Have you ever noticed that many dogs look a lot like their owners? Or perhaps it’s the other way around: do the owners all look like their dogs? But there are some exceptions…
Walking around the streets and parks of most towns, you might notice that many dogs look a lot like their owners. However, Leonora's dog was nothing like her. In fact, they could not be more different! Leonora loved listening to opera. That's why she named her dog after her favorite opera, Fidelio. When Leonora and Fidelio went for a walk, everyone looked at them in a very strange way and started gossiping… “Here they come. They are nothing alike!", they said, laughing out loud at them. Two streets down lived Carmelo. His dog was nothing like him either. Totally different. Carmelo liked to make chocolates. He used to spend whole days coming up with the most daring recipes.
The thing is, Carmelo's dog was the spitting image of Leonora, and Leonora's dog was identical to Carmelo! Tired of people looking down on them, they decided to trade dogs and thus appear more normal. But just when the match was done and they were suppose to fit, all of them felt lonelier and different…
Born in 1978 in Freiburg/Germany, Barbara Steinitz studied communication-design and illustration in Saarbrücken/Germany and Barcelona/Spain. After getting her diploma she completed a voluntary service in Granada/Nicaragua. Teaching workshops in arts and crafts for adults and children at the cultural institution Casa de los Tres Mundos, she started to explore and include puppet-theater within her work as an illustrator. She created various paper theatre shows in collaboration with the musician Björn Kollin and the Mexican ensemble Facto Teatro. Together with the dancer and choreographer Ruben Reniers she founded the ensemble rubarb dance & art. She has been touring Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Mexico, Canada and the USA, leading workshops and presenting her shows and books in schools, libraries and at renowned puppet theatre festivals. Barbara Steinitz received the Austrian Children’s Book Award, the Troisdorfer Picture Book Award and a nomination for the German Children’s Book Award. As a freelancing illustrator, author and puppeteer, she works for various customers, editorials and theatre projects and lives in Berlin and Mexico City.
