Mireille Messier is a french-speaking Montreal-born, Ottawa-raised and now Toronto-based children’s authour, copywriter and translator with a background in broadcasting. Besides writing youth novels and storybooks, she is also a contributor to various children and teen magazines in both french and english. Mireille has worked in children's television as a writer and director for TVO Kids, CBC Playground and Méga TFO. She also enjoys doing corporate writing of youth-oriented material for such clients as General Mills, Scholastic Canada, Teletoon, Kraft Foods and Via Rail.
In her spare time, she plays "Quel heure est-il monsieur le loup?" with her two wonderful daughters.
PUBLICATIONS:
Quel fouillis!. ERPI, 2009
Night Fight. Scholastic, 2009
LUCA : Pirate-chevalier-archéologue-joueur de hockey. Scholastic, 2008
Une Charlotte au chocolat. Éditions de la Bagnole, 2008
Tous les oeufs dans le même panier. CFORP, 2007
Coupe et soucoupe à Sudbury. Éditions du Vermillon, 2006
Déclic à Toronto. Éditions du Vermillon, 2005
Mes carnets aux questions – La Lune – Professeur Génius. Québec Amérique, 2005
Mes carnets aux questions – La Lune – Professeur Génius, . Québec Amérique, 2005
Competition : Deal With it from Start to Finish. James Lorimer and Company, 2004
Mon album du corps humain – Professeur Génius. Québec Amérique, 2004
Une Twiga à Ottawa. Éditions du Vermillon, 2003
Mirouille raconte… 7 jours en contes. CFORP/TFO, 1999
AWARDS:
Finalist - Prix de la Fondation franco-ontarienne (Jeunesse) for Une Twiga à Ottawa, 2002
Finalist - National Magazine Award (Words& Picture ) for Owl Magazine, 2001
Grades JK – 3:
(In French or English) Mireille introduces herself and her books. She then reads from one or two of her picture books in her
special giant book. If time permits, this is followed by a Q&A
period.
Workshop Description:
Grades 3-6: (French only)Mireille
introduces herself and her books. She gives an overview of the
different types of writing she does and familiarizes the participants
with the terminology surrounding book genres and various book-related
careers in both French and English. She reads an excerpt from her novel
Déclic à Toronto and then leads an interactive
oral workshop about different techniques to find original story ideas
prompted by photographs and objects. This is followed by a Q&A
period.
Grades 4-8,
Translating Adventure: (French & English) Mireille also offers a workshop on the joys and
challenges of translation. Using her books LUCA & Night Flight as a
template, she demonstrate how she translated a rhyming picture book
from French to English. She then leads a fun interactive group activity
where participants try to translate French nursery rhymes into English
and vice versa.
