Giù Giù: An Underground Adventure

Turning Soil Into a Wonderland for Curious Kids

Interior spread from the children’s book Giù Giù, featuring Italian text alongside a minimalist black-and-white illustration by Fausto Gilberti. A wide-eyed little girl lies on the ground observing a small dark animal while discovering the hidden life beneath the earth. The playful drawing style, with oversized eyes and thin lines, reflects the book’s imaginative exploration of the underground world and soil biodiversity.

text Enrico Fragale Esposito

Some children’s books teach us how to look at the stars. Others invite us to look closer at the ground beneath our feet. Giù Giù does something even more unexpected: it asks readers to imagine the hidden life unfolding underneath the surface of the earth, transforming soil into a mysterious, living universe filled with microscopic creatures, invisible ecosystems, and extraordinary stories.

At the center of this unusual and beautifully crafted tale is Marta, a curious little girl fascinated by the concept of the underground world. As she falls asleep thinking about what might exist beneath the grass, roots, and stones, her imagination opens the door to a dreamlike journey through tunnels and subterranean passages. Guiding her is Scuti, a tiny white creature, a delicate many-legged decomposer with long antennae and an unexpectedly charming personality.
Together, Marta and Scuti descend into a labyrinth of underground galleries where science becomes storytelling, and ecology turns into adventure.

Double-page spread from the children’s book Giù Giù, illustrated by Fausto Gilberti. On the left page, Marta and the small underground creature Scuti are drawn in minimalist black lines with oversized eyes beside Italian text. On the right page, a vibrant underground fantasy landscape explodes with colorful mushrooms, roots, strange microscopic creatures, and tangled organic forms in shades of pink, red, blue, and orange against a black background, evoking the mysterious biodiversity hidden beneath the soil.

Written by agronomist Pierluigi Donna, Giù Giù introduces young readers to the microscopic organisms that quietly sustain life on Earth. Worms, fungi, decomposers, and countless invisible inhabitants of the soil emerge as the true custodians of the planet’s natural cycles. The book explains how every living thing eventually returns to the earth, becoming part of an endless regenerative process that allows forests, gardens, flowers, and ecosystems to continue thriving.

What makes Giù Giù particularly compelling is its ability to balance scientific accuracy with visual poetry. The illustrations by Fausto Gilberti bring the underground habitat to life through his unmistakable signature style: thin black lines, oversized eyes, and slightly surreal characters that feel both playful and deeply expressive. Despite their whimsical appearance, the drawings maintain remarkable scientific attention to detail, making the book visually captivating while remaining educational.

We are also happy to have included Giù Giù in the Bellissimo section of Issue 16 of Scimparello, our curated space dedicated to beautiful discoveries for curious families, creative children, and lovers of thoughtful publishing.

Because sometimes the most extraordinary adventures do not happen above the clouds, but quietly, invisibly, down below.

Interior page from the children’s book Giù Giù, featuring vivid red and pink watercolor mushrooms rising across the page beside Italian text. The organic illustrations evoke an enchanted underground forest, reflecting the book’s exploration of fungi, decomposition, and the hidden biodiversity of the soil. The dreamy, minimalist visual style is characteristic of Fausto Gilberti.

The book is available here.

Another story we loved is: Playdate Vintage.