Clémentine Beauvais, Write like a bee: “We need education in the pleasure of reading”

LE FIGARO. - From what desire was this work born and why did you choose this title, Write Like a Bee?

What is a bad children's book?

It's much easier to talk about a bad children's book than a good children's book. For me, the archetype of a bad children's book is a book for adults, which pretends to be children's literature and which adopts the forms of children's literature. Typically, these are books in the form of fables, aphorisms, both cute and pseudo-profound which adopt childish characters to try to dispense some kind of naive wisdom.

Also read: Clémentine Beauvais: “Youth literature does not seek to take children away from the screens”

Will a reader of children's books necessarily be a reader of adult literature?

No, I don't think the studies allow us to conclude that. But there is an interest in reading children's literature when you are a child, even if later you will no longer read anything. It can always come back, we see that the literacy curves go back to adulthood, particularly among men. There are young boys who stop reading around 12 but sometimes start reading again at 40. There is real value in reading when you are a child, in populating your imagination, in increasing your vocabulary, even if afterwards that does not necessarily mean that you will be a reader forever, you will keep something.

Young people are more and more on screens. Do children’s books still have a future?

Yes, children have such a keen interest in stories that I don't think that, even if they have been exposed to screens, they are incapable of returning to books. Teenagers are more difficult and very different. For me, the question is: what do we expect from literature? We could say that we need to “compete” with screens by creating extremely addictive fiction, but I think we need to do exactly the opposite. We need education in the pleasure of reading. It involves recognizing the politics of the pleasure of reading.