A Conversation with Anne Herbauts, the creator of 'Naturally'

In 'Naturally' you name the main character 'Matin Minet' (original title in French). Where did the idea for this come from? Is the character inspired by a specific childhood memory?

Anne: I love language, words, wordplay, and expressions. I especially delight in the images hidden within words and expressions. There is an old French phrase, "se lever dès potron minet", which means to rise very early. It is an old French saying that doesn't mean much any more, but the phrase itself still sounds charming. Another expression I really love is "le point du jour" (daybreak), because it is so visual. I adore everything that involves dots and dotted lines, and time is a major theme in my books.

So, I imagined a story about a character who wakes up very early and tries to "pick" the daybreak. I immediately thought of making the character a cat, since "minet" is a nickname for a kitten (in French)! I wanted a story that takes place in nature, in the forest, and not far from the mountains.

For childhood inspirations, I thought of Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge books, which I had when I was a child. I was also inspired by Arnold Lobel's Owl at Home, with its fine, absurd wisdom and “cabin-sized" format.

We noticed you included some Japanese words in Naturally. What inspired these choices?

Anne: I love words and the French language, but I also love foreign words and their sounds. How a language names a thing tells a story about that thing.

Because we don't know where Midori comes from, it is a name that becomes precious and strange. I look for sounds that tell the story of what I want to say. The syllables "Mi do ri" become a musical sequence of three little notes, crystalline and fragile like a minuscule, tender green shoot. There is magic in distant languages. I also had in my head the dance to make the golden acorns grow from the film My Neighbour Totoro. It is a tribute to that film, where the power of germination and imagination is synchronised.

The names given to my characters give them personality, a history, a depth, and an attitude, in addition to the drawing.

How do you approach the challenge of illustrating the invisible, or representing something as delicate and tiny as "Midori"?

Anne: I love to recreate the evanescence and immateriality of intangible things like time, slowness, germination, scale, emotions, reality, fragility, enchantment, and waiting. I like to restore these inexpressible things through the unique writing that a picture book offers. This writing, which intertwines text and image, allows for a great poetry of the subtle and the mischievous.

It makes what the reader reads come alive because a picture book offers a constantly recreated alchemy between text and image. Everything is dotted, sparkling, and circulating between the images, pages, and words. It places us in a very active reading space that belongs only to us in our minds and imagination. I adore this form of writing that never takes itself too seriously but has wonderful poetic power.

To express the minuscule, the fragile, and the becoming, I use words, a voice, a dialogue, and a green dot that is almost invisible in the image. But this dot exists, and you have to look for it. Because it must be sought out, it takes on importance, even though it is just a simple dot. The delicacy will be rendered in the words, and the big questions of meaning will be placed in the folds of simple, clear answers.

If you had to describe the spirit of Naturally in just three words, which would you choose?

Anne: Measure, plant, grow. Let's read without measure!