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Thread: Children’s literature

  1. #21
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    I gave my cousin’s son the book Badger le trappeur, by Oona Seguin, about a trapper who is not like the others, as he looks for animals not to kill them, but to help them when they are wounded, when they are in pain. He always finds an original solution in order to get them out of an awkward situation.



    I’m so happy my cousin’s 3-year-old son loves reading so much. He was so adorable, concentrating on the book!


  2. #22
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    My daughter has these two essential prayer books from the publishing house Mame, maybe the oldest French publishing house still in activity (it was opened in 1796) and it is specialised in children’s religious awakening.



    My Little Prayers includes prayers referring to daily activities.



    My First Prayers for the Whole Year includes prayers referring to holy days. The illustrations by Maïte Roche are particularly delicious.

    And it goes without saying that my 2-year-old daughter already knows by heart the two main prayers: the Lord’s prayer (Pater Noster) and Hail Mary (Ave Maria)! I am so proud of her!
    Last edited by Laly; 07-05-2021 at 09:53 PM.

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    I have bought lately the album Emotions by the Belgian Rascal. Simply with a word and a line, we travel through the complexity of emotions.



    It actually reminds me of the Italian series of the 1970’ La Linea, by Osvaldo Cavandoli, also based on the principle of the line, a white line on a black background:



    And this Italian series is in turn very similar to the short film Fantasmagorie (Fantasmagory), from 1908, by the French Emile Cohl and which anticipates surrealism.


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    Mario Ramos was an amazing author of books for children. And he had a Belgian mother and a Portuguese father, just like me!

    I love his style, full of subtility, as well as his virtuosity in the art of the turnaround. His books are often pastiches using traditional fairy tales and nursery rhymes, from which he constitutes something totally surprising. The book Mon ballon (My Balloon) integrates very well that perspective. It is based on the classical The Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault.



    Different patterns overlap in the work. In fact, the little red riding hood, walking into the woods, encounters successively different characters, while she is left out of range, as we just see the red balloon she holds. Furthermore, at each page, a verse from the traditional French nursery rhyme “Promenons-nous, dans les bois, pendant que le loup n’y est pas…” (Let's walk into the woods, while the wolf isn't there…) is added.

    The nursery rhyme:



    All of that actually brings a tense Hitchcockian atmosphere to the story. We wonder when the wolf will appear, what will happen.

    And to tell the truth, the atmosphere, the wait for a child predator, the use of the out of range and the balloon cannot not recall the terrifying film M (1931) by the great Fritz Lang!









    Last edited by Laly; 07-08-2021 at 01:53 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by laughsj View Post
    There are many suggestions here already, so I'd like to stick to one recommendation. That would be Lois Lowry's The Giver - I'd say this would be a good choice for children between the ages of 11 and 15, although the lower and upper limit are quite flexible given how far along children are in their intellectual and emotional development, not to mention reading ability of course. The book also deals with sexuality and common repressive approaches to sexual feelings, not just among adolescents but also among adults. Even if children find it difficult to discuss things with parents, teachers, or other related adults, books like this can give them a safe yet exciting way to explore their feelings. The book is also about navigating the social, and what human being couldn't use help there!
    Thank you for your suggestion. I've just read about Lois Lowry and she seems to be an interesting author.

    Please do not hesitate to share other reading suggestions.

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    The Lost Chick, is a Czech classic from 1953, written by the poet František Hrubín and illustrated by Zdeněk Miler. The latter is famous for having created the little mole Krtek:





    The pictures of the Lost Chick are painted with a lot of delicacy and tenderness, and the text is very poetic. Both the text and the pictures translate a very fine observation of nature.


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    The book I dreamed I was a ballerina, first published by the MOMA (Metropolitan Museum of Art), is such a treasure! I bought it for my daughter, who already has other books on dance.



    The story is told by one of the greatest dancers of all times, the amazing Russian Anna Pavlova.





    Yes, she is the one for whom the delicious dessert of the same name was created!

    And the story told by Anna Pavlova is illustrated with marvellous paintings by the French Edgar Degas, who was actually specialised in the depiction of dancers.

    I highly recommend to watch the short film on Degas and dancers produced by the Opera of Paris, made by Arnaud des Pallières and with the great actor Michael Lonsdale. There are even English subtitles:



    What’s also interesting is that the film displays Degas’ racism and antisemitism.

    Some paintings by Degas:




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    A book dedicated to violence, for children from the age of 7, is accused of discrimination against white people. In this book, all the bad people are white and all the good people are “racialized”. And there’s even an insert praising BLM.








    I wrote to the publishing house in order to complain. Everybody should do that. Here is the contact form: https://forms.bayard.io/contact/bayard-jeunesse/
    Last edited by Laly; 09-20-2021 at 10:50 AM.

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    It’s a bit late, but Roule Galette (Rolling Galette) is totally in line with the Epiphany, which we celebrated on 6th January, since in order celebrate this holy day, in France, Belgium or Luxembourg, we eat a delicious frangipane galette, within which a lucky charm is hidden. And the one who finds the lucky charm in their galette piece is the king or the queen and the feve will bring them luck.

    Roule Galette was first published in 1931. It is one of the greatest classics of children’s literature in French speaking countries. It was written by Natha Caputo and illustrated by Pierre Belvès. It is actually a story of Russian/Slavic origin and Natha Caputo, who was a Jew of Russian descent, derived her tale from an old Russian tale which was well known in her family. This Russian tale is Колобок (a kind of dough ball), which is part of the tales collected by the renowned Russian folklorist of the XIXth century Alexander Afanasyev, somewhat Grimm’s counterpart.

    An illustration of the Russian tale, from 1913:


    In Roule Galette, the pictures, in medallions, are extremely elegant, very expressive and deliciously retro. It’s a cumulative tale, made with repetitions of the encounters, of the dialogues. A galette rolls and is about to be eaten by several individuals, but only the fox succeeds in that, because of his seductive words, of his compliments towards the galette. In that respect, it is a cautionary tale.



    It is also close to the Gingerbread Man from the English tradition, which appeared in the XIXth century.
    The version I have of the Gingerbread Man:

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ylla View Post
    My children are very young so they enjoy looking at simple books. It's important to have books with real images at this age like farm animals, rather than cartoonish pictures so they can make sense of the world. It also helps to identify objects and animals easier which helps their speech. But they also enjoy plenty of different books as part of their daily bedtime routine, I usually sit them down together and read a book that stimulates interaction between them. The very hungry caterpillar, We're going on a bear hunt, Monkey puzzle and The Gruffalo are their current favourites.


    Dear Ylla, I bought Monkey Puzzle (2000), by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler. It’s very nice, touching and funny at the same time.



    As often in children’s literature, the narration is very repetitive. It reminds me a lot of another book I have, A Bit Lost, by Chris Haughton, written in 2011, so more recent. A Bit Lost is very similar. This time, it’s not a monkey, but a baby owl that is lost, looking for their mother. The text is very minimized, the characters are stylised and expressive, while the colours are flashy flat tints.









    By the way, A Bit Lost really seems to be a nod to Baby Owls (1992), by Martin Waddell, where in a dark scenery, luminous baby owls, like human babies often do, wait anxiously for their mother.


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