the Rich Hours of Jacominus Gainsborough

Rebecca Dautremer

(Éditions Sarbacane, 2018, 56 pages with color illustrations)

 ***FULL TRANSLATION UPON REQUEST***

*** RIGHTS SOLD IN SPANISH, GERMAN, CHINESE (SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS),

GREEK, ITALIAN, ROMANIAN, RUSSIAN, SWEDISH ***

A unique fresco to celebrate the joy of being alive

This timeless and gorgeous picture book, reminiscent of Beatrix Potter, features 12 scenes of Jacominus Gainsborough’s life following the interchanging seasons, celebrating small things, great moments of joy but also sadness, doubts , and ordeals.

At first, the reader doesn’t know who Jacominus Gainsborough is. The fluffy rabbit is present in all the 12 scenes, amongst lots of other animal characters: his family, his friends from school, his adult friends, his friends from work. Our hero is not the strongest or the biggest, he might even be weaker than the others –thanks to a childhood injury. But he has a unique beautiful name!

Jacominus serenely goes through life, becomes a father, a grand-father then dies. But rather than being sad, the reader celebrates the luck of having been loved, the pride of having done one’s best, and the happiness of contemplating, at the dawn of life, one’s grand-children growing up.

This is Rebecca Dautremer’s first children’s book. A graduate from the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, she has published several best-selling picture books.