by Kendall Storey | May 30, 2017
Translated from the French by Alyson Waters
From Claude Ponti (My Valley, 2017), one of France’s most celebrated children’s writers, comes a tender and playful tale of what it means to be unique.
When he is born, Hīznobyūtī is not exactly handsome. In fact, his parents and siblings say, “He’s no beauty!” They say it so often, Hīznobyūtī assumes that it is his name. Wherever he goes, only embarrassment and shame await him. Hīznobyūtī hides himself away, working on his inventions, until one day he receives a message from the stars. After a fight with his family, Hīznobyūtī decides to run away. On a beautiful adventure by himself, he learns the secrets of the universe: how to communicate with trees and birds, how to wake up the sun, and how to see himself for who he truly is – a hero!
Published: May 22, 2018
by Emma Raddatz | Feb 1, 2023 | News
On April 25th, we’re delighted to be releasing paperback editions of two Elsewhere Editions classics: Hīznobyūtī and My Valley (for $9.95 each). Two whimsical and wonderful creations by Claude Ponti (and both translated by the brilliant Alyson Waters), these...
by Sarah Gale | May 2, 2022 | News
Today the fabulous Blaze and the Castle Cake for Bertha Daye is out and about in the world! Waking up one morning, Blaze and his oodles of chicklet friends discover that their BFF, Bertha Daye, is about to celebrate another year around the sun. What is there to do but...
by Emma Raddatz | Jul 28, 2021
Alyson Waters is the translator of My Valley by Claude Ponti, in addition several works from the French by Albert Cossery, Louis Aragon, René Belletto, and many others and has received a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, a PEN Translation Fund grant, and residency grants from the Centre National du Livre and Villet Gillet in Lyon. She teaches literary translation in the French department of Yale University and is the managing editor of Yale French Studies. She lives in Brooklyn.
by Henry Gifford | Oct 2, 2019
Join our children’s book translators Alyson Waters and Donald Nicholson-Smith for a morning of fun and discovery around Claude Ponti’s My Valley and Hīznobyūtī and Philippe Fix’s Seraphin. In My Valley, Ponti leads us on a journey through the enchanted world of...
