To embark young and old in the adventure of reading, nothing better than offering books for Christmas. Here is a selection of six works: a poetic album where a dog likes to wander alone, children who still need their comforter, a story of friendship between Castor and Lérote, and two novels where the heroine is called caution.
For children aged 3 to 6
- Oscar’s ride d’Anouck Constant and Charlotte Bresler: an ode unlike
“Oscar is a quiet dog. Oscar likes to walk, find his friends and bark without stopping. But Oscar especially likes the shell eggs, the great love stories, romantic painting and sleeping, a lot … ”
In Oscar’s ridewe follow the steps of a pretty red adventurous dog which is not quite like the others. This album, written with four hands by Anouck Constant and Charlotte Bresler, is made of monotype and looks like a pictorial work, like a moving painting.
The book is a real ode to reverie and difference. Because if Oscar likes to have fun with his friends, he prefers to venture into nature, listen to the earth breathing, observe the frogs, think … A sweet and precious ride that invites children to observe the world around them and accept their singularity.
- Madame ô’s children From Jean-Christophe Cavallin and Jérémie Moreau: Doudous or wild beasts?
“Now that Ronan is tall, he prefers to jump to the waterfall rather than play with Sido, his sister. So the little girl is bored and decides to follow a dragonfly that revolves around her … but disaster! Cashew, his comforter, falls into the water and gets carried away by the river. She then launched herself in pursuit and made a very mysterious meeting: a great lady, sitting by the water, who is called Madame O, and who seems to know Cajou well … “
Madame ô’s children is an album that helps children grow up, even if they still need their comforter. The drawing of Jérémie Moreau offers, as usual, fluorescent colors to his characters so adorable that it is very difficult to leave them. These shades, allied with the textures of its features, allow the heroes of history to intertwine to nature.
If the author Jean-Christophe Cavallin seizes the ancestral motif of the forest, it is not described as hostile but on the contrary benevolent. It even becomes a continuity of the house, where the comforters have a second life. And if children need their sofa-animals so much, it reminds us that humans are only one animal among so many others.
For children aged 6 to 9
- Clarissa and Septimus of Amélie Graux: a story of winter friendship
“There was once a young Lérote named Clarissa. Clarissa was not an ordinary Lérote. Rather than sleeping all winter, she secretly dreamed of seeing the snow, which had told her so much her best friend Septimus. One day, when her family was about to hibernate, Clarissa managed to get lost … “
Who said gray and brown were not joyful colors for children’s books? If we like the fluorescent, we also love the winter and relaxing tones of this album entirely produced by Amélie Graux.
The latter revives the intact emotion that the child feels when he braves prohibits him to discover a new and magical world, and tells a beautiful story of friendship based on mutual aid and benevolence. The illustrations perfectly broadcast the facial expressions of the Castor and Lérot families, their homes are carefully described. We would like to live in the bark of a oak or the hut of a beaver.
- The land told to children by Pierrick Graviou and Érik Orsenna: the fascinating story of our planet
“The history of the earth is the most beautiful of all stories. It is that of the first ocean, the appearance of life, large volcanic eruptions and glacial episodes, microscopic animals and huge dinosaurs. It is a fascinating journey, 4.5 billion years long; A journey that allows you to discover the different stages of the formation of the earth and to understand the trials it has gone through to become what it is today. ”
Illustrated by Stéphane Kiehl, The land told to childrenfrom Érik Orsenna, from the French Academy, and Pierrick Graviou reveals the secrets of the birth of our planet. Time is distended in this album where the reader travels over 13 billion years ago. The red lava springs from black volcanoes and manages to melt the ice floe which then surrounds the earth, thus releasing the bacteria, the first signs of microscopic life.
From seabed to rustling forests, each page is a summary of wonders at the service of science and knowledge. A book to awaken in young readers an early and essential ecological consciousness.
For children from 9 to 13 years old
- Anonymous telephone operators of Agnès Desarthe: Links without the screen
“I am more in the category of class ghosts than in that of the popular. I don’t have the clothes you need, I think. And then I smile all the time and, above all, I have no phone. But yesterday, in the courtyard, my life as a fifth in invisibility hit in another dimension. Georges, the college star, was confiscated his cell phone, and he seems to believe that I can help him. ”
This novel by Agnès Desarthe questions about the use – and the usefulness – of screens in young college students. With humor and delicacy, the author asks the right question at the right time, at a time when young people communicate mainly in digital paths. By reversing current trends, she realizes a tour de force: prudence, the least popular girl in college becomes, ultimately, the best adviser of the star of the establishment. And friendly and family ties cover all their power.
- The salty taste of the wind by Caroline TOURY: story of a reconstruction
“Prudence grew up on a boat, according to the wind, following the dream of his parents. This story takes us to the coasts of Africa to the Antilles, passing through the United States. The drama appears from the start, in filigree of this novel which depicts the idyllic life of a united family. The betrayal of the mother and the separation of the parents are mentioned through the eyes of a rebellious teenager. ”
The short first novel by Caroline Toury, with fine and poetic writing, evokes with modesty the history of prudence. The story alternates between her childhood on her parents’ boat and her life as a teenager in Nantes. How does a young girl manage to rebuild herself after so much wandering and fragility? Subtle and just.
