How do certain "threats" and "warnings" from loved ones in supportive environments (family, school, friendships) "sound" and "write" into the souls of children? In those environments that are supposed to fulfill their needs for acceptance, encouragement, and self-confidence?

With creativity, humor, and a playful spirit (a counterbalance to the seriousness of the subject), Dimitris Galanis creates a little book about some words that we adults say to children, without meaning them and without thinking about them. However, "words" that "scare, hurt, wound, that stifle their efforts, that steal the confidence they need," at an age that is crucial for shaping their personality, emotional security, and self-esteem.

"Exaggerations? For some, perhaps. For me, no," the author argues. "That's why I felt the desire to share my thoughts with other parents and those who are, in one way or another, by their side as they grow up. Thus, this little book was created."

This is an original picture book, where the images do not merely decorate but contribute to the creation of meaning in synergy with the text. Each image visualizes the child's response to the threat/warning they receive, creating a surprise that evokes (bitter) laughter. The "threatener" and "threatened" simultaneously become "sender" and "receiver," thus developing a surreal and awakening dialogue that allows for various levels of reading.

Aesthetically abstract and with minimal and simple language that aptly underscores the message, it creates a visual language familiar to the child that can help them communicate and express themselves freely. The book is bi-age. It addresses both minors and adult readers because it speaks at the same time to both, although primarily to the former.

Each reader will decode it differently, depending on their age, experiences, psyche, emotional maturity as well as whether they are delivering or receiving the threat/warning. And since "threats" and "warnings" (with or without quotation marks) constitute essentially manipulative behavior and psychological pressure, the book relates to all kinds of emotional relationships, at all ages and in all combinations.

For this reason, parents and children, siblings, classmates, teachers and students, friends, men and women, adults and children can read it together and discuss it. What do we say behind the words when we "threaten" and "warn" the people we love or interact with daily?

This little book does not provide answers to the question it poses. It only offers stimuli, allowing readers of all ages to arrive at their own interpretations and conclusions about their relationships with their loved ones and with themselves.