My music tree
Text by Catherine Voyer-Léger, illustrations by Catherine Petit, Station T “Station Jeunesse”
Catherine Voyer-Leger has been exploring for several years, through his essays and his stories, the borders of emotional territories, our relationship to the body and the various affiliations that unite us. She also talked about her experience as an adoptive mother, notably in her columns at It’s crazy…, with the late Serge Bouchard. It is precisely in this experience that she dives to deliver to us My music tree, an album that invites us to the reflections and feelings of an adopted child: “ — Did I move a lot when I was in your womb? – You were not in my stomach, but you moved a lot in my head. » In watercolor, Catherine Small signs the illustrations, adding colors, textures and symbols to the richness of the story. This is a 25 album for the illustrator since her debut in 2016. (April 4, from 4 years old)
The prisoner and the writer
Text by Heather Camlot, illustrations by Sophie Casson, translation by Nicholas Aumais, Isatis
From the incarceration of Alfred Dreyfus on Devil’s Island, in a prison designed specifically for him, to the judgment of the Court of Cassation, 12 years later, which cleared him and rehabilitated him for good , the Dreyfus Affair has caused much ink to flow. His story still stirs us today, and Heather Camlot made it the heart of his most recent album: the prisoner and the writer. More specifically, she invites us alongside Émile Zola who, then at the height of his glory, embarked on the business – notably publishing his famous I accuse… ! —, convinced that it was a serious miscarriage of justice resulting from a wave of anti-Semitism. This award-winning album New York Times in its original edition invites us to the fight led by the two men to bring about justice. This surge of freedom finds an echo in the illustrations of Sophie Cassonwhile Nicholas Aumais sign the translation. (March 7, from 12 years old)
The cat, the owl and the fresh fish
Text by Nadine Robert, illustrations by Sang Miao, Like Giants
The last album of Nadine Robert, Clover, was recently awarded the Governor General’s Literary Award (children’s literature, illustrated books), in addition to being still in the running for the Prix des libraires (children 0-5 years old, Quebec). These recognitions seem to have stoked her creative embers and, rather than resting on her laurels, she offers us a new title: The cat, the owl and the fresh fish. For the occasion, we join a rowboat floating on a pond, on which is placed a basket filled with fresh fish. The Gray Cat would like this treasure, but how to access it without getting wet? From the shore, an Owl seems to be giving good advice, but wouldn’t she just be cunning? An elegant adaptation of the saying “such is taken who believed in taking”, brilliantly illustrated by the vivid and colorful gouaches of Blood Miao. (February 15, from 3 years old)
I write to you from my bed
Text by Maude Nepveu-Villeneuve, illustrations by Agathe Bray-Bourret, 400 strokes
Maude Nepveu Villeneuve is an author, editor at Editions de Ta mère and professor of literature at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal. In 2020, with his first youth album, Simone under the brambles, which addressed anxiety with gentleness and kindness, she won the Prix des libraires (youth 0-5 years, Quebec). His most recent proposal, I write to you from my bed, is no less delicate, but the author once again reveals herself to be luminous. We meet the young Jacob who, suffering from cancer, has to stay in the hospital. Her correspondence with a classmate, Zia, allows us to discover their respective reality, their fears, their learnings and the road to travel towards remission. A moving and sensitive exchange, carried by the thinning of the watercolors ofAgatha Bray Bourret (The incredible story of the number 3, A Sunday in the rain). (March 7, from 7 years old)
oil stains
Text by Jonathan Bécotte, illustrations by Enzo Lord-Mariano, Quebec America
The work of Jonathan Becottehigh of five publications, has already attracted a large readership. Blow into the cassette and mom wants to leave have been hailed with a few accolades, and his most recent, The dark room, is still in the running for the Prix des libraires (youth 12-17 years old, Quebec). In his most recent album, oil stains, he abandons poetic prose in favor of free verse, which gives a rhythmic cadence to the writing. The album offers us six short stories, where a son with an artistic sensibility contemplates the profession of his father, a mechanic, and pays homage to him. Far from received ideas, the garage presents itself as a creative and inspiring space, where the smell of gas, grease stains and the dazzling welding are revealed in all their poetry. in pencils, Enzo Lord Mariano (A cold of horse, There is no place with us) gracefully combines playful and sensitive illustrations. (January 31, from 6 years old)