8 children’s books to face the start of the school year with a light heart

As the start of the new school year approaches, we bring you a selection of recently released children’s albums and novels to help children as young as three (and through the start of first grade) deal with this moment as dreaded as it is. expected (by children as well as by their parents!)

Not even in dreams, since 3 years

If you don’t yet know the delightful Italian author and illustrator Béatrice Alemagna, to whom we owe this book The things that go away (Helium), around the passage of time – so, choose this nugget that forms a perfect gateway to his work as rich as it is delicate. Not even in dreams, is the story of a very stubborn bat who stubbornly refuses to go to school and unleashes such a rage that his parents shrink. To annoy them, he decides to hide them under her wings to take them to live with her his first return to school. Joyful, magical and endearing, this flexible little scrapbook is the perfect antidote to back-to-school stress. There is a falsely awkward and almost childish trait, gouache work but also fluorescent touches, which are part of the illustrator’s trademark. The shifting of everyday school situations into the living environment of animals – a special dedication to siesta perched on a tree, with its head upside down – as well as the daring choice of a bat as the sulking and half-mischievous heroine does not they will lack to arouse the curiosity of children. A favourite!

Look to the school of adultssince 3 years

Mira is so excited to go back to kindergarten that on her way to school she feels like she is growing to infinity. But once she gets to the gate, when her mother lets go of her hand, everything about her suddenly seems gigantic and frightening. Having become as small as a mouse, it is impossible for him to answer his mistress or play with other children. He even seems to her that she has become transparent. Until a friendly hand crept into hers and made her gain inches and confidence. We are fans of this rather large format album with realistic and soft drawings that allow you to put into words, together with your child, what they are learning or might be feeling in the face of the excitement/fear cocktail of the first day of school.

Little stories of Father Castor for school, since 3 years

My mistress is an ogress! (Sylvie Poillé, Laurent Richard), Super mom! (Claire Clement, Philippe Diemunsch), 24 mice go to school (Magdalene, Nadia Bouchana), The wolf can’t count (Nadine Brun-Cosme, Nathalie Choux); Letters from Biscotte Mulotte (Anne-Marie Chapouton and Lili La Baleine): with the collection of Father Castor’s stories for school (Flammarion jeunesse), there are ten classics of the youth publishing house. We love everything in this beautiful thick book with rich illustrations. Rankings by age, reading time or themes that allow you to calibrate the reading as close as possible to the expectations of the children, to the tenderness and malice of the stories, to their diversity. A must for both nursery years and small primary classes!

Gabriele’s return to school, from 3 years old

Back to school and Gabriel has a problem: he’s shy. He doesn’t dare talk to the other kids, not even Serena, who seems to like dinosaurs as much as he does. What to do ? Thanks to a little imagination, a brave miniature knight and above all a lot of courage, the little boy will be able to overcome his fears. This album, signed by Sylvain Zorzin and Malin Koort, will seduce young and old thanks to his realistic and tender drawings.

What is school? from 4 years

Tell me, what is the purpose of school, really? Faced with this question, the parent, taken aback, is tempted to answer in a banal and unconvincing way: “learn things to then do the job you want”. A joke that generally does not satisfy the child. This sublime bestiary-like album provides a poetic yet accessible answer to this important question. ” School is an open place, even when you’re inside. A place full of ideas and words. With ideas and words we can invent a new world “, we read there for example. Joy of learning, diversity, freedom of thought, friendship, the magic of knowledge… It’s all there, illustrated by a farandole of tender and elegant animals. A very successful fairy tale, above all because it doesn’t end in stupidity!

20 good reasons to go to school, since 5 years

This is a lighthearted and highly entertaining album about the cost of not going to school! Transforming into a super tomato and peeing ketchup on your fries can be fun. Fly in a giant bubble and meet the pirates, it starts to get dangerous. But risking the end of the world in a meteor shower, so there’s no way! Carried over by Romain Guyard’s illustrations and Michaël Escoffier’s texts, a duo to whom we already owe 20 good reasons to believe in Santa Clausthis children’s book will allow you to face the melancholy of back to school with imagination and a pinch of madness.

I hate school, since 5 years

Listening to little Honora, her school seems like a nightmare. Its mistress is a big slimy toad, the children are forced to eat earthworms, they are thrown out the window if they get naughty, they cut off their heads if they argue in class, sometimes monsters come to scribble homework and the pool is full of sharks… However, the day the little girl has to leave school, she realizes how much she will miss him. Out of print for several years, this album – first released in France 20 years ago – is now reissued by Gallimard jeunesse. A well-deserved highlight as the book is a treasure trove of black humor and mischief capable of de-dramatising school anxieties. And make skunks and skunks laugh a lot who love anything unappetizing. We find there the shocking duo formed by the illustrator Tony Ross and the author Jeanne Willis, to whom we owe very beautiful titles such as A book and more (Gallimard youth).

The Impossible Mrs. Babyfrom 6 years

At 6 years old, Nana is not afraid of anything or anyone. Not even to go back to the CP! After all, she already knows how to read and practices karate. Plus, Marie-Lou, her new lover, is as beautiful as she is kind. So there’s nothing to worry about. Until she meets Madame Baby,” the overseer, the strictest in the history of the world of overseers “. With her, the list of prohibitions is so long – putting your hands in your pockets, sighing, not finishing your plate in the cafeteria… – that at certain times of the day there are more children in the corners than in the classrooms. . Just for say that the day Madame Bébé disappears, absent for an indefinite period, is a holiday and Nana makes a solemn vow.But the days go by and the little girl no longer has a taste for anything, so much so that her parents take her to the doctor. .. We find in this recently republished little novel a synthesis of the talent of the delightful Agnès Desarthe – who signs a superb novel elsewhere in this literary season The Castle of Employees (The Olive Tree) – whose juvenile titles have cradled generations of children. A beautiful (re)discovery, accessible to young readers thanks to an airy layout and large fonts.

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