In the forest of books housed in bookstores, it is sometimes difficult to navigate.
Which book to choose?
What title?
Which author?
Le Figaro
offers you four pretty albums for your children to discover.
Invitation to travel
There are albums that are browsed like exhibitions. That of Philippe Nessmann and Alex Asfour is one of them. We enter the book and we are no longer a reader, but a traveler, a walker, immersed in an incredible world, through immense pages and illustrations the size of an arm. The planet that unfolds before our eyes is full of life: cyclones, volcanoes, tornadoes, dawn, glaciers, deserts ... The landscape becomes character. And as such, it is full of stories.
We discover the
Chocolate Hills
, chocolate hills on the island of Bohol in the Philippines, we observe the largest crystal in the world which is 11m long at the bottom of the Naica mine in Mexico and then we examine Lake Hillier, pink chewing -gum, in Australia.
Each double page awakens the scientist who lies dormant in us.
We learn how the polar lights are formed and what are the
“morning glories”
, these rolls that can be 1000 km long.
Everything is very documented.
An invitation to travel which has the merit of making us aware of the beauty of the world and its fragility ...
Milan
Phenomenal - Spectacular Nature, by Philippe Nessmann, illustrated by Alex Asfour, Milan, 48 pages, € 19.90
In search of the times
Slow down time. This is what Olivier Charbonnel and Guillaume Duprat propose in their book. A daring bet at a time when nobody ever has time ... But what time are we talking about? Time for a heartbeat? of a lifetime? and from which then? How long does a cat, a rose bush, a coral, a planet live? We turn the pages that pull, stretch and stand out in front of our amazed eyes.
The illustrations in this pop-up book rise like a marquee.
The texts are read from left to right and vice versa.
We float in the page, we take the time to immerse ourselves in it, to think, even to dream.
"If a whole life lasts about 82 years, then you sleep about 28 years and dream for 7 years!"
Something to make you dizzy.
The book also offers a foray into historical time: thus, we discover how our ancestors measured the hours and years, from the solar or lunar calendar ... Here is a successful bet for the author and the illustrator.
We don't see the time passing by reading their book.
Saltimbanque
Le livre des temps, by Olivier Charbonnel and Guillaume Duprat, Saltimbanque, from 6 years old, 24 €.
The Philosopher's Garden
In February 2019, and after thirty years traveling the world, Nicolas Jolivot decided to follow Voltaire's famous lesson and cultivate his garden,
"motivated by the objective of listing everything it contains".
For two years, the author observes the world from his window and under his boot, practicing the forgotten art of crawling. He rediscovers this plot of 300 square meters which once belonged to his family. The place is nothing special, it is even banal, but with it, flush with stones and leaves, he learns the
“language of flowers and silent things”
.
There is a scent of another time that emerges from this text and its illustrations.
A soft and contemplative prose that reveals the poetry of a world seen at the height of a child.
There is Jean-Noël, the robin who
“sticks to the basques”
of the author, Tino the blackbird who
“discusses”
with him and then there is all this flora, the Japanese camellia which unfolds its petals like the flowers. feathers of a peacock and the Alkégenge cockerel, like a butterfly in its lantern.
Through this little life, which swarms and swarms with caterpillars and purple beetles, he tells about the past of the earth and its inhabitants, he,
"the pupil and the ferryman of this tiny piece of planet"
.
A magnificent journey into the past and into beauty.
Hongfei
Voyage dans mon jardin, by Nicolas Jolivot, Hongfei, 216 p., € 29
What you always wanted to know ...
"How many times do you blink every minute?", "Are there diamonds in space?", "How high do the tallest trees grow?"
This Jane Wilsher album has a question for everything.
The question mark is king and curiosity is queen.
Enough to satisfy all the children who would have heard themselves say one day:
"Curiosity is a bad thing."
Here, the book has only qualities.
Divided into ten chapters, it can be read according to the reader's desires.
Astronomy, biology, geography ... There is something for everyone.
Thus, the reader is in a way the author of the work.
He chooses to read the answers and guess the questions or vice versa, he can start his reading with the chapter on animals or the one on the human body and even at the end!
Jane Wilsher and Louise Lockhart offer an album with funny and colorful pages that gives answers to questions that every child, even when grown up, has asked itself.
This is enriching!
Casterman
L'Etonnante encyclo, by Jane Wilsher and Louise Lockhart, Casterman, 112 p., From 6 to 10 years old, € 16.95.