About
It all began one Tuesday evening, at the edge of a bed, with a little girl who didn’t want to go to sleep just yet.
The story behind the stories
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who looked forward to Tuesday evenings more than any other night of the week. Because Tuesday is Papé’s night — Papé, as she calls her grandad. Pyjamas on, teeth brushed, she snuggles under the duvet and asks, eyes already wide open: “A big adventure, Papé!”
So Papé makes one up. A little golden hen who’s a bit too curious, a big-hearted fox who’s nothing like a villain, a wobbly plank at the back of the henhouse… One Tuesday after another, Matilda and Oscar came to life, along with their friends from the farm and the forest.
And that’s how it all began. The Tuesday stories became books, so that other children could ask for “just one more page!” before the lights go out.
Why “La Planche Branlante”?
At the back of the henhouse, there’s a plank that doesn’t hold very well — a “planche branlante”, as they say in French. That’s where Oscar the fox sneaks through to find Matilda, and that’s where every adventure begins.
Who is Steredenn?
Steredenn means “star” in Breton. Behind this pen name is a grandad who is still very young at heart, and above all very playful: the kind of Papé who crows better than Captain Jack, does the voice of a dragon with a cold, and is always first in line for a game of hide-and-seek in the garden.
He doesn’t write his stories down first: he tells them, acts them out, mimes them. And when his little listener bursts out laughing or holds her breath, he knows next Tuesday’s adventure is already taking shape.