Picture book / Ages 3+ / 56 pages
20.5 x 28 cm / 18 €
October 2021
Rights sold: Korean, Spanish (LatAm), Chinese (Simplified)
The Pearl
Anne-Margot Ramstein
& Matthias Arégui
A thought-provoking yet moving textless book questioning the relativity of the value of things.
A child discovers a pearl in the ocean, and adds it to a ring he made for his girlfriend. At night, a bird steals the pearl and brings it to its nest, where a cat finds it. Here starts for the pearl a long journey that will take it from a queen’s crown to a maple syrup bottle through a salmon’s stomach. At the end of the book, the pearl has found its way back to the boy from the beginning, who has become an old man. Astonished, he puts the pearl back on the home-made ring and offers it to the woman he is still in love with after all these years.
Throughout the book, each of the characters appropriating the pearl has his specific motive (love, cupidity) and uses it differently (a sign of power, a simple toy), showing how its value changes depending on who owns it.
Award-winning illustrators Anne-Margot Ramstein & Matthias Arégui deliver an extraordinary story entirely carried by the images which offer an easy understanding while leaving room for imagination.
Anne-Margot Ramstein
The author and illustrator
After spending her childhood on the island of La Réunion, Anne-Margot Ramstein flew to Paris to study art. A graduate in illustration from the École des Arts Décoratifs of Strasbourg, she published at Albin Michel Jeunesse Avant, Après (Bologna Ragazzi Award 2015, Non Fiction category), Dedans, Dehors (with Matthias Arégui), En forme ! and J’étais au pays d’Ava et Eve. Her works are also published in the press (Le Monde, XXI, Libération, Le Tigre, Elle, etc.) and have been exhibited in Strasbourg, Boston and Philadelphia. She was a resident of the Villa Medici in Rome in 2015-2016. She lives in Strasbourg.
Matthias Arégui
The author and illustrator
A graduate in illustration from the École des Arts Décoratifs of Strasbourg, Matthias Arégui has published in 2016 a noticed comic book, Bob et Sally, at Éditions 2024. At Albin Michel Jeunesse, he has published with Anne-Margot Ramstein Avant, Après (Bologna Ragazzi Award 2015, Non Fiction category) and Dedans, Dehors. He also works for the press and published two stories in the magazine Belles Illustrations. He lives in Strasbourg.
