Like us, children feel the tremors of the world. Their small size nevertheless gives them a clear advantage: their center of gravity escapes ephemeral gusts and it takes great jolts to overcome their balance. With them, well seated on our buttocks, we can face great storms, our minds wide open before the window of books. Here are six windows to offer them.
Heavy heart, light suitcase
Every day, everywhere in the world, humanity generates new castaways with a violence that is as striking as it is useless. Among them, too often, are minors. In Canada, each year, more than 400 arrive, without an adult to accompany them, with the hope of obtaining refugee status. Alone tells the story of three of them: Afshin, Alain and Patricia.
This is Paul Tom — the director of the magnificent documentary Luggage — which offers a voice to these three protagonists and to the story of the pitfalls, heartbreaks and bereavements that riddled their journey to Canada. Guided by resilience, courage and hope, Afshin, Alain and Patricia command respect and empathy. Their stories are accompanied by illustrations by Mélanie Baillairgé, who have the intelligence of stripping, emphasizing the uncertain floating of the characters and the immateriality of their drama.
Tracing the thread of history
Benjamin Lacombe’s most recent album, Blindness Málaga, also depicts a young girl with an improbable destiny. We follow for the occasion the thread of a prodigious blind tightrope walker, who keeps the balance of her existence by maintaining the mystery of her past. However, a fall plunges her into an abyss which reveals to her a story that she thought was lost forever, giving her a new perspective on the future.
Story of a young blind protagonist, Blindness Málaga is a sight for the eyes. The strikingly beautiful boards set up a dreamlike and timeless atmosphere, as if history were floating above the void. Children will stroll through hypnotic scenes, while parents will appreciate a latent symbolism that orchestrates the editing of the story and its illustrations, projecting this unique album into unexpected horizons.
Collectible poetry
After Boréal, it is the turn of Éditions de La Bagnole to launch into the dance of poetry, giving birth to the Fuwa Fuwa collection – a Japanese word meaning “airy”. Two titles inaugurate the new collection this month: Drawing in the Margins and Other Ghost Activitiesby Carolanne Foucher, and Bestiesby Alexandra Campeau.
In Besties, the narrator tries to mourn a friendship that is no more, engaging in the jumble of her memories to celebrate, explain and grow after this significant episode of her youth. In a language that is not bothered with any make-up, she comes as close as possible to emotion, bringing out her truth: “I should have known / that when you turn / the page / you burn / the book “. The verses, constructed in the manner of hatched prose and stripped of its punctuation, constitute a fine initiation for those who have never rubbed shoulders with poetry. Promising.