Parents – Simon Super Rabbit – Cartoon for Children – All About Simon

The concept of an American falling in love with France, staying on a while, then returning to the motherland all the more cultured and enriched is not a new one.

In Stephanie Blake’s case, she unwittingly landed in France, one fine day, at the age of eight! She was so imbued with the books of her childhood, such as Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry, William Steig, Margaret Wise Brown, A.A. Milne and Maurice Sendak, that maybe she didn’t even realize she was a whole ocean away from home!?

In the schoolyard in Paris’ 14th district (rue Didot, to be precise), she stood a good (blond) head higher than the other kids, and the gaps in her front teeth were a forerunner of the facial features of the rabbit she was later to create. Of course, the “rabbit” back then didn’t yet speak French. But, having hailed from Northfield, Minnesota, in 1968, Stephanie Blake went on to settle in this new-found land of France and form a family of her own.

She probably learned from Simon, the main character in “Caca Boudin”, that when an adult writes for kids, he must never lose sight of who he is addressing or where he’s come from, because life is full of secret doorways, necessary passageways and various oceans to be crossed. Life is full of children who push a forbidden door, only to find themselves in darkness, or they swing on a magic rope all the way up to thestars. Life is also brimming with books that make the hardships of everydayliving – both big and small – easier to face. Stephanie Blake’s books fit into this category: they’re full of our children’s lives.

Simon is like them and they are like Simon.