“Oscar’s Walk”, “Clarissa and Septimus”, “The Anonymous Telephone Operators”: six children’s books to give at Christmas

To take young and old on the adventure of reading, there’s nothing better than giving 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 security blanket, a story of friendship between beaver and lérote, and two novels where the heroine is called Prudence.

For children aged 3 to 6

• Oscar’s Walk by Anouck Constant and Charlotte Bresler: an ode to difference

“Oscar is a quiet dog. Oscar likes to go for walks, meet his friends and bark non-stop. But Oscar especially loves boiled eggs, great love stories, romantic painting and sleeping, a lot…”

In Oscar’s Walkwe follow the steps of a pretty, adventurous red dog who is not quite like the others. This album, written jointly by Anouck Constant and Charlotte Bresler, is produced entirely in monotype and resembles a pictorial work, like a moving painting.

The book is a true ode to daydreaming and difference. Because if Oscar likes to have fun with his friends, he prefers to venture into nature, listen to the earth breathe, observe frogs, think… A gentle and precious walk which invites children to observe the world around them and to accept their singularity.

• Madame Ô’s children by Jean-Christophe Cavallin and Jérémie Moreau: cuddly toys or wild beasts?

“Now that Ronan is big, he prefers to jump at the waterfall rather than play with Sido, his sister. So the little girl gets bored and decides to follow a dragonfly that is circling around her… But disaster! Cajou, his cuddly toy, falls into the water and is carried away by the river. She then sets off in pursuit and has a very mysterious encounter: a tall lady, sitting at the water’s edge, who we call Madame Ô, and who seems to know Cajou well…”

Madame Ô’s children is an album that helps children grow, even if they still need their comfort blanket a little. Jérémie Moreau’s drawing offers, as usual, reassuring fluorescent colors to his characters so adorable that it is very difficult to leave them. These shades, combined with the textures of his features, allow the heroes of the story to intertwine with 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 continuation of the house, where the cuddly toys have a second life. And if children need their cuddly animals so much, it reminds us that humans are just one animal among many others.

Madame Ô’s children

Jean-Christophe Cavallin and Jérémie Moreau

Albin Michel youth

32 pages

18 euros

Published on September 2, 2024

For children aged 6 to 9

• Clarissa and Septimus by Amélie Graux: a story of winter friendship

“Once upon a time there was a young girl named Clarissa. Clarissa was no ordinary lerote. Rather than sleeping all winter, she secretly dreamed of seeing the snow, about which her best friend Septimus had told her so much. One day, while her family was preparing to hibernate, Clarissa managed to slip away…”

Who said gray and brown aren’t happy colors for children’s books? If we like neon, we also really like the wintery and relaxing tones of this album entirely produced by Amélie Graux.

The latter revives the intact emotion that the child feels when he defies the forbidden to discover a new and magical world, and tells a beautiful story of friendship based on mutual aid and kindness. The illustrations perfectly convey the facial expressions of the Castor and Lérot families, their homes are meticulously described. We would like to live in the bark of an oak tree or the lodge of a beaver.

• The Earth told to children by Pierrick Graviou and Érik Orsenna: the fascinating history 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, major volcanic eruptions and glacial episodes, microscopic animals and enormous dinosaurs. It’s 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 went through to become what it is today.”

Illustrated by Stéphane Kiehl, The Earth told to childrenby Érik Orsenna, of the French Academy, and Pierrick Graviou reveals the secrets of the birth of our planet. Time is stretched in this album where the reader travels more than 13 billion years ago. Red lava gushes out of black volcanoes and manages to melt the ice floe which then surrounds the Earth, thus releasing bacteria, the first signs of microscopic life.

From the seabed to the rustling forests, each page is a compendium of wonders in the service of science and knowledge. A book to awaken an early and essential ecological awareness in young readers.

For children aged 9 to 13

• Anonymous telephone operators by Agnès Desarthe: the links via the screen

“I am more in the category of class ghosts than in that of the popular ones. I don’t have the right clothes, I don’t think. And then I smile all the time and, above all, I don’t have a phone. But yesterday, in the playground, my life as a fifth grader struck by invisibility shifted into another dimension. Georges, the star of the school, had his cell phone confiscated, and he seems to think I can help him.”

This novel by Agnès Desarthe questions the use – and usefulness – of screens among young college students. With humor and sensitivity, the author asks the right question at the right time, at a time when young people communicate mainly digitally. By reversing current trends, she achieves a tour de force: Prudence, the least popular girl in school becomes, ultimately, the best advisor to the star of the establishment. And friendly and family ties regain all their power.

• The salty taste of the wind by Caroline Toury: rebuilding yourself at sea

“Prudence grew up on a boat, with the wind, following her parents’ dream. This story takes us to the coasts of Africa to the Antilles, via the United States. The drama appears from the beginning, implicit in this novel which depicts the idyllic life of a close-knit family. The betrayal of the mother and the separation of the parents are evoked through the eyes of a rebellious teenager.

Caroline Toury’s short first novel, with fine and poetic writing, modestly evokes the story of Prudence. The story alternates between her childhood on her parents’ boat and her teenage life in Nantes. How does a young girl manage to rebuild herself after so much wandering and fragility? Subtle and fair.