The writer Claudia Luna Palencia presents 'El rescate de la tortuga Pepe', her first children's story in Madrid

"There are stories that nest in the heart and in the case of the story 'El rescate de la tortuga Pepe' it fulfils what was expected: that it shakes the fibres of the most sensitive emotions". This is the fifth work by the Spanish Mexican writer Claudia Luna Palencia, written in the company of her daughter. The journalist, who specialises in geopolitics and geoeconomics and is a regular contributor to Atalayar, presented the children's story published by Algorfa on Thursday at the Juan Rulfo bookshop in Madrid.  

This is Luna Palencia's fifth work, the first in the children's literature genre, presented more than a year after publishing 'Ámbar', a collection of poems written over the last two decades.

In the pages of 'El rescate de la tortuga Pepe', Luna Palencia narrates the adventure of a mother and her daughter after the rescue of Pepe, a turtle that for them symbolises "the return to lost innocence, to the candour of dreams and to a world without impossibilities".  

The renowned journalist recalled her childhood pet through writing. But, above all, she wanted to involve her daughter in the process, as she said at the presentation: "I have taught you to walk, and now to write. There is no better teaching than creativity".

The story brings together the remnants of a childhood that begins in the Mexican city of Morelia, capital of Michoacán, and ends in Málaga. "In the manner of communicating vessels, two historically linked countries that have shaped the author's life come together". 

One summer. That is how long Luna Palencia and her daughter spent writing the story. "It had to have rhythm, cadence, it had to rhyme", she explained at the presentation, introduced by the journalist and director of Atalayar, Javier Fernández Arribas. That is why it is written in verse. Another of the writer's objectives was to leave a moral and tell anecdotes, to try to generate laughter and excitement in young readers.

"We have all been children and we have all had a story", reflected Luna Palencia, whose childhood inspiration came from the story of 'The Ugly Duckling', by Hans Christian Andersen. It was the first time that the Spanish Mexican writer had ventured into this genre after having published essays, novels and poetry books.