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- The Citizen Voices Team
Harvey - Children's literature - text
by Hervé Bouchard
I accept this award with great joy and see it as solid support from the Canada Council for the Arts for Canadian literature.
When I was writing this book (Harvey), I had no idea how much noise the story of this little boy would make.
Yes, Harvey is a touching and funny story that gives the reader the essential but common pleasure we expect from literature. I wrote it as I always write, that is, using some words that are disguised as others (I write in such a way as to not disturb them because, what I’m interested in, is seeing where they are and where they are going). I also wanted it to be a book for young people, a desire expressed by Frédéric Gauthier from La Pastèque. So I gave it to my daughter to read—she was eleven or twelve years old at the time—and she liked it, and I gave it to Frédéric Gauthier, who accepted it. And them the book went into a sort of hibernation, like Sleeping Beauty.
It was Janice Nadeau who revived it. Once it was in her hands, Harvey, the book, because a kind of Petit Prince, a winged little prince who floats above the gutters. Thank you, Janice, for making Harvey so beautiful.
I would also like to thank the people who revised the text, Richard Boivin and Marie-André Descôteaux. Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the editors at La Pastèque, Martin Brault and Frédéric Gauthier: this book is their creation; it is the expression of their talent, their daring and their flair.
