Anne Renaud is an award-winning children’s author who writes in both French and English. Her readers often ask her why she writes books. She tells them it is because she likes to do creative things and she finds writing to be a very creative exercise. It is also because she cannot dance well, sing well, juggle well, or do magic tricks, so she tries her best to write well. Anne stumbled upon the story of Ferdinand Cheval quite by chance while she was researching another one of her books. This often happens with writers. She found Ferdinand Cheval to be particularly inspiring because it told the story of how one man never gave up on his dream. Anne hopes this story will inspire children to pursue their dreams too.
Ana Salopek lives in Ogulin, Croatia. She is a proud mom of a five-year-old girl who occasionally borrows her daughter's worldview on what truly matters in life. She creates and exhibits under her real name, Ana Salopek, as well as her pseudonym, gospođica ura. She uses books as her private time machine and creates using digital techniques as they give her more freedom. She believes that during the night, her legs lengthen as a giraffe’s neck allowing her to reach for the stars.
Readers will be captivated by both the story and Renaud’s retelling, told in verse, which captures the whimsy and the drive of Cheval’s desire to leave a “reminder of my time here.” Readers will come away stirred—and wondering how they, too, can leave their mark on the world.
—Kirkus Review
