90 years of the Père Castor albums: how Paul Faucher revolutionized children's books<

The Père Castor albums celebrate their 90th anniversary with an exhibition at the Galerie Gallimard in Paris and with a book, Paul Faucher ou l'aventure du Père Castor, an editorial revolution, a monograph devoted to history from the creator of this collection of children's books.

“The Orange Cow, The Great Black Panther, Baba Yaga, Apoutziak… We all have a story of Père Castor in our hearts,” begins Bénédicte Roux, literary director of Père Castor (Flammarion). The exhibition offers two parts, the first heritage, with the presentation of illustrations from the first editions, signed Nathalie Parain, Etienne Morel, Lucile Butel, Hélène Guertik. "For the heritage choices, we particularly wanted to highlight the illustrations of the emblematic works of the collection, taken from the books that resonate with everyone, and these are the ones that we see first, as soon as we enter the exhibition", explains Bénédicte Roux.

Most of the images come from the Médiathèque du Père Castor in Meuzac (Haute-Vienne) created in 2006 by the son of Paul Faucher (1931-1967), the founder, and by the Friends of Père Castor association. "This media library keeps all the documentary background, the archives, all the elements that accompanied the editorial work, all the documents that participated in the development of the creative work, and it also keeps original illustrations", explains Bénédicte Roux. "All these archives entered the world heritage of Unesco in 2017", adds the editor.

An editorial revolution

Behind the Père Castor albums hides a man, originally a bookseller, passionate about education, a man who revolutionized the world of children's books in the 1930s "Paul Faucher desacralized the book. At the time when the first albums of Père Castor were published, the books for young people were voluminous, heavy, with a rigid cardboard cover. They were beautiful books, New Year's Eve books. They are not at all suitable for the small hands of children, who very often are not even allowed to touch them" says Bénédicte Roux.

In the early 1930s, while working at Flammarion, Paul Faucher suggested that the publishing house launch a new collection of children's books. "His idea was to make books that talk about the daily life of children, flexible, light, manageable albums, which favor the image, and inexpensive books", explains Anne-Catherine Faucher in the monograph dedicated to her grand- father. "The beaver was chosen as the emblem because it is known for its qualities as a builder, a builder, values ​​that Paul Faucher wanted to highlight", says Bénédicte Roux.

By publishing two albums in 1931, Nathalie Parrain's I Make My Masks and I Cut Out, the first copies of which can be admired in the exhibition, Paul Faucher invented "action books", books that children allowed, and even invited to touch, color, or cut out. “A revolution!” insists Bénédicte Roux.

The "New education"

Paul Faucher, passionate about education issues, had been interested for several years in the "New pedagogy" which advocated an education capable of supporting "global progress of the person by arousing the spirit of exploration and cooperation", as explained by the founder of this movement, Madeleine Guéritte.

All his life, Paul Faucher will work with this idea of ​​creating books adapted to children, books that are addressed to them. An idea that was inspired by his meeting with Frantisek Bakule, a Czechoslovakian teacher and pedagogue, a pioneer of new education like Célestin Freinet or Maria Montessori. For Faucher, Bakule was "the genius of education in nobody", says Anne-Catherine Faucher in her monograph.

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"Paul Faucher put children at the heart of the book. This may seem anecdotal and banal today, but at the time it was not at all obvious, this desire to help children think by themselves, with books where the child is an actor, books where the text is placed next to the illustration, without overlapping, with work on the layout and typography, with a constant concern for clarity “, continues Bénédicte Roux. “And he surrounds himself with artists from the Russian school, like Nathalie Parain.”

In 1946, Paul Faucher created the workshop of Père Castor, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, an "educational tool workshop" in which he worked in a team with psychologists and researchers on pedagogy applied to books, then he opened the Père Castor school, "where he tests the books he publishes directly with the children", says Bénédicte Roux.

"The children of the earth"

We also owe him the first imagery, which he took several years to develop, and "which is still in the catalog today, without us having really needed to change anything except the shape of the phones," says Bénédicte Roux. "He had already thought of declining his picture book in several formats, with versions with images in pockets, which children could store in a box. He also addressed children directly with a small letter at the beginning of the album , signed Père Castor. All that was very modern," adds the editor.

Paul Faucher also wanted to open children up to the world. In 1947, Paul-Emile Victor, back from an Antarctic expedition, sent Paul Faucher a notebook in which he had written and drawn the story of a little Eskimo.

These few sheets give birth to Apoutsiak the little snowflake, the first album in the "Children of the Earth" collection. "The idea was to show how other children live in the world, in another environment, with questions that are already at the heart of the news today, such as ecology", underlines Bénédicte Roux.

Le Père Castor contemporain

To celebrate the anniversary of the Père Castor albums, the publishing house has undertaken to publish four iconic "restored" albums, in a large hardback edition. The Cutest Little Mouse (April 2021), Red Hen (June 2021) The Orange Cow (August 2021) and Michka (November 2021). For this special series, the publisher carried out a chroma work from the originals or the first editions, to find the quality of the images of Lucile Butel, Étienne Morel and Rojan.

"But we also publish new releases every year, with new stories, new illustrators, but always with the concern for clarity desired by Paul Faucher", emphasizes Bénédicte Roux. Another part of the exhibition is thus devoted to the contemporary Père Castor, and presents the work of illustrators who today perpetuate the spirit of this legendary collection: Olivier Tallec, Sébastien Pelon, Charlotte Gastaut, and Donatien Mary.

"Sparks albums"

Père Castor and the Museum of Decorative Arts are joining forces to offer workshops from October in which children can discover the emblematic albums of the house of edition at the same time as the museum's collections of objects.

Inspired by the pedagogy carried out by Paul Faucher and the first artistic workshops of the museum, two workshops "Forms" and "Decors" will first take place at the museum before being offered in an itinerant format in schools in France.

"I didn't want funnel books, I dreamed of a sparkle album", said Paul Faucher. A dream that he never stopped implementing with his Père Castor albums, which are still sparkling today, 90 years after their creation.

- Exhibition "Paul Faucher or the invention of Father Castor", until November 13, 2021, Galerie Gallimard, 30-32 rue de l'Université Paris 7th, Tuesday to Saturday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

- "Paul Faucher or the adventure of Father Castor", Anne-Catherine Faucher (Flammarion, 110 color pages, €29)