Notes on a Magic Encyclopedia is a fragmentary work that resists easy categorization. Part hybrid literary essay, part poetic memoir, part philosophical reflection, María José Ferrada poses the questions: What is a child? What remains of childhood once we grow up?
Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s reflections on early life, Ferrada invites readers to consider the enduring power of the child’s gaze: how toys, stories, and everyday rituals reveal a symbolic world invisible to adult logic; how memory remains a living territory rather than a static archive; and how childhood, even after it’s gone, can still return as a quiet form of rebellion.
Woven through Ferrada’s reflections are the voices of other writers and artists: Aesop’s fables, Andersen’s fairy tales, Sendak’s illustrations, Beatrix Potter’s gentle acts of rebellion, and Szymborska’s poems. These works come together to shed light on the delicate and defining years of childhood.
Ferrada’s writing is tender, playful, and philosophical, and offers an exploration of children’s literature not as instruction, but as resistance. Notes on a Magic Encyclopedia is an invitation to remember, imagine, and finally, to return to the territory of childhood.
134 pages – Original Edition: Spanish (Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales, 2025). Foreign Editions: Spanish/Spain (Los tres editores, 2026); Italian (Topipittori, 2027).
“The best Chilean book of the year [2025].” – María José Navia, BioBioChile
“This book leaves the joyful impression that the author has managed to say something fundamental about something fundamental.” – Pedro Gandolfo, El Mercurio
“In these pages, the writer goes in search of the child who detached from her and, guided by a rich network of readings, explores the intensity, rebellion, and poetry of childhood.” – La Tercera
“María José approaches childhood with a book of an open and cautious nature, perhaps as an animal would approach something that catches its eye—circling it so as not to make it disappear, using light words, because words can trap.” – Nina Avellaneda, Traza
“A delicate book, moving and cerebral at once.” – Pedro Gandolfo, El Mercurio