In German and Anglo-Saxon publishing houses, opening a children’s book means meeting the person who wrote it. On the inside flap, on the back cover, or on the publisher’s website, you will almost always find a detailed biography: the author’s childhood, what drew them to writing, their influences, their relationship with books and with children. The author is a presence, a voice, a person you can trust.
In France, the tradition is different. The work often takes precedence over its creator, a legacy of a long literary culture that believes a text should speak for itself. Authors remain discreet, and the back cover belongs to the summary, not the biography.
In Morocco, children’s publishing has naturally inherited this French approach, compounded by its own challenges: a still-developing sector, publishing houses with limited resources, and a tendency to perceive children’s books more as educational tools than as literary works in their own right. The result: the authors who write for our children often remain complete strangers to us.
At Agafay Books, we believe this is a missed opportunity — and we intend to change it.
Who writes for our children is not a trivial question. An author brings a particular way of seeing the world, a sensitivity, a personal history that permeates every word and every story. Knowing that an author grew up between two cultures, that she chose a pen name as a tribute to a country that shaped her, that her stories are born from an intimate experience of the world — all of this transforms the way we read, receive and share a book with a child. The author is not separate from the work. They are its soul.
The same is true of the illustrator — and yet they are even more invisible than the author. In a children’s book, the illustrations are not decoration. They are a language in their own right. An illustrator brings a universe, a palette, an emotional world that a child absorbs before they can even read. The way a character’s eyes are drawn, the choice of colours for a landscape, the energy of a line — these are artistic decisions that shape how a child feels inside a story. Knowing who created these images, what inspired them, what their own childhood looked like, matters just as much as knowing who wrote the words.
That is why Agafay Books is committed to giving its authors and illustrators a real and visible place: their journeys, their inspirations, their childhoods, their creative choices. Through this blog, we will share portraits, interviews and behind-the-scenes stories of creation. Because we believe that parents, teachers and children deserve to know who they are trusting when they open a book.
Moroccan children’s literature has powerful voices and extraordinary visual talents. It is time to give them a face.
