Merci Martine

She has been called by numerous names, from a plain-ish "Debbie" to  an exotic blossoming rose of "Aysegul". To me, and perhaps the rest of 20+ Indonesian girls, she has always been "si Tini". Tini stories offer dreams of a pretty pastel world of non saccharinic sweetness. A world so girlishly perfect where everything are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Away are the days of sexually charged figurines of improbable proportion like "Barbie"and "Bratz", or also the porn-starrifics "My Little Pony G3" (Triple Treat, Sunny Daze, Candy Cane).I recently found out that her real name is Martine. 

the many names on the many covers

Whatever name she might be using, I know  I have always wanted to be her, for she was essentially "living the dream".And yet a Martine-dream was never seemed to be too far fetched.  The stories were enthused with such charms and innocent enthusiasm so that whatever she might be doing, whether it's ballet or tending the house while cooking awesome dinner for Mom and Dad, it always felt like I could do it too.  Her trademark pink frocks were never too frilly to stop her from  climbing trees, making a birdhouse, trekking the woods, or hop on a hot-air balloon.

Martine a la mer (1954) - Martine a l'ecole (1957)

Martine a la maison (1963) - Martine petite maman (1968)

Martine embellit son jardin (1970) - Martine fete maman (1982)

Looking back, I just realized that Tini was such and empowering figure. And I am so ever thankful to Gilbert Delahaye and Marcel Marlier, the Franco-Belgian duo  that created these tales of  an adventurous little girl in her domain of ocular delights. Books to me are very important, some of them were literally life-changing. And I couldn't be happier that my earliest volumes were of Martine series. Merci Martine, Merci Monsieur Delahaye, Merci Monsieur Marlier.

And here's a chance to for those of you who still wish to live in her world. Well at least on the cover *lol*. I just happen to have a very special a bundle of  "Make Me Martine" for you to download. Inside the ZIP/RAR file you will find a font to install (not exactly the same but pretty close), a Photoshop file to play with, complete with the How To's (for Windows user only, since I don't know anything about using Mac). The outcome will be pretty much like the picture you see below. Click to download. As you wait for the download to be completed go here and here for more Martine marvellousness.