Amaterra, 5 sketches, €17. From 3 years old.
2. Pompom Bear Love me soft
Benjamin Hot
Here is Pompon bear again, the little ones' favorite bear, who comes to life on the Okoo france.tv platform, runs through the wooded pages of Benjamin Chaud, and who decided this morning to build a cabin to sleep in peace, far from the his dad's snoring. With the roof over his head, he gets a little bored and goes looking for a cushion. At that time, a little raccoon comes to steal his roof. A chase begins through a dense forest where the animals are all very busy, to the great joy of the children who are looking for all the details in these magnificently illustrated double and full pages. From galleries to tunnels, the road is winding and exciting in this Christmas tree decorated with golden baubles, with a magnificent pop up at the end. A great gift especially since Benjamin Chaud, one of the greatest children's illustrator authors today, translated all over the world, explores the very first love, the one we never forget. An exciting search and find game.
Helium, 40 pp., €18. From 4 years.
3. One, two, three… Cornebidouille!
Magali Bonniol and Pierre Bertrand
Three Cornebidouille stories, for the price of one, or almost, that's something you can't refuse. Especially since the very beautiful edition, with cloth spine, which L'école des Loisirs has just published contains a preface by the publisher and founder Arthur Hubschmid. He writes there all the good things he thinks about this magical meeting between the writer-storyteller Pierre Bertrand and the designer-poet Magali Bonniol. We will also find at the end of the collection an interview with the authors, who tell us everything about the genesis of these spicy stories, and some sketches to learn how to draw Cornebidouille's head. Enough to want to find the famous witch who is having a hard time establishing herself with Pierre. When he was little, the boy refused to eat his soup and it annoyed everyone. Mainly his dad. But nothing could be done, the child refused to eat and even the threat of the arrival of a witch in his room during the night did not change his mind. It is true that Pierre was a smart little guy and that the witch could well have a hard time with him. A spicy story that we like. A classic of the genre.
The leisure school, 112 pp., €30. From 3 years old.
4. A birthday in the snow
Chiaki Okada et Reiko Katayama
It's a very soft book, very sketchy, very fluffy like the snow that falls and feels like winter. Today is Michi's birthday. His mom bought him a cake from the new pastry shop that looks like a snowy forest with a chocolate bear, a squirrel and snowflakes… It won't take much for the figurines to come to life and enjoy the party future. But to do that, you have to go into the forest, find the fox, the rabbit, the wolf and eat crunchy walnut cookies. A true childhood story, a birthday fable that celebrates children's favorite day and helps us enter winter gently.
Youth threshold, 40 pp., €14. From 3 years old.
5. Mr. White Rabbit
Benjamin Lacombe
When Benjamin Lacombe takes on the White Rabbit, famous throughout Wonderland, and well beyond, for his extraordinary ability to be late, the result is a silky and voluptuous album, with magical illustrations haloed with light. B.Lacombe tells the story of this rabbit who already took much longer to be born than his brothers and sisters. Then, every morning, he was late and fell face down into his carrot juice because he was so tired. On the way to school, he was frolicking. Until this morning when he was so late that he dropped out of school. It's there that he meets the Cheshire Cat, with his big clock around his neck and his very particular notion of time. What follows is an interesting philosophical reflection on time because if the rabbit is behind the clock, he is not behind the things he dreams of discovering. From there to the Queen of Hearts adopting her point of view… But her new butler has other assets in his big ears.. And late, or not, the meeting with Alice cannot be long in this other door of entry into the legendary story of Lewis Carroll.
Margot, 52 pp., €20. From 5 years old.
6. Donkey skin, a paper opera
Clémentine Sourdais
No matter how great the sorrows, there is none which, after a certain time, does not end up fading away. This is what the King ends up realizing after filling the fountains with his tears following the death of the Queen. To the point of considering marrying his daughter, at the encouragement of the Council. But his daughter knows that a parent and a child do not have this kind of relationship and will do everything to discourage her father, even wearing a donkey's skin. Told in the original language, and so refined, this paper opera, all in childish colors, deploys pop-ups and rain dresses with real delicacy and illustrations of great naivety, all in contrast with language and gravity of the subject. Since it is indeed incest. A tale with dialogue to read and play, three dresses to twirl and four enchanting scenes to unfold, this is what Clémentine Sourdais offers in this pop version of one of Perrault's most beautiful tales.
