If You Cry like a Fountain

A quirky and surprisingly funny picture book about the many practical uses for tears, for fans of Big Feelings. In an attempt to cheer up a sad-looking worm, a narrator makes things worse by causing the worm to cry. But in the process of trying to make the sobbing worm feel better, the narrator starts to think of the various ways tears can be used productively. For example, if you're sad around lunchtime, cry until you fill a pot with your tears and boil pasta - you won't even need to season with salt! Crying can be used to dilute paint, and with paint, you can make beautiful art. Crying also serves lots of different purposes. Without tears, the rivers would dry up. Clouds would keep getting bigger and bigger. And crying also helps the pears to grow, and with pears, you can make jam. Jam makes people happy, and can help staunch the flow of tears . . . at least until the jam runs out! Join a tearful worm and a bungling narrator as they explore the many uses for tears in this hilarious and quirky picture book by up-and-coming author-illustrator Noemi Vola.

NOEMI VOLA is the author and illustrator of several books for kids, including The Unforgettable Party, From Here to Far Away, A Book of Horses* (*Revolutionary Ones) and Bear with Me, which was selected in the 100 Outstanding Picturebooks Exhibition curated by dPICTUS at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair. Her book FIM? Isto Não Acaba Assim won the International Serpa Picturebook Prize in 2017 and was awarded Best Foreign Illustrated Book in 2018 at the Amadora BD Festival. Her illustrations for Bear with Me were selected in the 2019 Illustrators' Exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. She also works with magazines such as Vogue Kids, Mousse and AWW.