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Summary
Summary
Colette can't find something to talk about with the new kids in the neighborhood...so she invents a pet! Her fib quickly escalates, and suddenly her parakeet is a larger-than-life world-traveler named Marie Antoinette. Have her new friends figured out her secret? What will they do?
This charming story both clearly identifies the struggle of navigating a different experience, and demonstrates to kids a lovely and welcoming way to treat someone new in their community.
Author Notes
ISABELLE ARSENAULT studied Graphic Design at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has won the prestigious Governor General's Award for Children's Literature three times, along with many other awards and distinctions. Two of her picture books were named as New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year. She lives and works in Montreal.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
When neighborhood newcomer Colette ventures into the adjoining yard, her neighbors Albert and Tom ask her what she's doing. She tells a little lie: "I lost my pet." When the boys ask if it's a dog or cat, she invents again: "It's a bird... a parakeet." Arsenault (You Belong Here) gives the story the feel of a graphic novel for young readers, with smudgy, friendly panels and speech balloons accented with parakeet yellow and blue. With every embellishment Colette adds to her story (she names her pet Marie-Antoinette, "like the princess"), the children's concern grows, and more searchers appear. When Colette's inventions enter mythic territory ("We've been to the desert... and sailed the sea"), the others don't chide her but join right in: "Does your parakeet play soccer, too?" It's not Colette's behavior that Arsenault holds up as exemplary, but that of her new friends. They welcome Colette and don't shame her for making up stories that they understand come from nervousness. Most fibbing stories end with an abashed moment of coming clean; this one ends with a request for more make-believe. Ages 3-7. Agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Colette struggles with a move to a new urban home. But the contrived problem of a (made-up) lost pet parakeet sets her on an adventure with the neighborhood children as they band together searching. Smudgy pencil, watercolor, and ink drawings in varying-size panels--digitally colored with touches of parakeet blue and yellow--can be hard to read, but the story is ultimately heartwarming. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Colette's grouchy about moving to a new neighborhood and that she's not allowed to have a pet, so when she storms out of her yard and two kids her age ask what she's doing, she stretches the truth: Um . . . I lost my pet. Tom and Albert are eager to help, so they ask for more details. Colette says her pet is a parakeet, and Tom and Albert suggest borrowing Lily's binoculars to help find the bird. As Colette meets each new neighborhood kid, the story about her parakeet grows: she's named Marie Antoinette, she's blue and yellow, she sometimes talks (but only French). Colette's stories about Marie Antoinette gradually become wildly outrageous, but her new friends don't get mad that she's not telling the truth; instead, they happily play along with their new friend's imaginative game. Arsenault's beautiful, smudgy, scratchy scenes, rendered in soft grays with pops of bright yellow and pale blue, feature big-eyed, adorable kids earnestly searching for the imaginary bird, which is rendered relatively realistically, even as it grows to gargantuan proportions in Colette's story. With a graphic-novel-like format, arresting artwork, and a story that will ring true to many little kids with big imaginations of their own, this warm, funny picture book hits all the right notes.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
I admire picture books that address challenging themes. Four new pet stories take on the big ones: loss, and even mortality. Though not all the pets in these books pass away - one is unjustly separated from its young owner, and another apparently goes missing without, it turns out, ever existing - all of the stories dip a pinkie toe into the emotional pool of loss without being morose or preachy. It's not easy territory, but we have skillful book creators to help our younger kids explore it with imagination, humor and hope. "Splotch," by Gianna Marino ("Night Animals"), is about a dead goldfish, a botched cover-up and the futility of trying to protect loved ones from hard truths. In an attempt to shelter her son from the trauma of finding his pet goldfish belly-up, Mom flushes the corpse down the toilet while the boy is at school. The boy reacts by declaring that Splotch has run away, so the next day, sneaky Mom replaces the fish with a new one and announces that Splotch has returned. The boy smells a rat when he notices a discrepancy between the new fish's markings and Splotch's splotch, but he goes along with Mom's ruse to let her feel she's being a protective mother. Marino has created an interesting game of "Who's kidding whom?" between parent and child, a situation more common than most parents might think. As a story that hinges on visual discernment, "Splotch" is appropriately light on text and strong on visual storytelling. The illustrations are flat and telegraphic, with exaggerated facial expressions to convey the characters' shifting moods and motives. Don't miss the back endpapers, which suggest an alternative, sunnier fate for Splotch and all the other fish we flush. The goldfish in "Goldfish Ghost," by Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown, is definitely deceased. This purgatory story would be macabre if not for its matter-offact approach to death and its charming illustrations. Goldfish Ghost, white and floating upside down over his bowl, is dead right off the bat, so there's no drama around the loss. But there is a problem: Goldfish Ghost is lonely. Searching for companionship, he floats (still inverted) through a colorful seaside village, but the screeching seagulls, busy