Discover our favourite picks for 6+ kids and teenagers. Whether they want to laugh or be taken on an adventure, there will be a story for them. Or if they are more about learning and facts, our non-fiction selection will quench their thirst for knowledge!
Easy Reads
La ligue de la nature : Au secours du baleineau, Ismaël Khelifa & Joëlle Passeron | Mini Poulpe
This easy read, with pretty pencil illustrations will delight the young readers sensible to nature's protection.
In the middle of a football game, Moutarou suddenly hears a voice coming from the forest. His friend, Romane, tells him he is not crazy, and brings him to an oak who talks to him. Like Romane and many other kids, he has a special connection to nature, and they are all sent on special missions to save it. So as he goes to bed, he is teleported in the Pacific Ocean where he will have to help a baby whale!
Zappa, cheffe de troupeau : ça passe ?, Céline Sorin | École des Loisirs
A first read full of humour, depicting how internet and smartphone can turn ours heads a bit.
Zappa, the female boss of a herd of sheep, got a phone. Hiding it from their guard dog, she uses it to plan an escape from their cold farm to take a plane to Tahiti where the grass is good all year long. The adventure will not really go as planned, especially when they encounter a vegetarian wolf! Only the internet can tell if there can be such a thing as a vegetarian wolf says Zappa...
📚 [Available soon from the library]
Professeur Goupil et les rires qui s'envolent, Loïc Clément & Anne Montel | Little Urban
This new volume in the "Professeur Goupil" series is a delight, full of sensibility and humour, beautifully illustrated by Anne Montel.
Professeur Goupil and the little animals are impatiently waiting for the new addition to their tribe: Akiko is pregnant and ready to give birth very soon! Once the baby girl arrived, Professor Goupil takes on his role of father with joy, but it is a bit more complicated for Akiko...
📚 [Available soon from the library]
Novels
Harceler n'est pas jouer, Delphine Pessin | Alice Jeunesse
Bullying at school can happen to any child, and at these young ages, victims don’t always know what to do and bully don’t always realize their actions and games can hurt. This is what this novel is all about.
Leonie, in year 5, is suddenly facing another girl’s jokes which make the whole class laugh. She tries to not care, but deep down it hurts and she doesn’t know why it is happening to her. Thanks to her friends and adults, she will be able to resolve the situation and stop her bully.
Les filles montent pas si haut d'habitude, Alice Butaud | Gallimard Jeunesse
An easy novel to read about two very different kids who will grow fond of each other through their midnight fugue. A bit of adventure and a lot of humour awaits the reader.
Timoti’s life is going to change when suddenly this loud girl appears on his window and tells him to be ready to go on an adventure at midnight. He’s always been a bit alone, living only with his dad, and preferring to stay at home most of the time, but being a bit annoyed at his parent he takes on this mysterious offer.
Corps de fille, Marie Lenne-Fouquet | Talents Hauts
A novel to put in the hands of every (pre)teen girl, because it is not easy trying to find your place in a patriarchal society.
This year’s summer holidays are complicated for Agathe, a 14 years old girl. She’s becoming more aware of how her body is changing and perceived by men, and how she can be treated unfairly because of her gender. She is also experiencing new emotions, facing new conflicts, meeting new people, and she doesn’t know how to stay true to herself while still fitting in with her peers.
Comic Books
Trois ou quatre histoires de mousquetaires, Thomas Bretonneau & Perceval Barrier | École des Loisirs
After stories about pirates, Bretonneau and Barrier are telling us stories about musketeers, to make a tribute to Alexandre Dumas.
The young readers will enjoy this easy comic book full of humour, adventures, and sword fighting.
Cendre et Hazel (1) : Les sorcières chèvres, Thom Pico & Karensac | BD Kids
This new series in the BD Kids collection (Ariol, Mortelle Adèle...) is sure to be a hit with young readers.
Cendre (Ashe), a witch in training, is not a very patient girl, and she wants to show everyone that she’s ready for her final witch exam. Going against the adults, she tries her magic and transforms all the witches into goats, even her older sister, Hazel. She then decides to go on a journey to find someone to fix her mistake.
La Fête des ombres (1), Atelier Sentô | Issekinicho
This comic book in 2 volumes will delight the more mature kids, especially the ones fans of manga and Japanese culture.
Naoko, a 20 years old girl, can see shadows (souls of dead people who can’t remember who they were), like other old ladies in her city, but no-one her age. This summer, after the city’s festival, a new shadow appears to her. She will have one year to help him and guide him, otherwise his soul will be lost forever. But through this growing relationship, she might forget to live her life with the livings...
Non-Fiction
Tous différents mais tous égaux ?,
Jessie Magana & Clémence Lallemand | Fleurus
This non-fiction book is a good entry for kids and their parents to talk about discrimination and all these close topics they might hear about on tv and other medias. It addresses discrimination as a big concept (what it means, since when it exists, what the law says about it, what is a stereotype), and its different forms such as sexism, racism, xenophobia...
En avant la musique !, Ingrid Seithumer & Bruno Gibert | Actes Sud Junior
This well illustrated non-fiction book will answer question some children, especially musicians and singers in training, might have about music: whether it might be why music makes us dance, how musicians compose melodies or even why some music was forbidden in the past.
📚 Borrow from the library.
Le petit illustré de l'intimité, Mathilde Baudy & Tiphaine Dieumegard | Atelier Belle
These two books are a must to talk about anatomy and gender to kids who are starting to ask questions about it, but also to (pre)teens who are not sure about everything.
Through illustrations they offer realistic representations of genitals, and up to date scientific explanations for children to understand their body and its mechanisms (erections, menstruations, puberty, pregnancy...), with mentions of love, gender and consent.