A teacher in Monaco, this Niçoise revisits the galette des rois in a children’s book
Growing up, Scheherazade Zeboudji nurtured two dreams: to teach and to write for children. The first was satisfied only ten spring, when she gave her first class to her neighbor in Vieux-Nice, who was enrolled in first grade. Then, professionally, to students around the world.
In the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, Finland and, since 2013, in Monaco (1) where she now teaches in CE1 at Charles-III school. “My favorite level. Where I feel most useful, because it is the age of reason”, she breathed. Also there where she drew a lot of her inspiration for her second… aspiration to write a book for the younger generation.
A first book on fear of the dark in 2019
After a first book in 2019, intended to understand the fear of the dark and the literary prize of Action Enfance in 2021, Schéhérazade Zeboudji followed up on a second story: The galette and the king published by Kaléidoscope.
An alternative to pancake dated 1950, only illustrated for children which existed until then on the galette des rois. Throughout the pages, we discover the kindness and the touch of humor of the author in the writing, but also the accuracy in the pencil stroke of Marianne Barcilon, “one of the most recognized illustrators in the world of youth”.
Under an old oak tree, the animals of the forest meet to taste a galette. The stake is crucial: whoever unearths the bean will be crowned. But now the guests use cheating to become the king of the animals. “I used it in class and we were able to work on writing, on the vocabulary that I wanted rich and precise because that’s how we raise and preserve the French language. We also have had philosophical debates and made a crown, detail the teacher. The book is an incredible entry into the education of children. “
Scheherazade Zeboudji, who never walks without his pencil case and a notebook, is already bubbling over with ideas for his not starting: “Christmas, the little mouse, the difference, the Covid-19, my home, at the time of the teacher”, she lists. It remains to convince the publishing houses.
* As a seconded school teacher.