The perfect rank
When we are in the middle “we are not the youngest and we are not the oldest”. We are between a big one who we can count on and a little one who we watch over. If it sometimes causes some dissatisfaction, such as having to share a room or carry “old things”, this family rank certainly allows you to always be well surrounded. Anika A. Denise and Christopher Denise delicately reinvent the theme of siblings here, finally giving this little one, stuck between his brothers, all the place he deserves. The simplicity and clarity of the writing continues in Christopher Denise’s classic and timeless paintings. Like the rabbit universe of Béatrix Potter, the illustrator presents anthropomorphic rabbits depicted in their daily lives. Poetic realism thus leaves room for moments that are not only warm, but anchored in an identifiable reality. And like in the Potter books, everything here is played at a child’s level. The adult sits at a low angle, away from this world. A story that truly speaks to the child.
Marie Fradette
When we are in the middle
★★★★ 1/2
Anika A. Denise and Christopher Denise, translated by Claire Billaud, Kaléidoscope, Paris, 2024, 40 pages. From 2 to 7 years old.
Everything for a candy
Slumped on the sofa, Oscar and Lollo are overwhelmed by the clutter in their house. “Nothing is in its place,” but it’s impossible to tackle housework without first having eaten some candy, if only “to have the courage to [s]’put there’. Then begins an improbable and colorful quest during which all the laziness and gluttony of the two friends are revealed. In More cakes !, Swedish Ulrika Kestere offers carefree characters who embrace their imperfections, a duo as impotent as they are endearing. Several funny scenes – notably this mistake in front of two cinnamon rolls which turn out to be snails in love – provide a rhythmic rhythm, to which Kestere’s illustrations respond. Indeed, the expressiveness of the characters, the abundance of details and the perceptible movement thanks in particular to the changes of shots, all of this suits the energy that emerges from the duo. All this light madness, however, does not find an echo in the offbeat and somewhat far-fetched finale.
Marie Fradette
No more cakes!
★★★
Ulrika Kestere, translated by Marianne Ségol-Samoy, The lower shelf, Rouen, 2024, 32 pages. From 3 to 6 years.
Viola Desmond, an example of determination
Black History Month is ideal to remind us of Viola Desmond, whose fight against a racist America began nine years before that of Rosa Parks. With the 29e title of the collection Hello History, Josée Ouimet signs a biographical story highlighting the entrepreneurial qualities and the sovereignty of thought of this pioneer who, on November 8, 1946, opposed a segregationist rule preventing her from sit on the floor of a Nova Scotia cinema. The inspiring story simultaneously conveys all the violence of this society which routed a woman who was nevertheless larger than life. However, while the fundamental character of this story is beyond doubt, the narration sometimes leaves something to be desired, with numerous repetitions and an annoying habit of naming the slightest action accomplished by the protagonists. The writing is fortunately more agile and informed in its historical report, thus fitting in with the careful and meticulous line of Adeline Lamarre’s illustrations.
Yannick Marcoux
Viola Desmond. Pioneer of black rights
★★ 1/2
Text by Josée Ouimet and illustrations by Adeline Lamarre, Isatis “Hello History”, Montreal, 2024, 72 pages. From 9 years old.
Everything to feel
In 1891, with his play The awakening of spring, Frank Wedekind offered the passion of his words to the upheavals of adolescence with the aim of denouncing the bourgeois hypocrisy of his time. In a version freely inspired and anchored in today’s Quebec, David Paquet brings the German playwright’s characters back to life, proposing to combine the blossoming of their sexuality with the taboos of our time. Between danger and desire, these “houses of sensations” explore, against the censorship of adult authority, the awakening of their bodies: “Human sexuality is a continent. Are you really going to choose to spend your life in the same village? » We regret from the outset a few scenes where the text seems to want to impose its own morality, delaying the formation of this wave, fueled by irrepressible impulses, which threatens to overwhelm the characters. Fortunately, this overflowing sexual drive soon comes to life and, carried by a corrosive humor, translates the complex movement of a freedom that is by turns claimed, feared and condemned.
Yannick Marcoux
The awakening of spring
★★★ 1/2
David Paquet, Leméac “Youth Theater”, Montreal, 2024, 96 pages. From 14 years old.