“Collections” wins the Swiss Children’s and Young People’s Book Prize 2024 – Culture

The poetic book by Victoire de Changy and Fanny Dreyer encourages you to dream, discuss and philosophize.

The book “Collections” tells the story of seven children, an artist and all their collections: Lucien, for example, collects pebbles, Lise collects horse figures and Pio collects flowers.

There is a story behind each of these collections: It tells where the children started collecting and how they found the valuable pieces, what they do with them – and how the collections also reflect part of their personality. For example, Louise expresses her deep longing for the sea with the shells that are so valuable to her.

Collecting as a human need

The Belgian author Victoire de Changy and the Freiburg artist Fanny Dreyer do not only address children with the topic of collecting. “Collections” is also about the deeper meaning that collecting has for us as humans.

The picture book shows collecting as a human need – and the associated emotional relationship to objects: “We can be fascinated by their beauty, we can experience them as identity-forming or connect them with specific people and memories,” says Kathrin Jakob. She is a jury member for this year’s Swiss Children’s and Young People’s Book Prize.

Legend:

Pressed against transience: collecting always means preserving.

La party

In addition, Kathrin Jakob continues, the book is also characterized by a philosophical level: “Collecting is an attempt to counteract transience to some extent. Cleo’s family, for example, has tried to pass on a helping hand through the generations through hand sculptures. This hand collection stands, among other things, for stability. The book offers a lot of material and space for thought.”

Delicate colors, poetic texts

Like last year’s winning book “Le Colibri”, “Collections” is also a touching and artistic work. It is decorated in delicate pink, violet, brown and green tones. A strong coral red provides contrast at certain points and highlights individual image elements. Often attention is drawn to simple objects that one might overlook.

Legend:

Lots of space for thoughts: “Collections” offers a contrast to hectic everyday life.

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The illustrations are painted and drawn, small figures are placed in vast landscapes. The texts leave a lot of space for the images. They are short and poetic.

A treasure on your bookshelf at home

“Collections” invites you to immerse yourself in the worlds of little collectors, but also offers insights into landscapes in which you can get lost. Or enrich it with your own thoughts and stories. «The book is sensitive, philosophical, timeless in its subject matter, original and distinctive in its aesthetics,” says Kathrin Jakob.

Despite these qualities, the winning book does not break any new ground within children’s literature. But its theme is very close to many young (and older) readers. Thanks to the careful and loving design, it is a book that you will be happy to have on your bookshelf – and just as happy to pull it out again and again. You can always discover something new and linger. A pleasant change in hectic everyday life. For young and old.