A poet tree
Collection nourished by fifty organic poems in which the man and the tree are one, The tree told me, written by Jean-Pierre Siméon, is an ode to nature, beauty, silence and contemplation. The words of the tree are reported by a narrator who highlights all the softness and strength of this great plant that is part of our ecosystem. Short, but intense and philosophical poems that embrace the world with sensitivity and authenticity. Like a wise old man at the end of his road, proud and confident before the eternal, the tree advises, questions, tells stories and invites the little human to do like him, to feed himself “as much by the feet as by the head” . The delicacy of the prose continues in Zaü’s ink paintings, decorations that leave plenty of room for the branches and the immensity of the tree. Three double pages, without text, open onto deep and warm scenes accentuated by the use of pastel. Like a necessary downtime to “open your arms and let the world pass through you”.
The tree told me
★★★★
Jean-Pierre Siméon and Zaü, Rue du monde, Voisins-le-Bretonneux, 2022, 40 pages. From 10 years old.
Marie Fradette
Far from the forest
“A blue rock lay peacefully in the heart of a forest. Ten thousand years had passed in perfect serenity. A thousand years then passed. Then another hundred. Finally, we lost count…” Until the moment when the man, in this incessant whim of wanting to possess everything, discovers the immense rock, splits it in two and brings half of it back to the city. Sculpted by artists, applauded by crowds, this domesticated pebble will never manage to forget its forest and its essence. Like the magnificent Starry Night which earned its author, Jimmy Liao, the Witches Prize in 2021, The blue rock opens on an intimate universe, revealing all the richness and the importance of the links, the roots. Despite the hardships encountered, the rock is remade, rebuilt and finds, even worn out by time, the way back. The few short and poetic sentences are topped with watercolors by Liao, expressive illustrations in which the contrasts between the different shades of blue and the luminous yellows contribute to the intensity of the journey.
The blue rock
★★★★
Jimmy Liao, translated from Chinese by Chun-Liang Yeh, HongFei, Amboise, 2022, 148 pages.
Marie Fradette
Welcome to Wendake
The resounding success of Nish, by Isabelle Picard, was not going to go unfinished, and now, on the occasion of National Aboriginal History Month, the second volume of the series is appearing. Again, the twins Éloïse and Léon share the narration. Uprooted in spite of themselves from their native Matimekush, they arrive in Wendake, ready to face new challenges. Nostalgia awaits them: “What I miss the most, apart from my friends and kukum, is the territory, the hares and the white foxes, the caribou. The aurora borealis that we also sometimes admire. Éloïse has to endure the bullying of a student, Léon struggles with his French lessons, but new friends join their path and, under the aegis of a caring family, they find their bearings. A rhythmic narration carries the story, which floats in a blissful optimism, sometimes unraveling the trials with too much ease. Notwithstanding, Nish takes care to build bridges between beings, recognizing differences without erecting them as barriers, thus embodying a happy and necessary encounter.
Nish volume 2 The aurora borealis
★★★
Isabelle Picard, Les malins, Montreal, 2022, 272 pages. From 10 years old.
Yannick Marcoux
The quest of a young Wendate
In the heart of the month that honors the literature of the First Nations appears the novel by Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui Yawendara and the Forest of the Heads-Coupe. This tale invites us to a Wendat village, on the outskirts of a cursed forest, over which Fils-d’Areskwe reigns, which terrorizes and starves the villagers. When Yawendara’s grandmother, a “radiant” and “unchangeably pure” young girl, falls ill, the latter undertakes a quest to save her grandmother. In this “dark and shadowy world”, plagued by “sickness, sadness and desolation”, his quest takes on unexpected proportions. The heroine uses all her kindness and courage to overcome the trials that come her way and thus reverse the cursed cycle that is paralyzing her village. Braided in an immersive and poetic language, this breathless fable gives voice and power to a people kept for too long in darkness: “Yawendara was the present of a painful past, but perhaps also the past of a better tomorrow” .
Yawendara and the Têtes-Coupées forest
★★★ 1/2
Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui, Hannenorak, Wendake, 2022, 118 pages. From 10 years old.
Yannick Marcoux