Mimi Cracra, that's her. But the little girl who plays with water and talks as she pleases hides a far more astonishing body of work: sixty years of books that didn't exist before Agnès Rosenstiehl created them. The BnF is releasing her 2025 donation, and it's free.

She first appeared in 1976 in Pomme d'Api and remained there for thirty-two years. A little girl who finds amusement in the simplest things, in a garden, with water. Parents were annoyed by her, and the BnF states it bluntly in its own press release: this little girl doesn't respect grammar and never suffers the consequences of her mischief. That's precisely why children, girls and boys alike, identified with her.

What's Behind Mimi Cracra

So much for the character. The exhibition mainly serves to remind us of the other side, less famous and frankly astonishing.

Agnès Rosenstiehl trained at the Conservatory, first prize in harmony, and is self-taught in drawing. She spent her career creating the books that were missing. Sexuality Explained to Children in 1973. Divorce in 1975. The Girls, published by Antoinette Fouque, in 1976. Each time, the same approach: taking a subject that wasn't discussed with children and turning it into a picture book, without embarrassment or lecturing.

Then came the alphabet books, where she puts grammar itself on display, with slips of the tongue and syllepses. The zebra at the zoo was sunbathing, Zazie broke the shelter. We smile before realizing we've just learned something.

Six hundred and twenty-five plates, all at once

In 2025, the BnF (National Library of France) received a considerable donation: six hundred and twenty-five plates and about one hundred preparatory sketches, corresponding to twenty-three albums published between 1967 and 2022. These were transferred to the National Center for Children's Literature, and the exhibition is drawn from this collection.

The exhibition is structured around four periods: the author's entry into children's literature, between 1966 and 1973; the Mimi Cracra years; the documentary work, from 1977 to 2020; and the current reissues. The exhibition is curated by Clarisse Gadala.

A Book That Speaks Again

The publishing house is taking the opportunity to reissue The Mad Alphabet or The Book of Sibylline Syllables, on October 22nd. Forty-eight pages, and an audio version where the author rereads her own tongue twisters fifty years later. "Without a care, six leeches suck the blood of six hundred fools": try saying it fast.

It's in the Donors' Gallery, admission is free, and it runs until January 25th.

Find our other favorites in our top new exhibitions in Paris.

National Library of France, François-Mitterrand Site
From November 3, 2026 to January 25, 2027
Donors' Gallery, Quai François-Mauriac, 75013 Paris
Tue. to Sat. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sun. 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., closed on Mon.
Free admission