The first time I came across her images Sofia Zarabuka it was in the Greek mythology books. They were large paintings, generously scattered across the page, the colors shimmered over the edge, and the small details of the background were revealed with each new page. The stories I made up on my own with illustrations were no better than the mythology, of course, but I could refresh them every time I opened the book.

Years later, I meet an artist who breathed new life into a children’s picture book on the occasion of her recent announcement of an honorary doctorate from the AUTH Department of Early Childhood and Education. Sofia Zarabuka has been writing and illustrating children’s books for 45 years. “I used to count my books by year. Now they’ve surpassed me,” he says, and roughly estimates that he has published more than 80 titles. She still works many hours a day in her workshop. He is 82 years old, but if he does not say this, then it is impossible to imagine. Her house, her appearance, her voice when she speaks are full of life. Has it been like this since childhood?

“I was a child with many learning difficulties. Since I am dyslexic, I realized very early on that my ability to draw was my salvation. At the high school entrance exams in essay class, I froze, horrified by my spelling mistakes. At the moment when the phrase “Turn in your stickers” came up, I divided my page into 6 small blocks and drew something related to the theme of the exhibition. I was lucky because I had enlightened teachers and they accepted me for who I am. In my school years, many times, in order to learn the story, I illustrated it with small sketches next to the text.

He eventually studied painting and theater in Greece. The teachers who influenced her are her teacher Elli Iotopoulou, a historian and scholar who initiated educational reform in the early 1960s, Yiannis Tsaruchis, an engraver Tassos, and Karolos Kuhn. Having received a scholarship from Konstantinos Doxiadis, in whose architectural office she worked at a very young age, she went to the USA to study graphics and illustration. Back in Greece, she worked as a production manager for Lycabettus in Doxiadis’s office. He taught print aesthetics at the Athens Institute of Technology and designed sets and costumes for the Art Theatre.

The word is dictatorship.

As I listen to a child read aloud and surrealistically over a picture I drew, I envy myself that I didn’t think of all this.

“While I was working in different jobs, the design and image was in me. And they always beat me,” he recalls. “At that time in Greece we didn’t have many picture books for children, and I made them for my hobby. My first book was written in order to explain the word “dictatorship” to children “It was that awful time when we all did our best to react. I didn’t think it would be possible to publish it and put it in a drawer. It was followed by Vromohori and this one from Furka for our empty villages and nature being destroyed. He, too, took his place in the box. Until George Sarri saw them. He took me to Nana Callianesi, and suddenly I was in the window.”

It was 1975. This was followed by a series of mythology, “Odyssey”, “Iliad”, “Aristophanes” for children, stories for artists and museums and much more. Her books have also been published abroad, her original work has been exhibited in individual and group exhibitions, and she has been awarded at the Leipzig Book Fair and the Athens Academy for all her work. He was awarded the 2021 Athens Academy Prize for Children’s Literature for The Revolution of 1821 (published by Pataki).

“The impetus comes from the text,” she explains when I ask her how she works on her books, which she mainly illustrates and writes. “Then the image feeds the imagination and gives the reader a reason for dialogue. This is a parallel narrative with the text. Listening to a child reading aloud and surrealistically over a picture I drew, I’m jealous I didn’t think of all this.”

Over the past seven years, Ms. Zarabuka has given up pencils, brushes and paints. She works entirely electronically and, as she said, wins in the end by correcting her typo with an autocorrect. Technology has taken it by storm, not competing with it at all. “We are entering a new era,” he says. “We will slowly find our balance.” She, who has made a living and made art by illustrating and writing, does she think a children’s book is in danger in our digital age?

“On the contrary, I think the book will live on thanks to the children. Familiar images may encourage them to read the text, and then they will be sweetened. If the sensitivity of reading can be passed from parent to child, he will always remember his voice when he read to him, the warmth of the hand, the gentle touch. This need will not be absent, whatever the future of the book. Just like my cat wants to snuggle up and touch me at night, my baby wants it too.”