Drawing Together with “Chef d’orchestre” Anne-Lise Boutin
Anne-Lise Boutin came to ISB from France to read her award-winning children’s book, Les frères Zzli (The Zzli Brothers) and to host an exciting drawing workshop. Anne-Lise read Les frères Zzli, an immigration allegory featuring three big bears in search of a home, in its original version to French 2nd Grade, and in its English translation to Spanish 2nd Grade. Then, she spoke to our students about the process she went through from receiving the text from author Alex Cousseau, and “reading it many, many, many times” to her process of trying different designs for the brothers, to repeating her drawings until all the details seemed just right!
In the workshop portion of her visit, Anne-Lise acted as the “chef d’orchestre,” for an ensemble of 2nd Grade illustrators who all contributed to a large-scale drawing of what turned out to be a beautiful forest for all the individual trees — as well as the rocks, houses, and birds. Eventually students switched spots and contributed to another classmate’s drawing, ultimately making it a thoroughly collaborative work of art. In the end, they all agreed they wanted to live in the forest with the Frères Zzli!
Assistant Director of Preschool and Lower School Pedagogy Selena Lynn reminded our students how Anne-Lise’s visit was tied to the work they are doing in their classes to develop listening skills, group collaboration, and open-mindedness. This was another example of how the ISB Library enhances our students IB curricula, connects them to people who come from all over the world, and encourages them to use their imagination to dream bigger and bigger with every author visit!
