Polina is the wonderful Russian flea that is the star of the circus owned by Penkov, a nasty-looking ring-master who mistreats the artistes. No one escapes from his despotic control, not the jugglers, or the magician, or the clowns, or the trapeze artists. Not even the star of the circus, Polina, who in her nightly performance plays the accordion and charms the audiences. Until one day ...

About the authors:
Gemma Martí O’Toole (Tordera 1981). Making up stories has always been part of her life and the wish to learn to tell them was what took her to Barcelona to study Audiovisual Communication, first, and a master’s degree in Animation after that. In 2005 she went to London, where she works in a creative consultancy, exploring virtual forms of working together. In addition, she’s a volunteer for the oldest cinema in London, where she edits videos about its history. “The Russian Flea”

About the illustrator
Noemí Villamuza (Palencia,1971). Fond of drawing and getting distracted in class since she was a child, she is the oldest of four sisters. She has a Fine Arts degree from Salamanca University, where she discovered the professional side to drawing: illustration. After illustrating lots of textbooks, she eventually published her first story in Salamanca: Óscar y el león de Correos (Oscar and the Post-office Lion, Anaya; 1988, National Prize for Children’s Literature, 1999). She has published over thirty children’s and young adults’ titles. In 2002 she was runner up in the National Prize for Illustration for her work on the album De verdad que no podía (I Really Couldn’t, Kókinos, 2001). One of the most liked and best-received books is Libro de Nanas (Book of Lullabies, Mediavaca, 2004). Also outstanding are El festín de Babette (Babette’s Feast, Nórdica Libros, 2006, Junceda Prize for the best illustrated book for adults 2007) and Abecedario (Alphabet, Nórdica Libros, 2010), runner up in “The best illustrated album” by the Booksellers’ guild of Madrid.