Little Miss Scissors

2015 selected for School's books list by The Ministry of Education

2014 won the contest for bookbinding and art of bookmaking at the 21th Tokyo Int. Book Fair

2013 selected for school's books list by The Ministry of Education

2012 Hans Christian Andersen Honor award for illustration

A true harmony between the story and the illustrations!

Little Miss Scissors is about a little paper-cut lady, who lives alone in a paper-cut house on a little paper hill. When the wind blows in a huge white sheet of paper to her yard, Little Miss Scissors starts to fulfill her dreams by cutting first a hot-air balloon, then a sailing boat and then a beautiful lace dress, but as her dreams gets smaller, her loneliness grows, because she has no one to share her joy with. Only when she cuts a peach out of her paper dress, and desperately throws its seed from the window, the miracle happens: In her yard grows a huge paper tree with foliage made of many sheets of paper. Little Miss Scissors cuts many animals to fill her yard with and a little paper house just like hers, which she places on the neighboring hill. From the house appears a new neighbor, Mister Paper. From the last leaf left on the tree, she cuts a paper bridge and places it between the two hills.

2011 | 34pp. | Age 4-8 | English translation available | Rights Sold:  Japanese,  Croatian,  Chinese (Simplified), Hebrew

“Extraordinary and charming creation of high quality. The book stands at the level of books like “The Little Prince” and “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” in term of its appealing to both kids and grownups. The illustrations are made of exquisite beautiful paper-cuts.” – Hagar Yanai, Galei Zahal FM, radio

“Especially charming children’s book. Highly recommended.” – Asi Fridnman, Laisha, magazine

“A new wonderful literary character was born, named Little Miss Scissors, and I want to promote her with love and welcome her joining the chorus of children’s literature. A beautiful book like “little miss scissors” is a great heart filler for kids and grownups.” – Shlomit Cohen Assif, Marmelada, web magazine

“Even in a world made of paper, you can go on exciting adventures. A book about loneliness and about our need for human contact, someone to talk to. Amazing: the paper cut illustrations appear three dimensional.
– Yehiam Padan, Editor and Translator

Nathalie Belhassen is an original and fresh voice. She holds B.Sc. in biology, and B.A. and M.A in literature from Tel-Aviv University. Her writing calls to fulfill our dreams with the power of creation and the power of sharing and caring. She combines delicately creative narative with magnificent ancient art of paper-cuts.

Naomi Shapira is a graphic designer, an artist of papercuts (cuts papers for 40 years), and gives lectures and workshops to children and adults. She works with a cutter knife and uses white acid-free paper. “We photographed the paper-cuts in the book, leaving space between them and the colorful backgrounds, to create natural shadows which emphasize the authentic cutting. This helps people to realize that the illustrations are actually cut”.