Mafalda: Book One
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.
Coming on April 8, 2025.
Praise
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Mafalda is a hero of our time.
— Umberto Eco -
Each Quino book is happiness.
— Gabriel García Márquez -
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 -
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.