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InspirationIllustration

This Is Me and the Ghost of You: Sergio Membrillas creates children's book for adults

Sergio Membrillas has created a story with the aesthetics of a children’s book. Not only is it beautiful to look at but it conveys poignant ideas from dealing with absence to feeling melancholy. As such, a book for youngsters this most certainly is not.

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Open blue book with illustrated character holding a red rectangle on yellow and red background, surrounded by paper plane, coloured pens and decorative objects

He explains: "I like the idea of a grown up staring at a book that looks like it's for children, but that has a lot of intense meaning.

"I did it while I was reading a lot of Alt-Lit, and poetry, essentially: Noah Cicero and Tao Lin. So the story is sweet but also a bit tough. A sweet and sour story in the end. A classical mid-thirties story, I would say.

"Personally, I was having a rough time, and I used this story as a catharsis – it worked."

Sergio has produced 100 copies of the A5 publication, which has 32 pages. Discover more and buy the book here.

All images by Laura Leal

Open children's book with yellow pages showing an illustration of a figure holding a chicken, surrounded by pencils, paper clips and geometric objects on a blue background
Colourful geometric paper collage with yellow, red, orange, green, blue and black shapes framing a small illustration of a character in white and orange clothing
Open pages of Sergio Membrillas' illustrated book showing a figure in a chair with text reading "Sometimes we buy stuff on the internet
Overhead flat lay of an open red book with white text on a teal background, with a paper plane and striped bookmark beside it
Open pages of Sergio Membrillas's children's book for adults showing an illustration of a figure with packing items on the left and text reading "You always travel with me" on the right, displayed on a red and blue background with a paper plane and compas
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