Reading guide for
L’enfant racine by Kitty Crowther
Recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2010
Written by Agneta Edwards
THE ASTRID LINDGREN MEMORIAL AWARD
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About the author and illustrator
Is the Belgian picture book author Kitty Crowther (born in 1970) primarily an illustrator or an
author? She herself prefers to call herself a storyteller and says that even if her only materials
were sticks and stones, she would still have created stories. As a child, drawing provided
Kitty Crowther with an important outlet and an opportunity to express herself, particularly as
she was born with a hearing impairment. And she has taken the tools of the child, coloured
pencils, with her into her work as an artist. With this simple medium Kitty Crowther creates
light and shade, surface structures and light effects – see, for example, the many shades of
black she gives the night in L’enfant racine (2003) and how some of the details seem to be
almost luminous.
Kitty Crowther creates books for very small children, such as Alors? (2006), Scritch scratch
dip clapote!(2002) and the series about Poka and Mine, and for slightly older readers. Le
grand désordre (2005), Annie du lac (2009), the most recent book L’homme et Dieu (2010)
and L’enfant racine can almost be described as modern fairytales. As such, they are also
books for all ages, where Kitty Crowther uses motifs and figures from folklore and fairytale in
a way that is entirely her own. The stories revolve around themes such as loneliness and
togetherness. Kitty Crowther often tackles existential questions and weighty subjects, such as
death in La Visite de Petite Morte (2004) and Annie du lac, but it is never pitch black, there is
always light at the end of the tunnel. In her stories, difficulties are a springboard for new
opportunities, and unexpected meetings a catalyst towards a more positive way of life. This
creates complex stories that are particularly suited to discussion.
About the book
In L’enfant racine we meet Leslie. She lives beyond a forest that does not exist on any maps,
nobody knows where it begins or ends – the indeterminate place of fairytale that signals that
what happens could happen anywhere and that we find ourselves on some kind of boundary,
possibly with other worlds, possibly inside Leslie’s head, or inside our own. Kitty Crowther
explores the shifting boundaries between realism, fairytale and dreams.
When chasing a fox, Leslie hears a strange noise. She creeps through a tunnel to find out what
or who is crying. On the other side she finds an orphan child who looks like a root. Leslie
takes the root child home with her and a not entirely uncomplicated relationship begins. It is
not easy to get used to a new person – the relationship could be interpreted as a child-adult
relationship, adoption by a single parent, any kind of relationship between two people, in fact.
But someone is watching over them – look at the picture where the root child and Leslie are
sulking in their separate corners of the sofa and you can see a small elf-like figure peering in
through the window. The reader has worked out something that Leslie does not know; that the
fox probably lured her there deliberately and that the world that the root child comes from is
ruled by Queen Mab. Queen Mab is a figure from Celtic folklore found in the works of poets
like Shelley, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and often in fantasy literature. Look closely
and you also discover that the elves are following Leslie from the moment she enters the land
on the other side of the tunnel. A story like L’enfant racine is also told through the pictures.
L’enfant racine is a story with many meanings, where everyone can come up with their own
interpretation of what the root child actually is or symbolises – a lust for life? Motherhood?
The fact that togetherness is the most important thing, even though relationships can make life
complicated? When the root child eventually has to leave Leslie, she decides to abandon her
lone existence and go in search of other people. See how resolutely she tramps the road with
her luggage in the last picture – and how the fox and the elves are watching her. Perhaps that
was what they wanted to achieve?
Might Efland be the kingdom of dreams, with the tunnel symbolising a channel into Leslie’s
subconscious? Was it something she had to discover deep inside herself? Meeting her own
child? Note how we the readers cannot see Leslie’s face until she has met the root child, as if
she did not really exist until then, is not a complete human being.
Kitty Crowther often talks about the friction between creative, self-imposed solitude and the
family, friends and life outside the life of the artist. Perhaps the final lines of L’enfant racine
offer a possible pointer in that direction: “Once every year the root child and Leslie met in a
moonbeam,” despite the fact that Leslie now has a husband and children of her own – might
the root child symbolise her own creativity? That it is essential to accept and protect it?
There are many interpretations to be made here. The above offers some ideas and suggestions,
but don’t try to find fixed answers to the questions. Instead let everyone draw their own
conclusions according to age, experience and associations. Together you will discover more
potential meanings, gaining a richer reading experience.
More to discover, and to discuss, after reading
What kind of character is the root child really? Does he symbolise some aspect of Leslie’s
personality?
What can the scene where all the root child’s relations come to fetch him and they swarm all
over Leslie’s home stand for? Why must the root child go back?
Before Leslie leaves the house, she hangs up her gun above the fireplace, what could that
mean? What has happened to Leslie in meeting the root child? And why do they meet again
every year?
See how Kitty Crowther works with her pencils to create depth and light, structure and
perspective. How a grey-black bedcover looks soft, while the tree trunks are compact. How
the room gains scenic depth through different shades of grey and the red-brown stroke in the
corner. How by leaving lighter areas around, e.g. a flower, she makes it stand out from the
picture. Try with your own drawings!
Follow their eyes! Kitty Crowther creates strong presence in her pictures by having her
characters be so absorbed by each other. Like watching a film or a play with two actors
intensely present. Even when the root child and Leslie are not looking at each other, as in the
scene on the sofa, their glances show exactly how they are feeling.
Further reading about Kitty Crowther
Belgiska ritar historier, Gunilla Wedding, Skånska Dagbladet, 23 October 2008 (in Swedish)
http://www.skanskan.se/article/20081023/NOJE/424895492/1057
Hon vänder svaghet till styrka, Agneta Edwards, Opsis Kalopsis, issue 2 2010 (in Swedish)
Kitty Crowther – en känslig berättare, Lennart Eng, IBBY-bladet, issue 2 2010 (in Swedish)
This Reading Guide was written by Agneta Edwards, former member of the jury for the Astrid
Lindgren Memorial Award. It was first published in Swedish in August 2011.
www.alma.se/en