MORE THAN 40,000 READERS!!
Written in daily format,
ideal for easy reading
and hooking readers
EMOTIONS AND ADOLESCENCE
Friends, plans.
The first love.
The first confrontations with the family. The summer of awakening
PRESENT ON MANY SCHOOL PLANS
High literary value. Great affinity with the reader. Deep values and multiple cross-curricular connections
“
Hi. My name is Duna and this is my summer diary. I’m at my grandfather’s house with my two sisters. Our mother has abandoned us here in this blue and white village by the sea. I won’t deny it: it seemed like it would be the most boring summer of my life. But between the gang, our grandfather’s secrets, and a very interesting boy I met in the woods, it seems things are livening up. Everything points to this summer being special, with the kind of discoveries that make you grow.
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT PART TWO?
“
I’ve been writing this diary for two years already and it’s like my second-best friend. The best still being Max, of course. Our friendship has matured now that I’m fourteen, but the love I feel for him…is becoming a little complicated. What’s more, there’s no one to unhook Manel’s mother… Grandpa Ignasi has fallen in love, and as if all this isn’t enough, the village is in danger! A development company wants to irrevocably change the beautiful landscape of Dunes; but our gang fiercely objects!
Meet the characters
YOU WILL LOVE THEM
Me, Duna
My name is Duna. I’m twelve years old. You’ll pick me out because I like to dress in black, even my boots, even in summer. I always wear headphones in silent mode in my ears. I’m not very tall, I have red hair, freckles everywhere, and a slight hunch* when I walk. What I like most about me is that one of my eyes is brown, almost black (like my grandfather), and the other is dark green (like my grandmother). But what really matters is that I like sketching, and writing a little too. I never talk too much, or so I think.
Max
This summer I met a boy my age named Max. He’s skinny and more hunched than me, as well as short-haired and dark. He plays the ocarina and bites his nails. I love looking at him in profile: his very long eyelashes, the perfect nose. When he looks at me with those grey eyes I feel like I’m sinking into them. (And even though he hasn’t told me, I know he’s hiding a secret).
Grandpa Ignasi
My grandfather’s name is Ignasi and he’s tall and thin but has a little belly. Beware! He has a bad case of fleas. He’s a retired fisherman who plays chess and has a million weird obsessions. He always looks you in the eye when he speaks, and his own eyes are black. He wears his very long, very white hair in a ponytail (which he does very badly), and only does so to be ‘hip’ and not have to comb it (Carla often helps him, but she does it very badly too). His beard is also long and white (and I itch to make braids with it). He doesn’t iron his clothes (because it’s a waste of time, he says).
The village, Dunes
Dunes is a blue and white village: all white facades – clean and always freshly painted – and the blue sea and the always cloudless blue sky. The roofs are orange, but unless you go up to the castle they can’t really be seen. The streets aren’t paved and getting here by car is harder than by boat. In the centre of the village there’s a square and in the middle of the square there’s a circular fountain surrounded by cobblestones in the form of a rose.
Lia
My older sister is growing up. She’s a perfect, very tall fifteen-year-old, and a redhead with green eyes of course. She walks with her hands in her pockets, is chatty like my mum and everyone says she’s nice (she hides her introversion well). She’s articulate and reads anything she can get her hands on, knows everything, and yeah, I hate that she’s so mature. I call her Literary Lia, as if everything she reads is all she is, but I know she has feelings. She always tells me that working knots out of her hair clears things up. That must be why she wears her hair short.
Carla
My little sister is so the youngest. Her name is Carla and she’s eight. Her red hair is cut to ear length, exactly like my mother’s. Green-eyed, light-hearted and funny (to the point of being annoying), she’s carefree and extroverted, and gets on well (too well!) with everyone. Needless to say, she drives me up the wall. Since she wolfs cookies down as if she’s possessed, I call her Cookie Carla.
My mother, Olga
My mother is forty years old, but in her words she “looks younger”. Her “well-kept carrot-top” hair is perfectly straight and ear length. Her green eyes match the minuscule emeralds she wears in her ears. According to Lia, our mother treats us all the same (but I know she doesn’t). What’s more, now she’s taken a notion to give her life a makeover (and I’m not sure this will include us).
My cousins
Our cousins are twin sisters and they are ten. They’re not redheads and don’t have green eyes like our uncle Jofre. They have their mother Rita’s black curls. Paula always wears her curls loose, and she doesn’t comb them or let them be combed. Eva always wears them pulled back into a perfect ponytail. The only other difference between the two is that Paula has braces and glasses. They almost always wear white, but never the same thing.
