In the town of Narni, Italy, lives the author, Maria Giulia Cotini, who this summer was directing I Ragazzi Pon Pon (The Cheerleaders) in their performance of her play Giullarino Mingherlino (The Skinny Jester).
This was part of the children’s holiday activities, where they got together to learn more about their town’s history and link it with places around the world.
Maria Giulia Cotini directs the play, Guillarino Mingherlino
Maria Giulia is also the author of the book, Shotaro – the child who wanted to become a Samurai.
Anthony Ridgway, author of the WIZZY books
Just like Little Knoll Press author, Anthony Ridgway, Maria Giulia has been disabled from birth, but for both of them this has been no bar to imagination and achievement.
Shotaro is written in Italian and is available as a hardback book (ISBN: 9788804674610) and e-book.
Here is a translation of the blurb:
‘Shotaro is intelligent and stubborn, and he refuses to accept that his greatest dream (to become a Samurai like his father) is unattainable. Shotaro is disabled from birth and his father decided he would become a monk.
The rōnin, Kenya, arrives at the monastery and declares he is willing to train even him.
But when the terrible Daimyō destroy Shotaro’s home village and his father disappears, Shotaro’s life is turned upside down and everything seems lost.
In ancient Japan, a country marred by war and corruption, Shotaro is able to demonstrate, with courage and determination, that you don’t need a perfect body to make a man into a warrior.’
And here is some more about Maria Giulia:
Maria Giulia Cotini was born in 1980; disabled from birth, she does not walk and has problems with her hands, sight and hearing.
Maria Giulia has been in love with the martial arts since a child, and at the age of ten she was the first child with a disability to practice karate in the gym with the able-bodied.
Working on her knees, she adapted the techniques up to competition standards, which was previously considered impossible.
Always passionate about myths and legends, Maria Giulia graduated with honours in History of Religions.
You can see Maria Giulia at a Karate event by clicking on her picture here – 
