Pool Adventures
As Monday arrives, a child prepares all his paraphernalia to enjoy the public swimming pool. But, when he arrives, he can barely see the water, it’s overflowing with little ones. No problem, he goes back there the next day, but, having become a lake, it is full of fish and fishermen. Never mind, on Wednesday, he takes care to bring his fishing rod, but the pool is completely frozen. And so on until the end of the week. In a repetitive formula, built on accumulation – which is also reminiscent of the traditional French nursery rhyme The Emperor, his wife and the little prince —, On the way to the swimming pool is an album that is part of this literature concerned with touching the child in what he is. With his delicate and refined line, Tomo Miura plays with details and ensures complementarity between the short text and the visual narration. Each painting brings a response to the expression of the character, to offer the reader of images a dive into the heart of the story while ensuring his constant interest.
Marie Fradette
On the way to the swimming pool
★★★★
Tomo Miura, The joy of reading, Geneva, 2022, 40 pages. From 3 years.
Behind the scenes of a book
From author to reader, including editor, graphic designer and literary critic, Stéphanie Vernet offers The great adventure of the book. Behind the scenes of publishing a real overview of the different professions that make up the book chain. Stopping at each act of this undertaking, she outlines in a few lines the essentials of each person’s work, after which, on double pages teeming with details, she reveals anecdotes drawn from the history of literature and other facts that help to understand the workings of this industry. The visual of the album supports this crossing by ensuring a link between the making of the book and literature. From the cover, a square cut out of the cardboard reveals the cover page, like a window on the backstage of this universe. The visible binding is another example of this behind the scenes revealed to the reader. Everything is abundantly illustrated by Camille de Cussac, who does not skimp on color. On a white background, a world in motion, eccentric, alive, is revealed, like the book-object that we hold in our hands.
Marie Fradette
The great adventure of the book
★★★★
Text by Stéphanie Vernet and illustrations by Camille de Cussac, Arola, Paris, 2022, 48 pages. From the age of 8.
Croque-alley
In the city, the alleys constitute a precious space where, stealthily, a theater plays scenes animated by characters who prefer forgotten nooks to the floodlights of the grand boulevards. In Maxim’s world, the latest album by Lucile de Pesloüan and Jacques Goldstyn, the ten-year-old protagonist loves books and cats. She reads whenever she can, even under her bed, by the light of a flashlight, but sometimes she wants to share her desires and her torments. If only she had a friend… An alley, a few bowls filled with cat food and an investigation worthy of the great detectives will lead her to meet an astonishing and life-saving friendship. In this ode to difference, Lucile de Pesloüan invites us into the intimacy of a young girl who is looking for her way, surrounded by children who seem to have found it. Illustrated by the precise line of Jacques Goldstyn, life bathes in a lively watercolor full of emotions, overflowing from the page to flow into our hearts.
Yannick Marcoux
Maxim’s world
★★★ 1/2
Text by Lucile de Pesloüan, illustrations by Jacques Goldstyn, La Pastèque, Montreal, 2022, 104 pages. From 6 years old.
The hippo boy
For several years, Boucar Diouf and François Thisdale have been inviting us to dive into scientific tales anchored in marine universes. This time, the duo invites us to the banks of the Rigaloua River, where the young Zinalé, the backpacker from Matungoua, gazes lovingly at his friends: hippopotamuses. Solitary by nature, he has a deep love for “those funny floating barrels that yawn all day long and have their backs pecked by reckless birds”. His modest existence will nevertheless be turned upside down and, using his knowledge, he will become the hero of a day by restoring order to his town while sparing the lives of two hippos. With this simple story, Boucar Diouf continues his narration of a world in which human beings are part, not as predators, but as privileged characters in a story that goes beyond them. Educational and entertaining, the story is supported by the wide panoramas of Thisdale, where the words lull us into warm and enveloping colors.
Yannick Marcoux
The Matungoua backpacker
★★★
Diouf, illustrations by François Thisdale, Éditions La Presse, Montreal, 2022, 56 pages. From 6 years old.