2019 › London

Past event

Catharina Valckx

How did it go?

We spent a fascinating morning at the L'Institut Francais with French author and illustrator Catharina Valckx, who came to speak to translator Sarah Ardizzone, and 200 children from local schools. It was very interesting learning how Catharina grew up in France, but now lives in Holland, and what she finds inspirational for her work. Catharina and Sarah read some of her stories in both French and English.

The children loved it when Catharina drew her lovable eponymous crow character and his friends from her fabulous book Zanzibar. The children also got the chance to ask Catharina questions about her illustrations and stories.

Catharina Valckx

Catharina visited four schools and worked with 120 children on their own illustration projects. And every child taking part got their own free copy of Catharina's book to take home and keep!

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Venue:
Institut Français, 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT
Date:
Thursday 21st November
Time:
10:30 am
Duration:
Approx. 1 hour
Age range:
Years 2 and 3

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Catharina Valckx

Catharina Valckx was born in 1957 in The Netherlands but moved to France when she was young and lived in a small village in the suburbs of Paris with her four sisters. Since 1997 she has written over 30 books for children including Bruno and Zanzibar and in 2011 she was nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Praise for Bruno

This surreal yet sincere French import is one of the more interesting books in my life so far.

Travis Jonker (School Library Journal)


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