A Week with Nathalie DIETERLÉ at the Lycée

A program brought to you by the Lycée fundraising

Welcoming a Francophone Author and Illustrator

We had the pleasure of welcoming Nathalie DIETERLÉ to our campus this week. Author and illustrator of the beloved Zékéyé series, Nathalie has spent over 30 years creating children's books that draw from her own childhood growing up in Cameroon, where her father was a bush doctor and, in her memories, hippos wandered down to the river.

Workshops That Sparked Imagination Across Grade Levels

On both primary campuses, our Preschool students worked together on large shared frescoes, now on display in the libraries. Kindergarten students explored the quiet magic of shadow theater, one of Nathalie's signature techniques. Gr1 students got a hands-on look at the craft behind her books, including the mechanics of pop-ups. As Nathalie describes it, she loves doing "something a bit magical" with the kids before revealing the finished book made with that very technique.

They also chose their own totem animals, a tradition inspired by the protective totems of West African culture, and spent their week with Nathalie writing poems and creating illustrations around them.

What Author Residencies Bring to Our Students

These visits do more than strengthen French language skills. They open doors to new passions, inspire creative thinking, and expand cultural horizons. Nathalie knows this firsthand. Looking back on her own path, she credits a great art teacher as one of the reasons she pursued a career in books: "I took art classes and had a great teacher. I think that really made a difference." That spark, passed from one person to another, is exactly what moments like these are about. What strikes Nathalie most about our students? "They are very calm, very peaceful, and at the same time genuinely curious. That combination is really something special."

We hope that same curiosity will carry a few of them somewhere unexpected, just as it did for her.

Watch the Full Interview

You can watch Nathalie talk about her work, her workshops, and what it means to share her world with young readers in the video below.