About

Little Treasures for Big Ears!

At La Montagne secrète, we create songs and stories as though we were on a treasure hunt. You could say that our small children’s press was founded at a garage sale. As Roland Stringer rummaged through a bin of old vinyl records on a bright sunny Saturday morning, an album by the celebrated Québécois songwriter-poet Gilles Vigneault sparked his imagination. With a splash of colour and a dash of storytelling, these timeless tunes could sing to a new generation, he thought. And so, our first musical picture book, Un trésor dans mon jardin (A Treasure in My Garden), was born.

Alongside our English imprint The Secret Mountain, since 2000, we have published more than 80 award-winning titles that celebrate the creativity that occurs when authors, musicians, and illustrators come together. But no two collaborations are alike. Sometimes an inspiring narrative like Un concert d’été au clair de lune (Summer Moonlight Concer) by Chinese author-illustrator Han Han sets the stage for music. In other cases, playful tunes provide the starting place for imaginative tales like Christiane Duchesne’s Un pique-nique au soleil (A Picnic in the Sun). Collections like Initiation à la musique classique (An Introduction to Classical Music), by Ana Gerhard, focus on the different periods of classical music while Dodo la planète do gathers lullabies from around the world.

La Montagne secrète has always been a meeting place for cultures, artistic styles, and backgrounds. Our Montreal-based publishing house has welcomed an array of artists through its doors, including several well-known singers from the French-speaking world such as Diane Dufresne, Francis Cabrel, Daniel Lavoie et Ariane Moffatt.

Our children’s press remains proudly independent and committed to sharing music and stories across cultures and generations. We believe that libraries and bookstores provide an essential playground for a child’s imagination and encourage our readers and listeners to support their local literary communities.

We acknowledge the financial support of Musicaction, FACTOR, the Government of Canada, the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), and the Government of Québec.