Ages 6-8 - 17 pages, 940 words | 9 minutes of reading | © Les 400 coups, 2021, for the 1st publication - all rights reserved
"My pencil on the first line, I'm waiting for Ms. Claire to give us the subject to write about. I like to play with words! And, with a big smile, she asks us to tell our Christmas holidays. I freeze, the pencil not moving. I don't want to, I can't write on that subject."
The poor boy didn't have the same holidays as his friends. His parents have separated, and he doesn't want to talk about it. Everyone else will have beautiful stories to tell, and he just has one story of a fight ending badly. Ms. Claire will probably give him a zero.
Marie-Francine Hébert gives us a sensitive book for children. A point of view on the sadness they can feel and do not dare to share. All this, illustrated with tenderness and empathy by Mathieu Lampron, who knows how to capture these small imperfect moments that many children live.