the new faces of children's literature

On the occasion of the 40th edition of the Seine-Saint-Denis Book and Youth Press Fair, some 400 publishing houses, small and large, will inspire the 200,000 visitors expected in Montreuil between now and 2 December thanks to the imagination of their authors and illustrators. Meet four of them, who have no shortage of them.

► Elena Selena, a whole world made of 3D paper

Under his fingers, an entire world unfolds, an entire universe unfolds. At 31, Lithuanian Elena Selena is one of those magicians capable of writing, illustrating and designing embossed albums. Having studied at the Beaux-Arts in Vilnius before joining the École Estienne in Paris, she discovered the pop-up during a workshop with one of its undisputed masters, Gérard Lo Monaco. A revelation.

While, under the influence of digital technology, 3D is becoming commonplace, Elena Selena gives it another dimension. “The pop-up is the art of detail and surprise,” she summarizes. The art of bringing out wonder, with subtle strokes of folds, mechanisms and laser cuts. In 2023, Pink morning, his final work, found itself propelled into the catalog of Gallimard Jeunesse, which has also just published its latest album, Wolves.

In his books – already around ten, including some published by Bayard and Tourbillon – the images often lead a fruitful dialogue with crafted texts. “a bit like haikus ». As in these short Japanese poems, nature is omnipresent, mysterious, almost mystical.

As a child, Elena Selena liked to dream in peace while reading a book, but also to go on adventures, climb trees, swim in the nearby river. A double impulse which is present in his albums. If she chose to stay in France, it is “for the inspiring richness of its children’s edition, for its stimulating variety”. A wealth that is illustrated every year, she enthuses, by the Montreuil Book and Youth Press Fair.

► Marie Dorléans highlights the tipping points

We found her, in the run-up to the Olympics, with a colorful album entitled Paddle mayhem (Sarbacane), where she pointed out the excesses of a competitive spirit at odds with fair play. This fall, we find Marie Dorléans, or rather the little boy she made a hero, under The Cover, his latest book, published in Le Seuil, and which very accurately deals with the universal theme of childhood fears: it is only wrapped in this gigantic piece of soft fabric that we dare to face a world perceived as hostile. Little ones will recognize themselves in this story, adults will appreciate the metaphor.

In the books of this author-illustrator, a graduate of the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg, meticulous, falsely wise lines, born from patient back and forth between paper and computer, open wide the doors of the absurd and of fantasy to the heart of everyday life.

“Marie Dorléans loves more than anything the moment when everything goes wrong, savors its editor Céline Ottenwaelter. She uses these tipping points to deliver a very personal look, to deliver her messages. As in Weedsa previous album, in which a garden previously maintained with meticulous rigor suddenly escapes all control. »

Marie Dorléans saw her early career rewarded by several prizes. In 2021, the New York Times classified his book We have an appointment among the ten best illustrated albums of the year.

► Esmé Planchon, for the love of the game

A trained actress, Esmé Planchon, 32, likes to perform her own texts and says “tinker” of the “small shapes” theatrical: cabaret numbers, performances and especially shows for children, like this Little Fox currently on tour, musical tale adapted from an opera by Leos Janacek. Insatiable reader and great admirer of Malika Ferdjoukh(Four Sisters, Broadway Limited)she made children's literature her new playground.

Unlike the stage, the novel offers “unlimited means” to his imagination. His books are designed as “cabinets of curiosities” where they mingle in a “happy mess”, poems, false articles, extracts from diaries… In Smashing entrance of the actresses, released before the summer by Bayard Jeunesse, it draws inspiration from its own experience to evoke the taste for collective creation and the structuring importance of friendships. Its goal: “Offer life possibilities to adolescents, make them question themselves, give them desires by quoting films, books…”

For her, art is everywhere and especially in things we think are insignificant. Its Fairy of dust grains, but also in adorable comic strips (three volumes published by BD Kids), marvel at a blade of grass or transform the journey of a pebble in a shoe into an epic. Esmé Planchon readily quotes Flaubert: “For something to be interesting, you just have to look at it for a long time. »

► Mickaël Brun-Arnaud, writing as one cares

Old Ferdinand Taupe, one of the characters in the saga Memories of the forest, suffers from Forget-It-All disease and goes in search of his past with the help of his friend Fox, a bookseller with a big heart. The flight of memory and the suffering it causes are subjects that Mickaël Brun-Arnaud knows well. For almost ten years, he worked as a psychologist in a hospital gerontology department, where he supported patients with Alzheimer's disease and their families.

In 2017, he resolved to fulfill his childhood dream: to become a bookseller, like his great-aunt, whose Maison de la presse had so dazzled him in his youth. When the first confinement forced him to temporarily close his lair, The Golden Fox, in Paris, specializing in Japanese culture, he wrote down on paper, just to pass the time, one of those stories that had been running through his head for years. years.

Written in three weeks and sent by email to several publishing houses, the first volume of Memories of the forest will finally appear in 2022 at L’École des Loisirs. Three other opuses will follow which, despite delicate subjects – family secrets, depression, mourning, etc. –, have touched the hearts of more than 300,000 readers.

“We can talk about everything to 9-12 year olds, as long as we do it with the necessary poetry and perspective,” he says, seeking to release emotions and promote caring communication. It is not uncommon for parents, during book signings, to say they shed a tear while reading the book aloud to their child.

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Go to the Salon de Montreuil

The Seine-Saint-Denis Book and Youth Press Fair celebrates its 40th edition.

It takes place from November 27 to December 2at the Paris Montreuil Expo, 128 rue de Paris in Montreuil.

Entrance is freeprovided you reserve your place online.

Around 400 publishing houses will be represented, as well as 250 guest artists and more than 2,000 authors and illustrators signing.

This year, a special distinction, the “Big Dipper”is given to the Franco-American author Susie Morgenstern. She is particularly recognized for her books The Sixth, Love Letters from 0 to 10, Be Happy! My best musicals or even Mister Gershwin. The skyscrapers of music.