Alain Serge Dzotap is the author of the new middle grade book Adi of Boutanga: A Story from Cameroon. His other books include The Gift. He lives in Cameroon.
Q: What inspired you to write Adi of Boutanga?
A: This story was born of my meeting with Ly Dumas, who had taken in Adi at the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation, which she set up in honor of her father, to help young people. She told me about Adi, and I immediately wanted to tell the story of this frail heroine fighting to escape an unfortunate fate.
Q: What do you think Marc Daniau’s illustrations add to the story?
A: Marc Daniau has brought the warm light of Africa to the book. He drew the fears, hopes, and, at the end of the story, the happiness of our young heroine. Marc Daniau is a great artist, and I was very lucky to have worked with him on Adi of Boutanga.
Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: I asked a lot of questions to retrace the chronology of events or to understand certain cultural aspects, such as the power that Uncle Amadou has over the rest of the family.
When I wrote Adi's story, I never thought I'd discover the existence of an 11-year-old girl...already divorced!
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I want my young readers to remember that girls and boys have the same rights. Because this is not always self-evident in many parts of the world.
I'd also like children to feel the pleasure I had in writing Adi's story.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: This year, I'll be publishing six new books in France and Belgium. At the same time, I'm working on five other children's stories, which I hope to finish later this year. You know, when you start writing a story, you can never be sure of finishing it.
In France, The Gift, published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, has become a series in its French version. The sequel will be published on March 7.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Adi and Idrissa were married in the Bangoulap chiefdom shortly after the book was published. And they had a little girl... just like in the book!
Am I not a magician?
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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