Pierdomenico Baccalario is the founder of Book on a Tree (London, 2014), a unique creative storytelling agency with an international approach to the stories and a creative studio in Turin. He is also one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors of children’s and young adult literature. He became popular with the Ulysses Moore series (Piemme, 2004–2025), a million-seller translated into more than thirty languages. His writing blends mystery, history, and fantasy, creating immersive, cinematic worlds filled with compelling characters and thrilling plots.
He began his career in 1997, when he won the Battello a Vapore Prize with The Way of the Warrior (Piemme, 1999), submitted under his neighbor’s name. Over the years, he has published widely across genres and age groups. His recent works include Burn This Book (Feltrinelli, 2025, created for the publisher’s 70th anniversary), The Loonies Strike Back (Mondadori, 2022), selected for the IBBY Honour List Italia 2023, Hoopdriver (Mondadori, 2021), and The Desert Foxes (Mondadori, 2018, translation rights sold in French and Chinese), finalist for the 2019 Strega Children’s Prize. He is also the author of This Book Contains a Crime (Piemme, 2023).
He has co-written many books with his friends, including The Crimson City Heist (Salani, 2023, IBBY Honour List Italia 2024) and The Maydala Express (Book on a Tree, 2020, translation rights sold in French), both written with Davide Morosinotto. With Luigi Spagnol, he co-authored Book Rebels (Salani, 2022, translation rights sold in Spanish). He has written several detective novels with Alessandro Gatti, including Ten Little Tenants (Piemme, 2022) and Murder on the Occident Express (Piemme, 2024), illustrated by Andrea Dalla Fontana. Together with Gatti and Lucia Stipari, he co-authored the Maud West series (Gallucci, 2024–2025, translation rights sold in Russian). He created the successful early readers’ series Detecticat (HarperCollins Italia, 2022–2025, translation rights sold in Spanish and Greek), longlisted for the Premio Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi. He also writes picture books, including To Catch a Magic Frog (Camelozampa, 2023, translation rights sold in French and Russian), illustrated by Daniela Demurtas, and And Then It Was the Time (Salani, 2023, translation rights sold in Traditional Chinese) illustrated by Anna Pirolli.
Beyond writing, Baccalario has worked as a screenwriter for animated series that have been broadcast in more than 100 countries. He writes for Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, for the periodical La Lettura, about children’s books.
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Ulysses Moore. The Door to Time
The legendary 10 million-seller series, translated into more than 30 languages, now with a brand-new graphic look. Book 1: The Door to Time In the remote village of Kilmore Cove, on a cliff by the sea, the mysterious Villa Argo — once owned by Ulysses Moore — hides one of the legendary Doors of Time: portals carved in sycamore wood that open…
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Ulysses Moore. The Shop of the Long Lost Maps
The legendary 10 million-seller series, translated into more than 30 languages, now with a brand-new graphic look. Book 2: The Shop of the Long Lost Maps Ancient Egypt, Land of Punt. Jason, Julia and Rick step through the Door of Time into the House of Life, a vast library of papyri and scrolls. They seek a mysterious map hidden by Ulysses Moore…
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Ulysses Moore. The House of Mirrors
The legendary 10 million-seller series, translated into more than 30 languages, now with a brand-new graphic look. Book 3: The House of Mirrors Kilmore Cove is shrouded in mystery: a statue of a king who never lived, railway tracks that vanish into nothing, and a name missing from every map. Following Ulysses Moore’s trail, Jason, Julia and Rick face new enigmas: the…
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Ulysses Moore. The Island of Masks
The legendary 10 million-seller series, translated into more than 30 languages, now with a brand-new graphic look. Book 4: The Island of Masks Eighteenth-century Venice: faces hidden behind masks, secrets lurking in the dark alleys. Peter Dedalus, the goldsmith inventor of Kilmore Cove, seems to have taken refuge here, bound by a broken promise. Only the enigmatic Black Gondolier knows his hiding…
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Ulysses Moore. The Stone Guardians
The legendary 10 million-seller series, translated into more than 30 languages, now with a brand-new graphic look. Book 5: The Stone Guardians For Jason, Julia and Rick, the truth seems at once just a step away and yet light years distant. And now it slips even further, racing along the tracks of Kilmore Cove’s abandoned station, as the Train of Eternal Youth…
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Ulysses Moore. The First Key
The legendary 10 million-seller series, translated into more than 30 languages, now with a brand-new graphic look. Book 6: The First Key Lost in a labyrinthine medieval citadel, Jason, Julia and Rick are closer than ever to uncovering the mystery of the First Key. Yet other riddles remain. What has become of Black Vulcano? How many Doors of Time exist? And above…
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Count Dawn. The Book of Snow
Choose your future, before your future chooses you. It’s 2069. A hostile life form has fused with technology and taken control of humanity. A group of rebels risk everything to send a book back in time – the only record of their downfall, a desperate warning to change history. In the present, nineteen-year-old radical activist Scarlett stumbles upon that very…
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The Book Rebels
What happens when reading becomes illegal? Four kids, what seems like a boring summer, and a town where stories must be smuggled. Peter’s parents are in an unusually good mood — they’ve just booked a holiday in Plainton. It’s not too far away, it’s enjoyable but not unforgettable, and yes, there’s a beach… but it’s not particularly beautiful. Peter doesn’t understand.…
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Hoopdriver
