At 79, this Franco-American author of some 160 books is the guest of honor at the Montreuil Children’s Book Fair.
The screens are « a poison » according to the queen of children’s literature, Susie Morgenstern, who writes tirelessly and has no intention, at 79, of slowing down a frenetic pace of publication. Crowned with the Grande Ourse, the supreme award of the Montreuil Children’s Book Fair which opens on Wednesday near Paris, this Franco-American is the author of some 160 books.
One of your publishers told us that you published 10 books in 12 months. How many hours per day do you work?
Susie MORGENSTERN. – I get up very early and I’m at my desk at 6:30 a.m., 7 a.m…. And I work until 7 p.m. I eat, I cook. I make phone calls. But I sit from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There are a lot of emails too.
Not planning to slow down?
I accelerate. Posting so much is not well looked at. But I don’t know, I’m a machine. I accelerate like someone who knows she doesn’t have all the time possible. And I am very far from being a perfectionist. I write, I write. Above my desk is the slogan that Nike stole from me: Just do it. You do what you have to do. It’s a very happy life when you do what you love to do.
If you look back, what is your favorite book?
It’s still the one I’m working on. That’s what excites me. Some I don’t even remember. The book that launched my career was probably The Big Potatoes (1979). He was talked about in the media. It didn’t sell well but we talked about it. And this adult book, My 18 exiles (an autobiography in 2021). It was phenomenal for me to be interviewed, because no one interviews children’s authors.
How do you see the evolution of your readers, who are growing up in different conditions from 40 years ago?
Very different. I just became a great-grandmother, so I’m really interested in babies at the moment. My great-grandson is very different from my children. And the terror for today’s children is screens. It’s terrifying to see that children won’t read. I myself can scroll through videos, watching the stupidest stuff, and realize that an hour has passed.
However, the success of your books shows that there is room.
Yes, they sell. And I’m so happy to sign books and see kids walk away with them. But France is, as they say, a cultural exception. I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I think we are facing a terrible crisis, with screens. We have to do something, I don’t know what. It is not prohibition and confiscation that will succeed. We need an idea that will get them off the screens. It’s poison.
At the Montreuil Festival, the main concern is to promote reading.
Yes, Montreuil is fantastic. I am the queen of 9-3. I go to all these schools and I love these kids. And they read. When they know the author is coming, they read, and it’s great.
