ABSTRACT
If a child were stopped on a French street and asked to name a picturebook publisher, chances are very good that they would name L’Ecole des loisirs. This publisher has been considered “the grande dame of children’s literature publishers” since the turn of the 21st century. 1 In 2016, the cultural magazine Télérama called L’Ecole des loisirs “the Gallimard of children’s publishing.” 2 Though its owners portray their company as a modest independent next to giant international conglomerates such as Hachette, almost all actors in French children’s publishing – a landscape characterized by an abundance of tiny houses – regard L’Ecole des loisirs as the industry behemoth that is impossible to dethrone. It is to L’Ecole des loisirs that the other independent publishers compare themselves, since the conglomerates are producing mostly “supermarket” books for children, considered practically another industry altogether.