Youth threshold, 20 pp., €22. From 5 years old.
7. Five tales
Posy Simmonds
We often ignore it but before publishing Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drew or Cassandra Darkegraphic novels which earned her international fame, Posy Simmonds (Berkshire, 1945), the British Claire Bretécher, Grand Prix de la Ville d'Angoulême 2024, refined her graphic and narrative techniques and refined her sense of color with sparkling children's books which were characterized by their inventiveness and impertinence. Among others with The baker cat which denounces the exploitation of the cat by man or the untamable Matilda who told horrible lies and burned to death. Here they are brought together in a collection of interesting diversity. With a more cinematic register for Matilda or more naive, in the very British vein of Beatrix Potter, for the delicious Lavender. The biting work reveals her graphic evolution, the precision of the settings of this tireless surveyor of cities and countryside, the rhythm of the story and that drop of venom that she never forgets to distill. Children's stories that adults will love too.
Translated from English by Lili Sztajn, Denoël, 144 pp., €26. From 4 years old.
8. A Brouillamini
Karen Hottois and Vincent Pianina
Lying comfortably under his patchwork blanket, the earthworm listens to the snow falling and says to himself that it's a time to fall in love. He sits down at his desk to write a letter to the moth. Who raises their antennae when reading the mail before going about their business. It's a bad start. She prefers to write to the grasshopper who, having poor eyesight, reads everything wrong. And meanwhile, in all this confusion, the earthworm remains on the floor. A deliberately confusing book on the confusion of feelings among miniature animals, moths, ladybugs, grasshoppers and earthworms. From misunderstanding to misunderstanding, we follow the trajectory of the insects throughout the pages of an album whose graphic presentation is very original and where each story has its own strip of images punctuated by full-page illustrations. A bold approach which earned the album its selection at the Pépites de Montreuil.
Albin Michel youth, 56 pp., €18. From 6 years old.
9. Stand up, trees!
Carl Norac and Stéphane Poulin
Here is the duo Carl Norac and Stéphane Poulain again for a sumptuous, silky and committed new album which defends friendship like nature, our two best allies. Zad, the wild boar likes trees more than people. Because a tree is well known, it doesn't lie and it doesn't talk nonsense. While people… Aren't they the ones who cut down the trees in his beloved forest? Zad loves to greet the big oak tree and call it an old branch. As soon as he hears a noise, he takes out his catapult and throws pine cones. But one day he discovers Miss Angel, the weasel, a little pest, according to him, hugging a tree. Danger lurks. The four Grandes Mallette Brothers will soon come and cut down the forest to make a neighborhood with all-white villas. The hour of resistance has come for all those who speak to trees. And suddenly, Zad the grump finds access to this ecological fable, a well-conducted story with multiple twists and turns and oil paintings full of nuance and depth by Canadian Stéphane Poulain.
Pastel, 36 pp., €15.50. Since 6 years.
10. The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling et May Angeli
Rudyard Kipling needs no introduction. Those who know May Angeli's work, her inimitable and formidable woodcuts, recognize her at first glance. And will not be surprised to read that the edition of Jungle Book that she took care to illustrate is absolutely beautiful. An edition which opens with the night song in the jungle, the melody of which resonates from the outset. Enough to approach quietly the hills of Seeonee where Father and Mother Wolf are still unaware that a man's cub will soon enlarge the family. The rest of this initiatory story of the Nobel Prize for Literature is known and has not aged a bit. All in earthy colors, the French artist's engravings give it an authenticity that was a little lost in Walt Disney's version.
Translated from English by Louis Fabulet and Robert d'Humières, Seuil jeunesse, 176 pp., €22.50. From 8 years old.
