Hiznobyuti

From one of France's most celebrated children's writers, the story of an "ugly duckling" who leaves his family to journey through a fantastical world. A tender and playful portrait of what it means to be unique.

When he is born, Hīsnobyūtī is not exactly handsome. In fact, his parents and siblings say, "He's no beauty!" They say it so often, Hīsnobyūtī assumes it is his name. Wherever he goes, only embarrassment and shame await him. Hīsnobyūtī hides himself away, working on his inventions, until one day he receives a message from the stars. After a fight with his family, Hīsnobyūtī 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! When he returns from his journey, Hīsnobyūtī's family rejoices and apologizes for not understanding how beautiful and important he was to them all along.

Claude Ponti is a French illustrator and children's author known for his inventive and playful use of words and the symbolic nature of his illustrations. His first book, L'Album d'Adele, written for his newborn daughter, already displays the associative and dream-like presentation of children's interior lives that characterizes many of his works. Ponti was awarded the 2006 Sorcieres Special prize for his contribution to literature, which now includes over seventy books of all types and for all ages.

About the Translator: Alyson Waters is a translator of modern and contemporary literary fiction, criticism and theory, as well as art history. Her book translations include works by Vassilis Alexakis, Louis Aragon, Daniel Arasse, Rene Belletto, Reda Bensmaia, Emmanuel Bove, Eric Chevillard, Albert Cossery, Yasmina Khadra and Tzvetan Todorov. She teaches literary translation workshops at Yale University and at New York University, and now at Columbia. In addition to her work as a translator and teacher, she has been the editor of Yale French Studies for almost twenty years. She is the translator of Claude Ponti's My Valley (Elsewhere Editions).