Agnes Rosenstiehl

Agnès Rosenstiehl was born in Paris to a family of artists. She studied music at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique (National Conservatory of Music) and took first prize for harmony there in 1966 under the name Agnès Gay.

She also pursued a degree in letters at the Sorbonne but dropped out.

In 1968, after having children, she began writing and illustrating books for young people. She is best known for a series of children's books following the life of Mimi-Cracra, called in English translation Silly Lilly. She co-wrote and illustrated Paris-Pékin par le Transsibérien (Paris to Beijing by the Trans-Siberian Railway, 1980) with her husband, mathematician Pierre Rosenstiehl, after a family trip. She has explored the French language in numerous Alphabet books, including L'Alphabet fou ou le livre des syllabes sibyllines (The Mad Alphabet), which was included in the 1980 Honor List chosen by the International Union for Children's Books (IBBY).

In 1995, she won the grand prize from the Société des gens de lettres (SGDL) for children's books for Les Adverbes.

She was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 2020.