Kati Rekai died on February 1st 2010. For her memoriam, please click here.
Kati Rekai was born in Budapest, Hungary, which she left in 1948. She arrived in Toronto via Paris, France in 1950, with her husband and two young daughters. In 1957 her surgeon husband, with his brother founded Central Hospital, Canada’s first active treatment hospital serving its patients in over 30 languages. Exposure to a multicultural society, travels, and her friends around the world inspired Rekai to put in writing her love for Canada, her desire to convey it to children of the world.
She wanted as well, to introduce Canadian children to the history of other countries from where their friends perhaps came from or that they would visit in the future. Over 24 years, the adventures of Mickey, Taggy, Puppo and Cica and their discoveries in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Brockville, The Thousand Islands, Kingston, Budapest, Vienna, Switzerland, The Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece and The Gardiner Museum have been translated into French, Polish, Romanian Hungarian, Braille, and have been used in schools and libraries, as well as performed on the puppet stage. She feels privileged to have been accepted as a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada.
With the cooperation of its Foreign Affairs Committee, she organizes Canadian Book Exhibitions in national and university libraries around the world, promoting Canadian authors abroad. Her comments about life: “I have had the best of both worlds, as I was born into a family of intellectuals in Hungary, married a highly intelligent and talented surgeon, have two daughters, two son-in-laws, and five grandchildren as best friends, and most of all I have the privilege of living in Canada and being a Canadian.
Selected Publications:
The Adventures of Mickey, Taggy, Puppo and Cica and how they discover Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Brockville etc. Toronto: Canadian Stage & Arts Publication, 1974-1996.
Awards:
Sierhey Khamara Ziniak Award, for excellence in multilingual journalism, 1996.
Order of Canada (1993): for the introduction and promotion of Canadian cities and European countries through the eyes of four animals Mickey, Taggy, Puppo and Cica, each of which represents a part of Canadian mosiac, the books educate children and adults about music literature, pioneering and native peoples.
Prix St. Exupéry, for Les aventures de Mickey, Taggy, Puppo and Cica à la découverte de la France, awarded in Paris, France, 1988.