Under the patronage of Antoine Dole, alias Mr. Tan, the Le Point children’s book prize, which is launching its first edition this year, has brought together a jury made up of prestigious children’s authors: Mr. Tan, but also Baptiste Beaulieu , Anne Goscinny and Marie-Aude Murail. Three journalists from Le Point are also members of the jury: Christophe Ono-dit-Biot, Louise Cunéo and Élise Lépine. Two works will be crowned: one in the “album” category, rewarding an album dedicated to readers under the age of seven, and one in the “novel” category, dedicated to literature for adolescents. In addition, a “children’s favourite” will also feature a book dedicated to 7 to 10 year olds, elected by a jury of children belonging to this age group.
By Antoine Dole, alias Mr. Tan
How about returning to the starting point? To the place of our great emotions? This period of life where everything we feel is a burst of sunshine, luminous and powerful, planted across everyday life, and from which it is impossible to look away. Everything then becomes clear, no matter how old we are, with the light of the obvious: our way of loving, the sensations that lift us from the ground, the paths that call us and our ability to happily launch ourselves there. . It is in childhood, at the crossroads of our truths, that we draw the important lines of our great power. The one that connects us to the world and gives us the opportunity to grasp it.
So a Youth Prize is always a time to rejoice: let’s celebrate children’s books and those who write them. These little magic boxes that are these works and which offer us a journey in time, to the place of possibilities. When you are 4 years old, 6 years old, 10 years old and all the future depends on the wonder it arouses. Children’s literature carries within it this magic, of healing pain before it strikes, or conversely of soothing sorrows that nothing can reach. She reminds us, each time, that an emotion remains, there deep inside us, which only asks to go through all of our lives to bring us back to us.
And if you’re told it’s not for you anymore, that you’re out of age, don’t believe all those liars and remember this: adults don’t exist. We are all kids trying. Children’s books are shelters where one never ceases to be a heart under construction.