Herbauts, Anne 1975–

PERSONAL:

Born 1975, in Uccle, Belgium. Education: Attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Belgium and France.

CAREER:

Writer, illustrator, and educator. Conducts seminars and courses on illustration and comics.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Baobab Prize, November, 2003; winner of numerous awards in Belgium.

WRITINGS:

WRITER AND ILLUSTRATOR; FOR YOUNG READERS

Que fait la lune, la nuit?, Casterman (Paris, France), 1998.

Le petit souci, Casterman (Paris, France), 1999.

Pataf a des ennuis, Casterman (Paris, France), 1999.

L'heure vide, Casterman (Paris, France), 2000.

La maison bleue, Casterman (Paris, France), 2000.

La très vielle légende sans poussières du Coin du Balai, Casterman (Paris, France), 2001.

L'arbre merveilleux, Casterman (Paris, France), 2001.

Et trois corneille, Casterman (Paris, France), 2003.

Albert récupère, Casterman (Paris, France), 2003.

La princesse au petit poids, Casterman (Paris, France), 2003.

Lundi, Casterman (Paris, France), 2004, translation by Claudia Zoe Bedrick published as Monday, Enchanted Lion Books (Brooklyn, NY), 2006.

La lettre, Casterman (Paris, France), 2005.

Silencio, Casterman (Paris, France), 2005, published as Prince Silencio, Enchanted Lion (New York, NY), 2006.

Petites météorologies, Casterman (Paris, France), 2006.

De temps en temps, Esperluète (Paris, France), 2006.

"THE ADVENTURES OF ÉDOUARD AND ARMAND" SERIES; WRITER AND ILLUSTRATOR; FOR YOUNG READERS

Boa, Casterman (Paris, France), 1997.

Allons voir plus loin, Casterman (Paris, France), 1998.

À la plage, Casterman (Paris, France), 1999.

Drôles de numéros, Casterman (Paris, France), 2002.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Vague, Grandir (Orange, France), 1999.

Autoportrait, Esperluète, 2001.

Cardiogramme, Éditions de l'An2 (Angoulême, France), 2002.

Par-delá les nuages, Éditions de l'An2 (Angoulême, France), 2004.

L'idiot, Éditions de l'An2 (Angoulême, France), 2005.

ILLUSTRATOR:

Stéphan Lévy-Kuentz,Quand tu seras petite, Casterman (Paris, France), 1999.

Charles Perrault,Le Maitre Chat, Milan (Toulouse, France), 2002.

Lewis Carroll,Alice au pays des Merveilles, Casterman (Paris, France), 2002.

Bernard Friot,Amanda Chocolat, Milan (Toulouse, France), 2004.

François David,La petite soeur de Kafka, Esperluète, 2004.

Bernard Friot,Histoires pressées, Milan (Toulouse, France), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Anne Herbauts is a prolific writer, illustrator, and creator of graphic novels for children and younger readers. She is the author and illustrator of more than sixteen books for young readers and is the illustrator of some half-dozen books by other authors. She attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, and began publishing her work at age eighteen. By the time she reached age twenty-six, she had already built a significant body of written and illustrated work. Noted a biographer on Livre-poitoucharentes.org, "This young Belgian shows of a constant curiosity for the world and a perpetual attraction for the horizon," an interest that is "expressed with mischievousness and poetry."

Herbauts is known for her series of children's board books featuring the two animal friends, Édouard and Armand. Édouard, a dog, and Armand, a rabbit, travel through the world having adventures such as meeting a huge boa constrictor, traveling in a submarine, meeting the King of Fish, and more. In the "Édouard and Armand" series, Herbauts acknowledges that the world holds many surprises, some of them unpleasant, and that the accompanying sense of anticipation can cause fear in her younger readers. However, this is a "fear that Anne Herbauts defuses with a tender poetry," commented the Livre-poitoucharentes.org biographer. Herbauts also adds images and textual markers that help children engage their sense of play with the content of her books. She adds these materials in the hope that her younger readers will experience interest in the "play between the text and the image, of the play between the book and the reader. That is true in each one of my books. The children play much spontaneously, more easily than the adults. We have yokes which they do not have," she remarked to an interviewer on the AC-reims.fr Web site.

Though Herbauts writes most often for children, her books do not avoid substantive topics. In Monday, the title character barely feels the passing of time when he is alone but becomes keenly aware of it when he is with his friends Lester Day and Tom Morrow. He so enjoys his happy hours with his friends, and wishes so intently that those cherished moments could come again, that he wastes a good deal of time seeking for his friends, who have departed. No matter his desire, however, time continues to pass for little Monday, and as the seasons begin to change and advance, so does Monday. Soon, he is completely lost in a snowstorm, where he blends with the total whiteness that surrounds him. When Lester and Tom return, they cannot find Monday; he has become a memory, blended in time. A part of the cycle himself, Monday does eventually return, changed and wiser from his experience. Monday is a book in which the texture of the pages, the quality of the illustration, the embossed impression of a character on an otherwise blank page make up a significant aspect of the story. As the seasons change within the story, the book's paper stock becomes thinner, offering a physical cue to accompany the events in the story. When Monday is blanketed by the snowstorm, he exists as nothing more than a faint impression on the physical page of the book and can only be felt rather than seen. These visual and tactile effects "enrich the poetic text, combining to create a deeply profound story that contemplates the idea of pining away for yesterday and wishing for tomorrow," commented Kristine M. Casper in School Library Journal. "This book is not only about the division of time; it's also about enjoying the passage of time and the moments that make up each day," observed Tanya Boudreau on the Curled Up with a Good Kid's Book Web site. "Monday is about friendship, the passage of time and the seasons, but also about losing yourself, loneliness, and silence. Deep stuff," observed Anne Boles Levy on the Book Buds Web site. A Kirkus Reviews critic called the book a "spare, deceptively simple meditation on time, change, and renewal."

The title character of Prince Silencio is the son of a king who has a deep aversion to noise of any kind. Though the prince does not share his father's dislike of sound, he must fulfill his duty as enforcer when his father passes the Law of Silence. Soon, Prince Silencio becomes a dreaded presence in the kingdom, and the people avoid and reject him, even when he tries to join in on their noisy parties and celebrations. Upon the king's death, the kingdom erupts in a cacophony of noise, sound, and celebration, to the exclusion of grieving Prince Silencio. Eventually, however, the people realize the importance of silence in balance with noise, how silence enhances words and sound, and how noise without tempering silence is often indistinguishable from chaos.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Children's Bookwatch, July 2006, review of Prince Silencio.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2006, review of Monday, p. 1174.

Library Media Connection, January, 2007, Diana H. Hanke, review of Prince Silencio, p. 68.

Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2006, review of Prince Silencio, p. 63.

School Library Journal, June, 2006, Carolyn Janssen, review of Prince Silencio, p. 119; April, 2007, Kristine M. Casper, review of Monday, p. 108.

ONLINE

AC-reims.fr,http://www.ac-reims.fr/ (November 22, 2007), interview with Anne Herbauts.

Book Buds,http://dadtalk.typepad.com/book_buds_kidlit_reviews/ (January 15, 2007), Anne Boles Levy, "Reading White Space," review of Prince Silencio.

Clairdebulle.com,http://clairdebulle.com/ (November 22, 2007), biography of Anne Herbauts.

Curled Up with a Good Kid's Book,http://www.curledupkids.com/ (November 22, 2007), Tanya Boudreau, review of Monday; Lillian Brummet, review of Prince Silencio.

Livre-poitoucharentes.org,http://www.livre-poitoucharentes.org/ (November 22, 2007), biography of Anne Herbauts.