Billy Hoopdriver is thirteen years old and tired of being invisible. He lives with his father in a grey council house in Liverpool—just the two of them, locked in silence. His dad used to sell bikes, then worked as a delivery driver, but now he’s out of a job and barely speaks. Billy’s only real connection is with his grandfather,…
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Burn This Book. The kids who saved Dr Zhivago
Would you risk your life for a book? Three teenagers. three historical eras. One secret that could change history forever. Is it worth risking your life for a book? Boris Pasternak would say yes, that ideas are not born to be hidden or suffocated. And so would his publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who managed to publish Dr Zhivago, while avoiding censorship.…
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And Then It Was Time
A celebration of moments that shape who we are and who we’re becoming. A tender invitation to embrace change, cherish growth, and look ahead with wonder. “And then it was the time to grow up, to make great plans, to not be afraid, to learn new things, to make new friends, to make big promises”: this is the text of…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.4: Even Ghosts Quiver
Ghosts are disappearing – and not in the usual “ooooh, I’m moving on” kind of way. One minute they’re moaning in basements or rattling chains in attics… and the next, poof – gone. When Will Moogley receives a mysterious call and finds only a puddle of strange bluish slime where a ghost should be, he knows something’s not right. All…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.3: The Skyscraper Ghost
Something spooky is going on at the Empire State Building. Tourists are fainting, elevators are levitating on their own, and a terrifying ghost has taken up (illegal) residence in the city’s most iconic skyscraper. The problem? He doesn’t have a contract. And worse—he refuses to leave. Will Moogley, young head of the world’s worst-run ghost temp agency, is called in…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.2: A Fearfully Frightening Family!
Jerrold was supposed to enjoy his peaceful retirement – haunting a quiet, creaky old house in Brooklyn. But his afterlife is turned upside down when a rowdy, clueless human family moves in, completely ignoring the fact that the place is already occupied. They blare music, hang curtains, and worst of all… they’re not even a little bit scared of him.…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.1: Good Job, Will Moogley!
Will Moogley, the young and reluctant heir to the failing Ghost Agency, is struggling to keep the ghost-placement business afloat. His agency provides ghosts for hauntings, but with few clients and little money, things look bleak. An unexpected opportunity arises when a luxury hotel chain, Scary Inn, announces plans to renovate an old castle into a haunted hotel for wealthy…
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The Crimson City Heist
A federal sheriff and a fierce, unpredictable girl who claims to be his half-sister arrive in Crimson City – a dusty, forgotten outpost where nothing ever happens, and nobody ever comes from the south. Their presence disrupts the fragile balance of the town and upends the quiet life of Roy Wilson, the orphan boy adopted by the stationmaster. The strangers…
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Maydala Express
An unforgettable journey towards the last, unknown destination Finally, ten years old and red-haired, lives in Grey City’s immense railway station and works for a company that controls all the trains around the world, obeying wicked Mr Mortimer’s orders. Every day she dreams of escaping… One day she finds a piece of crumpled paper in her pocket, with strange lettering…
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Detecticat Series
Detecticat is a famous private detective, called to solve all kinds of foul deeds. He has an office, an assistant, Miss Bug, and a passion for complex pastimes, which inevitably go pear-shaped. His first idea regarding the culprit is always wrong, then a doubt arises, his whiskers tremble, he says his typical phrase ‒ “There’s something fishy going on here,”…
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Maud West, Lady Detective vol.1 – A Matryoshka of Mysteries
She’s a mistress of disguise with the acumen of Miss Marple, the resourcefulness of Enola Holmes and a helper who always gets into trouble. It’s Maud West, the first real lady detective who ever lived. London, October 1920. Maud West and her young assistant Max Finch have just solved an intricate investigation and are preparing to celebrate with a nice…
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Maud West, Lady Detective vol.3 – A Labyrinth of Mirrors
She’s a mistress of disguise with the acumen of Miss Marple, the resourcefulness of Enola Holmes and a helper who always gets into trouble. It’s Maud West, the first real lady detective who ever lived. Somewhere in England, 1920. What are Maggie and Max Finch doing in a cottage in the middle of the forest? And why are they keeping…
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Maud West, Lady Detective vol.2 – A Cathedral of Cobwebs
She’s a mistress of disguise with the acumen of Miss Marple, the resourcefulness of Enola Holmes and a helper who always gets into trouble. It’s Maud West, the first real lady detective who ever lived. Boasting his new cap, Finch invites Maggie to the cinema. But romantic gestures are not her thing… better to dive into Maud West’s new assignment.…
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The Mysteries of Mercurio 1 – Giorgione: The Tempest
An old man who lives in the top of a tower in the heart of Florence challenges three friends to a dangerous mission: to discover and solve the hidden mysteries of the art world! In a dimly lit room in the Palatine Gallery, the blackbird Mercurio hands Nina, Jamal and Lorenzo a scroll with a dark mystery. When lightning rips…
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To Catch a Magic Frog
To catch a magic frog, you need someone to tell you how. You must hurry. You need a good pair of shoes, and a purple hat. (Everyone knows magic frogs like purple hats). To catch a magic frog, it’s a good idea to ask a friend for help… A touching and unconventional picture book, written by one of the most…