The Loafers Gang
In the village there is a gang of dimwits that out of a sense of obligation I belong to. Besides my sisters and cousins, there are two stupendous girls of Lia’s age: Xènia (who is the leader) and Arlet (very much a villager and super-smart). We also have little Ferran who is as annoying as (or even more than!) Carla, and his big brother Emili (I get on with him because he’s calm and open). We seem like a motley crew but when we put our minds to it and get organised we can cause uproar.
Duna's things!
DISCOVER THEM
Meet the authors
GOOD PEOPLE CAN ONLY MAKE GOOD BOOKS
Muriel Villanueva
THE WRITER
Author of more than forty works of literature for all ages, including novels, short stories, collections of poetry, plays and short films. She has won over ten awards, including the J.M. Casero Award, the Valencian Writers Review Award, the Carlemany Award, the Atrapallibres Award and the Llibreter (Bookseller) Award. Her work has been translated into Spanish, English, Portuguese, Polish, Korean and Chinese. She is a graduate in literary theory and comparative literature from the University of Barcelona, with a diploma in music education from the University of Valencia, and is both trained in Family Constellations and a writing teacher. Duna is her best-selling and most widely read book, and is the reason that every year she’s invited to fifty centres of education in order to share creative and reading experiences.
“
For me Duna is:
Duna is a novel that makes readers, that makes many people read with pleasure who hadn’t previously acquired a taste for reading. It’s a vibrant, instinctive novel, a place in which I live and where I know readers will make themselves comfortable. Duna is also Duna herself, a person, who accompanies me and guides me and who I know accompanies many people who have made her their own.
Ferran Orta
ILLUSTRATOR
Born in Riba-roja d’Ebre, he trained as an illustrator in Tarragona (Escola d’Art i Disseny) and Barcelona (Escola de la Dona) where he completed his studies in illustration, picture books and self-published works. The majority of his work is in the publishing sphere, illustrating picture books and novels for children and young adults. Duna was his first experience as a professional illustrator in the world of publishing, and for this reason Duna (and later on Dunes) will always have a special place on his professional shelf.
In parallel with his work as an illustrator, he grows his personal universe and language as a creator in the “ALaSombra” collective mural painting project.
“
For me Duna is…
The beginning of my journey as a professional illustrator and the first stone on which to build a professional career. This first stone being a story like Duna is fantastic and unrepeatable.
Muriel Villanueva
THE WRITER
Author of more than forty works of literature for all ages, including novels, short stories, collections of poetry, plays and short films. She has won over ten awards, including the J.M. Casero Award, the Valencian Writers Review Award, the Carlemany Award, the Atrapallibres Award and the Llibreter (Bookseller) Award. Her work has been translated into Spanish, English, Portuguese, Polish, Korean and Chinese. She is a graduate in literary theory and comparative literature from the University of Barcelona, with a diploma in music education from the University of Valencia, and is both trained in Family Constellations and a writing teacher. Duna is her best-selling and most widely read book, and is the reason that every year she’s invited to fifty centres of education in order to share creative and reading experiences.
“
For me Duna is:
Duna is a novel that makes readers, that makes many people read with pleasure who hadn’t previously acquired a taste for reading. It’s a vibrant, instinctive novel, a place in which I live and where I know readers will make themselves comfortable. Duna is also Duna herself, a person, who accompanies me and guides me and who I know accompanies many people who have made her their own.
Ferran Orta
ILLUSTRATOR
Born in Riba-roja d’Ebre, he trained as an illustrator in Tarragona (Escola d’Art i Disseny) and Barcelona (Escola de la Dona) where he completed his studies in illustration, picture books and self-published works. The majority of his work is in the publishing sphere, illustrating picture books and novels for children and young adults. Duna was his first experience as a professional illustrator in the world of publishing, and for this reason Duna (and later on Dunes) will always have a special place on his professional shelf.
In parallel with his work as an illustrator, he grows his personal universe and language as a creator in the “ALaSombra” collective mural painting project.
“
For me Duna is…
The beginning of my journey as a professional illustrator and the first stone on which to build a professional career. This first stone being a story like Duna is fantastic and unrepeatable.
Now I’ll close the diary and put it to sleep in my table, next to the stone that Max gave me, next to the drawing that I have made of his immense eyes. Tomorrow more. Tomorrow I will continue writing.
