Who is behind this children's book about the life of hedgehogs?

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After the author of “The little lynx who saw nothing”, it is now the turn of Audrey Van Den Berg, author of “Kiki Gaston has disappeared” living near Orléans (Loiret), to be presented.

A passion that follows her

Audrey was born in August 1979 in Chamalièresnear Clermont-Ferrand. She studied marketing in Tours and Lille before arriving at the IAE (Higher Education Establishment) in Orléans in 2002.

From 2003 to 2015-2016, she worked at Honda, then Mr Bricolage. In the meantime, she met her husband in Orléans and decided to settle there.

“I have always really enjoyed drawing and telling stories. I would have liked to study fine arts but it wasn’t in my parents’ plans,” Audrey tells us.

A chance click

I stopped my work for personal and family reasons, I could no longer follow a normal rhythm while managing family life. I had to take care of my daughters, I needed it

Audrey then finds herself at Pole Emploi (newly France Travail) and carries out skills assessments. A day, she takes part in a “photo-language” workshop (method to facilitate public speaking using photos) with ten other people.

“I had just created my marketing structure and I don’t know why, this passion for writing, for drawing, came back. It made me want to get my stories out and publish them.”

The next step

Audrey then embarks on the adventure with The little girl with the butterflies, published in 2018 within the participatory publishing house Thot. With 1000 copies printed for this first book, the author continues on this path with:

• The Souribus (2 volumes released in 2019 and 2020)
• A love of Petit Puy de Dôme (2021)
• Tales and legends of Olivet et Ageless Tales (2022)
• Archi and Jeanne's sheep (2023) – This latest work is both a tourist guide and a children’s album. It allows children to visit Orléans thanks to a short story and geographical and historical anecdotes.

“In the fall of 2023, I founded French Flowers, my small publishing house with two partners,” adds the author.

Kiki Gaston a disparu

Audrey reveals to us that this project was already in the back of his mind. “A little hedgehog came into my garden and I called him Kiki GastonI don’t know why, maybe it reminded me of the stuffed animals we had when we were little,” she tells us.

She gradually gets used to this visitor when he suddenly disappears. Audrey doesn't think about it anymore, until the day she decides to put this story on paper while visualizing the drawings of the illustrator Alexandra Jacquin, with whom she collaborates.

“She was a pharmacist and she left everything to become an illustrator. I like the colors she uses and her watercolor drawings. I tell her what I see, elements (wells, bushes, etc.), and she transposes it into her world.”

However, when she begins to write, THE hedgehogs reappear in his garden. A coincidence that the author describes as amusing and naturally pushes her to be interested in these little animals. She discovers at the same time, that they are endangered.

“I said to myself that it was even more necessary to make a book about it. My idea was to do something allowing children to love hedgehogs, to show them how they live (food, natural state, role) and to teach them to respect them.”

After a year of work, the book has been available since the beginning of October 2024 at Walden and in all online bookstores. The audience it is aimed at is 3-6 years old. So far, 600 copies have been printed.

Currently, Audrey is continuing to develop other children's book projects. She will also be present at the Christmas markets of Saint-Cyr-en-Val and Olivet, December 1 and 14, 2024.

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