To help her daughter Marine calm her anxiety, Justine Laberge-Vaugeois told her that she had a hedgehog in her belly to tame. The image was transformed into a story which, by a fine coincidence, became a book. Press met the singer of the duo Alfa Rococo and her young source of inspiration.
In the dining room where she settles down to draw, Justine Laberge-Vaugeois shows some of the illustrations that appear in her first youth album. “Had I known, I would have made them bigger,” she said, a square sheet in hand.
The singer-songwriter had no intention of publishing a children’s book. A hedgehog in the belly was intended for his eldest daughter and was to live only in one copy. How has this plan changed? “It’s really a coincidence,” replies the mother of 6-year-old Marine and 3-year-old Luna. She spoke about her project to her aunt who spoke about it to a friend, Christine Michaud, who publishes with Éditions Édito. The rest was done very quickly.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Justine Laberge-Vaugeois wanted to create a book to help her eldest daughter tame her anxiety.
That’s what I find beautiful about this project. It is the project of a mother to her daughter, but it will become a project for all the children.
Justine Laberge-Vaugeois, author and illustrator
Like many other young people, Marine is naturally anxious, explains the author and illustrator. But after a series of hospital visits amid the pandemic, the problem has worsened. “His anxiety had become overwhelming. I no longer knew what to do as a mother to help her. I tried to reassure her as best I could. She had stomach aches every day, ”she says.
Taming fear
At one point, “I told her that she had a hedgehog in her stomach and that it was probably her thorns that hurt her stomach and made her uncomfortable. She had to tame it. When I told him that, I saw light in his eyes ”.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Some illustrations from the book A hedgehog in the belly
The one who devoted a lot of time to drawing during the pandemic (in particular by opening an Etsy store) then felt the need to illustrate a story in which Marine would be the heroine in order to help her better cope with her anxiety.
I especially wanted to tell him that we all have [un hérisson dans le ventre], that it’s not just her who has one. That it’s normal to be afraid sometimes. That we can have tools and tips to make things better.
Justine Laberge-Vaugeois
“Getting outside”, doing a “relaxing breath”, “playing flamingo” or cuddling are just some of the things Marine uses to tame her hedgehog, both in the book and in real life.
A hug or a game
Asked about this little beast that lives in her belly, Marine explains that she is very colorful, as evidenced by a drawing of the animal made during the interview. Sometimes the hedgehog “does not feel well and has a seizure”, which gives it “a stomach ache”, she continues. Her best tip for making that pain go away? “I give someone a hug or I ask someone to play with me,” she replies, a little embarrassed.
Music is never far in the life of Justine Laberge-Vaugeois, she created a song to accompany the book with her husband David Bussières, other half of the duo Alfa Rococo, whose fifth album is in the process of being created. Seeing Marine sing it on repeat, her mother asked her if she would like to record it for her. “It makes so much more sense that she’s singing, because she’s the character. ” The result ? A “happy” song, says the girl, all smiles.
“I really feel like I have a whole. The book, the song. If I had wanted to do this as a project, I would have done it that way, ”concludes Justine Laberge-Vaugeois.
The song is available on all platforms.
A hedgehog in the belly
Justine Laberge-Vaugeois
Edito editions
32 pages