Adventures on wheels inspired by Carolina

Chapter 1: Carolina Purpurina

A girl sits on the floor and smiles, surrounded by dolls and toys, holding a toy wheelchair.

 

The whole family

 

Carolina Purpurina dressed as Princess Belle in a yellow gown and crown, aged six.

 

Carolina in her Belle costume covered in glitter. She was six here, still walking and standing without a frame.

Chapter 2: Sparkling siblings

Carolina and her siblings pose with the Tubb4a Foundation letters painted on their hands for the 2024 calendar.

 

Posing with her siblings for the Tubb4a Foundation’s 2024 calendar.

Chapter 3: How cool it is to have a broom!

Carolina Purpurina’s birthday party: children in witch costumes around a table decorated with pumpkins.
Broomstick games at Carolina Purpurina’s birthday: three children in costume cross their witch brooms.

 

Playing with the broom at Carolina’s birthday.

Chapter 4: Glitter in the kitchen

Carolina and her siblings wearing the chef’s hats and aprons made for them by cousin Maricarmen.

 

Carolina and her siblings in the hats and aprons cousin Maricarmen made for the four trainee cooks.

Chapter 5: The crazy glitter factory

Carolina decorates unicorn drawings with the biodegradable glitter set brought back from Paris.

 

Painting with the biodegradable glitter set grandma Nany brought back from Paris.

Chapter 6: Slides in the metro

Carolina, in her wheelchair and school uniform, travels on the Madrid metro every day.

 

Carolina travels to school every day on the Madrid metro. For almost a year, the station nearest her home had no working lift because of building works.

Chapter 7: Garlic and slipper!

Carolina, in her adapted buggy with a doll in her arms, at the park with her best friend Patricia.
Carolina and her siblings at bedtime, in the bunk beds of their bedroom.
Carolina and her friend Patricia in traditional chulapa dress for the San Isidro festival in Madrid.
Chulapo dancing on the terrace during the San Isidro festival, with Carolina in a red dress.

 

With her best friend Patricia.

Chapter 8: High-impact costumes

Carolina and her siblings in their bumper-car costumes at the contest they won.
Carolina, wearing a flower crown, smiles inside her pink cardboard bumper car.
Fancy-dress contest at COAMI school: Carolina and her siblings with their cardboard bumper cars and the ticket booth.
Carolina and her siblings ride the metro in their bumper-car costumes on the way to the contest.

 

Carolina and her siblings win a huge bike at the fancy-dress contest with their bumper-car costumes.

Chapter 9: Glitters Friends forever

Carolina and a classmate decorate unicorn drawings with glitter at school.
Isabel and her friend Martina, the book’s illustrator, leaf through a catalogue sitting on the bed.
Two COAMI pupils apply coloured glitter to their drawings in class.

 

Carolina and Martina share a passion for drawing.

Drawing by Martina titled “Mi brillante familia”, showing Isabel, Juan Manuel and María on a colourful background.
Drawing by Martina: Carolina, in her wheelchair, blows a handful of glitter towards her friend.
Sketches by Martina: two studies of the character Carolina in her wheelchair, in profile.
Drawing by Martina titled “Carolina Purpurina”: the heroine and her siblings among jars of glitter.

 

Drawings made by Martina to illustrate Isabel’s book.

Chapter 10: The calendar girl

Carolina, in her wheelchair, greets a horse leaning out of its stall.
Carolina, in her ELA T-shirt, looks at the calendar shots on the camera screen with the photographer.
Photograph from the 2024 ELA calendar: Carolina throws a ball to Guardia Civil officers in a sports hall.

 

Carolina becomes the face of May in the 2024 ELA calendar, produced with the Guardia Civil.

Chapter 11: I am not weird!

Carolina in front of the “#EnfermedadesRaras, personas únicas” wall signed by C.D. Leganés supporters.
Carolina and her brother Juan Manuel at the C.D. Leganés stadium with the sticker album signed by the players.
The players of two football teams pose with children, some of them in wheelchairs, behind a banner raising awareness of rare diseases.

 

Carolina with her brother at the C.D. Leganés match raising awareness of rare diseases. Juan Manuel got the players to sign his sticker album!

Chapter 12: Glitter at the palace

Carolina watches the deer in the Zarzuela grounds from the car, just as the book’s chapter tells it.
Photograph signed by Her Majesty Queen Letizia for Carolina and her mother Laura, February 2021.
Her Majesty Queen Letizia talks with Carolina during the audience at the Zarzuela Palace.
Her Majesty Queen Letizia receives Carolina and her mother Laura at the Zarzuela Palace.

 

Her Majesty Queen Letizia receives Carolina in audience. As the chapter recounts, she was captivated by the deer in the grounds of the Zarzuela.