Some volumes from the “Martine” collection have been rewritten for a younger audience.

-

Casterman Editions

  • An impoverished “Martine”?

    Internet users denounce the vocabulary used in an edition of the adventures of the youthful heroine published in 2016, comparing it to an edition of 1968.

  • If the text has been well rewritten, it is mainly because it is aimed at younger children.

  • In addition, the original edition is still available for sale.

“Leveling to the bottom”, “TikTok mode”… The publication of two pages from a volume of “Martine”, the famous children's heroine, has sparked indignant comments on social networks.

The object of this outburst?

A one-page reproduction of the 1968 edition compared to another version, published in 2016. In the 1968 edition, the text is longer and the vocabulary is richer.

The comparison between the two editions of - Twitter screenshot

FAKE OFF

These two extracts are authentic.

However, they do not come from the same edition of the "Martine" series.

The first text, more developed, is taken from

Martine petite maman

, published for the first time in 1963. The second text comes from

Martine keeps his little brother

, published in 2016.

Martine keeps her little brother

is a rewrite of

Martine petite maman,

which does not address the same age group as the edition published fifty years earlier, explains

Céline Charvet, director of the youth department of Casterman editions

to

20 Minutes.

: “Readers are younger.

Before, we read "Martine" at seven.

Now we read it at four years old.

"

The text can be read in one story in the evening

"We decided to have the text of" Martine "rewritten to erase the stereotypes that had aged the most, to change certain formulas or first names that were no longer in use and to shorten the text so that it could be read to children at night. like a story, ”she adds.

This editorial change has been validated by the beneficiaries of the two authors of the collection.

The change of title illustrates this desire to review representations of childhood and gender: “With

 Petite Maman

, you are completely in the stereotype.

There, with

Garde his little brother

, we are much more with something in tune with today's world.

"

If the layout of the book has also been revised, the illustrations have not changed.

As for those who would like to introduce the original edition to the youngest, no fear: 

Martine petite maman

is still sold.

Martine is not the only heroine of children's literature to know of rewrites: the famous adventures of the

Club of five

of the Briton Enid Blyton are also proposed in different versions.

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