“The Legend of Hippopolis”, “Pleine nuit”… Our selection of children’s books

► “The Legend of Hippopolis”, by Davide Cali (text) and Alphonse Bardou-Jacquet (illustrations)

It is a striking album, in terms of its content and its illustrations, sometimes in color, sometimes in black and white, like architectural drawings. When their father dies, the brothers fight over a meager inheritance. But now they dismantle the house and divide the stones among themselves. Eleven for each, except for the last one, Hippolyte, who only gets one.

Everyone dreams of being a builder. But eleven stones are barely enough to build a lonely portal, the embryo of a tower, a staircase that leads nowhere… So what can you do with just one stone? Great things, Italian Davide Cali tells us. Hippolyte lends his first name – engraved on his stone – to a king and the city over which he would have reigned. All that remains, to attract tourists, is to present the clumsy constructions of its brothers as vestiges.

► “Dear, the Legend of Fatima,” by Tomato Soup

She was a slave, she would become an influential politician in the Mongol Empire. This manga with its childish and round drawing has the appearance of a fairy tale but is based on historical facts: in the 13th^e century, Sitara, a young Persian who loses her family in an attack by Genghis Khan’s troops, is reduced to slavery.

Under the name Fatima, she managed to assimilate Mongolian culture and get into the good graces of Töregene, future regent. The author of this original and well-documented series, who signs under the pseudonym Tomato Soup, draws heavily on Persian motifs and calligraphy to enhance her gripping story.

► “Pleine nuit”, by Antoine Guilloppé

We never tire of Antoine Guilloppé’s albums or his unparalleled talent for immersing the reader entirely in the captivating atmosphere of a place, of a landscape. After having explored the desert, the mist, the sea and even the jungle using subtle laser cutting and other tracing paper, the author-illustrator takes us in a few words on a nocturnal expedition into the forest. Shh! Under a starry sky, foxes, rabbits and wild boars celebrate the return of Mother Bear! An album as soft as its coat, and all in shades of blue, enhanced here and there with gold and silver. Simply stunning!

► “Roshan and the Giant”, by Isabelle Sandri (1)

Roshan is a little boy of 8 years old. He lives in an amazing little village, built around a tree, “a tree so tall that its top touched the sky”. This Giant, since that is his name, makes the weather rain or shine. But for some time now, the Giant has no longer sent the rain that nature needs. Roshan therefore decides to climb the Giant, to its summit, to discover its secret. In this long initiatory journey, he is accompanied by Sakura, daughter of the Wind. This musical tale, combining read stories and songs, talks about mutual aid, solidarity, and the protection of nature.