Hello! I’m very excited to share with you this super duper fun project that I worked on last year. The mailman delivered me two big boxes with samples from French Publisher Auzou.

I illustrated a 54 pieces puzzle called ‘Mon puzzle des contes du monde’. It contains a small selection of (fairy)tales from different countries. Some of them where new to me, but I was happy I could introduce some stories as well.

As a kid I really liked the story of the boy who drew cats. It was a story from Japan about a boy that had trouble to find his place in society because all he really wanted to do was draw cats. He was looked upon by his family who feared he would never learn anything. His parents sent him to the village temple to become a priest. But even the priest didn’t want the boy, because the boy didn’t want to study. All he wanted to do was draw cats. He was sent away again. Ashamed of himself, the boy didn’t want to go home and decided to go to a temple in another village.

He arrives at night, and finds an empty temple. He is tired and decides to stay the night in one of the rooms that was filled with big rice-paper panels. The boy can’t resist, and starts drawing cats on them. Then he finds himself a small place to sleep in. That night he wakes up, hearing scary sounds, and he keeps very quiet. The following morning he finds a big dead rat monster and a trail of cat footprints leading to the rice panels. The drawn cats are positioned differently. They came to life at night and protected the boy’s life!

You’ll understand why I loved that story so much. And Auzou let me use it for the puzzl Of course there are more stories hidden in this scene. Do you think you can find them all?

Here is a list:
Baba Yaga
The Jade Rabbit
The boy who drew cats
Hansel and Gretel
Jack and the beanstalk
The Ugly Duckling
Puss in Boots
The Wizard of Oz, Alladin
Thumbelina
The Snow Queen
The Frog Prince
Alice in Wonderland
Pinocchio

Uploaded by Jennifer Nelson Artists on 2017-05-02.

I hope you are as enthusiastic about the puzzle as I am. The colors turned out great and both the box and the puzzle are of a really lovely quality. Maybe you’ll see them pop up in the toy stores too soon. Wishing you all a great day! - Miriam