Illustrator Serge Bloch, father of SamSam, Grande Ourse 2026 at the Montreuil Book and Youth Press Fair

Serge Bloch, the father of SamSam – the “smallest of the great heroes” whose adventures we follow in particular in the children's magazine Pomme d'Api (Bayard jeunesse) – is therefore the Great Bear of 2026. The prize of the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse (SLPJ) will this year distinguish an illustrator who addresses "the youngest without concession or miserabilism", during the fair which will be held from November 25 in Montreuil.

“The power of his recognizable line, the fantasy of his compositions are accompanied by a humanist and tender look at the world and the causes that he defends with the tips of his pencils”, underlined Thursday, November 5, the SLPJ in a press release.

To the creator of Max and Lili (Calligram), we also owe the illustrations of Zouk the witch (Bayard), Enquête au college (Gallimard), La Grande Histoire du petit trait, Moi j'attends…, which won the SLPJ Baobab Prize in 2005, and L'Ennemi.

His drawings are for Serge Bloch the means of "welcoming people with emotions, whether they are a child, an adult, a visitor". “I make them for them,” he continues, “I have them in mind even when they are drawings for galleries, for fairly free exhibitions,” he confided in 2025 during an exhibition dedicated to him in Nîmes.

A line, a writing and a universe

The SLPJ salutes an “artist of transmission, committed to the rights of the child” who recently published Gaza, them c’est nous with Marie Desplechin (Collective of youth publishers) and illustrated When the stars sang… tales of Jewish wisdom written by Pauline Bebe (Gallimard Jeunesse).

Serge Bloch, who was born on June 18, 1956 in Colmar, trained in Claude Lapointe's illustration workshop at the École supérieure des arts decoratifs in Strasbourg. The illustrator took his first steps in children's literature and was artistic director at Bayard Jeunesse. He is also a press cartoonist, poster designer and screenwriter. The artist has notably collaborated with the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Le Monde, Télérama, Psychologies, Le Nouvel Observateur and Libération. He is also known for his advertising work.

Serge Bloch has also exhibited in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Berlin. “I wanted to show that drawing was a writing or a universe that could cross many places”, in short “anything that can support line”, he explained again in 2025. The illustrator has received several international distinctions.