The series in question is Did you know. And it is with the illustrator Hugo G. L’Emblair that the one who was born in Saint-Fulgence embarked on the adventure. The first dealing with images, and the second of the text.
“I found it much more difficult than I thought,” says Olivier Niquet, when questioned about the challenge of adapting to a younger audience – the collection is for the 7 years and over.
“Because there are not many pages, it’s a few sentences, but it’s a lot of research. And it is also to put yourself in the shoes of a child, so that he has the references, that he understands what we are talking about. “
For the rest, however, the columnist was surprisingly in known ground, when the idea was to inform with a touch of humor. As he does every day on the radio and on his various social networks.
“Even for the radio, I spend my life writing,” recounts in context Olivier Niquet, whose literary turn, officially started in 2017 with the publication of a humorous collection of sports citations (In my book to me), was more natural than it seems.
“For me, it goes without saying to less ephemeral projects. Because what I do on a daily basis is very ephemeral. Between my radio seasons, I still have time to work on this kind of project. Maybe I would like to publish a novel one day, but I am not yet sure of what it would give, “notes the author, who also published in 2022 a test dealing with introverted people (The kings of silence).
In the meantime, Olivier Niquet has work to do with the series Did you knowthe next three volumes of which are already under construction. This time on soccer, karate and swimming, which constitute for him somewhat less familiar land – he admits laughing that he is not yet certain to understand what an offspring is in soccer.
Or at least less natural disciplines than hockey, the original Fulgencian being an NHL’s assumed fan, and a seasoned garage league player.
“I still learned a lot,” he nevertheless assures the information relayed over the pages of the new Did you know being often surprising.
We learn for example, with this volume, that a NHL goalkeeper transpires each match the equivalent of three gourds of water. That the Stanley Cup was originally a bowl of salad. And even a semblance of hockey appeared over 4000 years ago, in the midst of Antiquity.
“I was not aware that in the time of Egyptians, there were sports that looked a little like it. It is stretched Let’s say, but we pushed an object with a stick, ”argues Olivier Niquet.
It’s been almost 25 years since the collection Did you know allows us, intermittently, to lie down less nonsense. His animal series, launched in the 2000s, having made it possible to record some 2.5 million sales around the world according to the Michel Quintin editions.
“It was really fashionable when my young people were in primary school,” recalls Olivier Niquet. All the children were leaning out there, exchanged from Did you knowand I liked it to read it with them, because it was interesting. We still learned things, even adults. Then it’s funny too! “
“I didn’t think I would make youth books in my life, but when I was offered that on sport, one of my other passions, I thought it was a good one fit», To add the author.
In bookstores since Wednesday, the new volume of Did you know (Hockey), will be the subject of an official launch this Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Le Renard Perché Perché de Montréal bookstore, in the company of its creators Olivier Niquet and Hugo G. L’Esclair. The duo will also be at the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean book fair in September.