Mafalda, they’ll find a girl who resembles Ernie Bushmiller’s iconic character Nancy, but whose antics are entirely her own . . . Even if she’s unlikely to help Democrats and Republicans get along, her brand of innocent but opinionated curiosity could show the so-called adults in the room how to do better by future generations . . . “What Mafalda teaches you when you’re little, if you start to read with these books, isn’t to behave yourself but rather to ask questions, to doubt the world that comes from on high,” Siri said.
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The cartoon character Mafalda, with her massive round head, sixties bob, triangular dress, and black Mary Janes, appears innocent. But this inquisitive girl-against-the-world is no ingenue—Mafalda often fires off sharp, incisive, and cynical observations about the political world around her . . . When I was growing up in Argentina in the early aughts, in the middle of yet another political crisis, Mafalda taught me how to think politically, even when I was too young for it. Children enjoy this—they appreciate it when you don’t underestimate their intelligence, and rise to the occasion as a result . . .In many ways, the intergenerational battle that Mafalda represents still rings true, and is bound to educate nonconformist children in conformist times.
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Mafalda ran for less than ten years in Argentina (1964-1973), but in South America its eponymous protagonist is still revered both as a lovable cartoon character and as a symbol of resistance . . . This collection, the first of five volumes to be published in a new translation by Frank Wynne, reflects concerns both global and specific to Argentina in the 1960s and 1970s . . . Wynne captures nicely [Mafalda's] spirit.
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For many immigrants like me, Mafalda is more than a cartoon character. She’s a core memory, a mindset, a Latin American cultural icon. And in a country once again led by a president allergic to dissent, nuance, and the truth, what would Mafalda say to Trump? Whatever it might be, it would be sharp and right on time.
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This five-volume series gathers a collection of the comics translated into English by Frank Wynne, engaging new audiences with her wide-eyed curiosity, sassy retorts, and insatiable desire to understand the world . . . [Mafalda's] critiques of politicians, openness to the perspectives of others, and unwavering defense of human rights are universal—and especially timely.