Manuscript Collection MS COLL 00536 - Kati Rekai Papers

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 [now the Rekai Centre, Toronto, Ontario], 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 also wanted 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.