Blexbolex’s imagination
“This house has bred great magicians. They lived there for a while and they left. Since that time, the house has fallen asleep and it seems abandoned. » But all this is only an illusion, because, in the silence of this forgotten cottage, three magicians wake up and will be immediately tracked down by the super-heroine Huntress and her Clinker. Each publication of Blexbolex — pseudonym of Bernard Granger — is a celebration in itself. This author and illustrator pushes the limits of children’s literature, stays away from preconceived ideas and conventional wisdom. In magicians, he continues his illustrated work, offering stylized paintings, without line, all in opposition to the precision of the clear line. Graphics in this liberated sense, in the image of these children and this imagination that he praises here. Everything is offered in an exceptional book object, an album made of several bound notebooks, separated into chapters giving the impression of an old work with an Art Deco look. More than famous.
Marie Fradette
magicians
★★★★ 1/2
Blexbolex, Éditions La Partie, Paris, 2023, 210 pages. To be released January 16. 6 years and over
A look at art
Documentary work on the evolution of still life, this album by Caroline Larroche offers itself as a visit to the museum. An exhibition on these paintings by artists who, inspired by the objects and the surrounding nature, have, from Antiquity until today, reproduced these immobile things, “silent yet […] very talkative witnesses of our daily lives”. Since skinned beeffrom Rembrandt (1655) to The death explained by Damien Hirst (2002) through more famous paintings, such as The elements, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1566), the author retraces the course of this inspiration. The visual, combining the reproduction of the works, a short text and a few boxes, ensures easy access to information. In the absence of a chronological presentation, Larroche favors an association of works by theme, which makes it possible to see the evolution at a glance. At the top, the meal seen by Willem Claesz Heda in End of snack (1637) and Variations around a meal by Daniel Spoerri (1964). Something to occupy the long January evenings.
Marie Fradette
This is not a still life!
★★★ 1/2
Caroline Larroche, Short and Long Editions and Louvre Editions, Paris, 2022, 78 pages. 10 years and over.
The imperfect friendship
Horror often takes advantage of the anonymity of darkness, but François Blais’ latest novel takes place in a scorching day, under a blazing sun, where light and shadow fight a terrifying duel. In absentia, the late writer suffered a very unfair trial, especially since The boy with upside down feet is a great work. For the occasion, we invite ourselves into the daily life of Adrienne Ferron, a 14-year-old teenager who notices the disappearance of her young neighbor. His quest to find her, joined by precious allies, is a breathtaking, sensitive and inspired race. The story keeps us in suspense, pulling the strings of suspense, stirring up and defusing tensions by summoning the paranormal and the banal flatness of a summer day in the countryside. Disturbing and deeply empathetic, this novel is above all about friendship, its seismic forces and the reflexes it awakens in humans, who are not always as virtuous as one would like.
Yannick Marcoux
The boy with upside down feet
★★★★
François Blais, Fides, Montreal, 2022, 320 pages. 12 years and over.
The gray era
And if these tourists who photograph Montreal squirrels were, ultimately, the last witnesses of an era soon to be over? Montreal is teeming with gray squirrels, but in Kevin. The squirrel who was looking for trees, Chloé Baillargeon invites us to Montreal in the year 2163, where there are only five representatives of the species left. Human life has destroyed everything: the island has turned into a dump, the air is toxic, causing the disappearance of trees, and the last humans are lurking in the City, a few towers where life is artificially maintained. In this universe that is both gray and sobered up, Kévin does not give up on the dream of saving his species from extinction and bringing life back to life where it is no longer expected. The subject is heard, but finds himself invigorated, thus treated from the point of view of the rodent. Above all, the playful tone amuses and the design delights, inviting us to wander through a devastated Montreal, but full of nods to our present. Pretty nutty.
Yannick Marcoux
Kevin the squirrel looking for trees
★★★
Chloé Baillargeon, Kata, Montreal, 2022, 128 pages. 7 years and over.