When don Antonio Mazzi talks about children and young people, every word he says about pain or joy stems from what he has personally experienced. He has always lived in the midst of young people and he shares their disappointments and problems, but also their dreams and passions. No one more than he is capable of talking to youngsters with that frank and direct language that distinguishes him. Nothing here derives from theories, university degrees or pre-printed sermons. In fact, this book begins with young people and their world, so simple, yet at the same time so complicated, in order to involve adults like parents, as they are children’s first teachers, but others also. There are many portraits of children (Pierino, not just jokes; cheeky Gegia; Elena and her allowance; Monica, child of a lesser god; Giorgio, career boy-scout; Ulysses no one’s child...), each the mirror of a problem or unease. There are also parent types ( the oak, the olive tree, the computer expert, the cicada, the Porsche...) seen through their behaviours, including the wrong ones, especially when the error is, in the final analysis, dictated by too much love. What emerges is the portrait of a confused society in search of certainties and shareable values and families left to themselves even by the institutions. Then, starting with one of his usual provocations – the prohibition of having children – don Antonio Mazzi points out the way. There it is, open to anyone buried under the trappings of wellbeing, but waiting to be illuminated. A few, essential rules for being aware and happy parents. And these days, that is not a small thing.