Coffee table books : Sur les chemins de l’école (On the way to school)

The books

They are 8 children: Cho, Youssef, Ani… and they live in Vietnam, the West Bank, Malaysia… For each of them, getting back to their class means making a journey of several kilometres, a path they cover alone with their courage and the means available to them, on foot, in a canoe, on horseback or on the back of a donkey. The threats of the desert or the high mountains, the pitfalls of a hostile topography, the proximity of wild fauna or the fear of stepping on a mine are all challenges that they overcome on a daily basis.

Combining over 300 photographs taken during the filming of the series with the gripping testimonies of these young people from the ends of the earth, author Marie-Claire Javoy tells us about the daily lives of these children within their families and, through their respective journeys, paints a portrait of school and education in countries where the literacy rate is among the lowest in the world.