Martine (character)

Martine is the title character in a series of books for children originally written in French by the Belgians Marcel Marlier and Gilbert Delahaye and published by Casterman. The first album, Martine à la ferme (Martine at the farm), was published in 1954, followed by 59 other books, which have been translated into many different languages. The book series has sold about 100 million copies and is one of the best-selling book series. When the author Gilbert Delahaye died in 1997, Jean-Louis Marlier, the son of Marcel Marlier, continued to write the stories. The series ended in 2011 when the illustrator Marcel Marlier died at the age of 80. The last book is the 60th, Martine et le prince mystérieux (Martine and the Mysterious Prince), published in 2010. The albums continue to be published. The character was renamed for different languages and markets. For examples, Martine was named "Emma" for English-speaking audiences in Europe for video games and "Debbie" for the U.S. market.