fishermen and tchotchke-toting tourists pay him no mind. With the exception of a few hidden ghost characters and a mass of sea creature ghosts (not his type), he's a fish out of water. That night, the moon beckons him to an abandoned lighthouse where the longdead but warmhearted lighthouse keeper gives him a home in the best fishbowl ever: a huge, defunct Fresnel lens. It's a graceful reminder that no matter our state of being, we all need kindness, companionship and a place to call home. The creators wisely stuck with a familiar picture book aesthetic and engaging illustrations, making what could be a scary story about death downright friendly. Especially appropriate for children experiencing loss, "Goldfish Ghost" deals with the question about life after life that's been asked for centuries. If the answer it suggests is at all accurate, then, lucky us. "Hey, Boy," a debut picture book by Benjamin Strouse and Jennifer Phelan, is the story of a young man's life and a dog that weaves in and out of it. A boy, with the help of some strategically dropped kibbles, meets and takes in a dog. Mom decides the boy is too young to handle a pet and takes it to the pound (why does Mom always have to be the bad cop?), where it's adopted by an older couple. Inspired by energetic visits with the dog, the boy is determined to grow up quickly so they can reunite permanently. As the boy matures and goes off to college, he never forgets the dog, but his visits are less frequent. Eventually, the couple - now too old to care for the dog - ask the boy to adopt him, which he happily does. Boy and dog are finally reunited, and the boy modifies their adventures to accommodate the dog's now diminished abilities, so the messages of patience, love and loyalty continue to the end. Aesthetically, the book feels retro yet fresh, with a canvas-textured cover, letterpress-inspired type and block-print-style illustrations. Like a new old friend, it's sure to be a book worth revisiting. In "Colette's Lost Pet" by Isabelle Arsenault ("Cloth Lullaby"; "Jane, the Fox and Me"), Colette has no pet - lost, dead or otherwise - but she sure has an imagination. This graphic- novel-style picture book celebrates the communal instincts of children and the healing power of storytelling. It opens as Colette, new to the neighborhood, is dealt a double whammy by one of her parents: (1) No, you cannot have a pet, and (2) Go explore your new neighborhood. When timid Colette meets some friendly children who ask the usual newkid questions, she masks her shyness with a fib about a lost pet parakeet, prompting more questions and offers to help find her bird. The search party takes off, enlisting helpers along the way while Colette's imagination fills in details about the missing pet: It's blue and yellow. Its name is Marie-Antoinette. It purrs. No, wait, it talks a little, but only in French. As Colette's crew grows, so does the parakeet. "She's gained some weight lately ... so I had to get a bigger cage, and then a bigger house," she explains. Before being called home for dinner, Colette finishes up with a whopper about riding Marie-Antoinette around the world. This inspires the other kids to put their own spin on Colette's story, offering that the bird might draw pictures, play soccer or even tap dance. They know Colette made up the whole thing, and they want to play along. Where adults might see deception, kids see collaborative storytelling. It's all made more magical with illustrations that combine a Matisse-like celebration of nature with the playfulness of Chagall. Although the book's smallish size (7 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches) cramps the story a bit, it's huge in spirit. Arsenault continues to teach us about children while advancing the art of books created for them. TOM LICHTENHELD, the author and illustrator of many picture books, most recently illustrated "Mighty, Mighty Construction Site," written by Sherri Dusker.
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Colette has just moved, and, worse, she has been told emphatically that she can't have a pet. When she unexpectedly meets two boys from her new neighborhood and is unsure what to say to them, she invents a story, shyly telling them that she is searching for her lost parakeet. The boys suggest borrowing Lily's binoculars; Lily, in turn, leads the kids to Scott's bird feeder; Scott directs the group to a fountain in Maya's yard; Maya has just spotted Beth's cat nearby; and Beth enlists the help of Lukas to make posters of the parakeet. With each stop through the neighborhood, Colette contrives new details about her missing bird, which build to an over-the-top account of their worldwide adventures together. Rather than calling her out on her obviously made-up tale, however, the kids play along, peppering Colette with questions, and in the end, they invite her to come back the next day and tell some more stories. The neighborhood kids are kind and willing to come to Colette's aid, but it doesn't quite make sense that they would all be charmed rather than annoyed at being duped. Arsenault uses sequential panels to tell the story, and the entire narrative is related in speech balloons. Rendered in pencil, watercolor, and ink, the soft, sometimes smudgy illustrations are rich with texture and evoke a gentle, retro feel. While the art is largely composed in black, white, and gray, Colette stands out in her yellow-hooded coat, and splashes of yellow and pale blue, added digitally, are used to highlight the children's imaginative play. VERDICT An additional selection where books about creative play and making new friends are needed.-Lauren Strohecker, McKinley Elementary School, Elkins Park, PA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Colette's family moves to Montreal's Mile End, and her mother tells her, "For the last time, NO PET," before shooing her outside to explore the neighborhood.Colette angrily kicks a box over a fence, goes to retrieve it, and meets some boys who introduce themselves and ask her what she's doing. After some hesitation, she timidly says that she's lost her pet, a parakeet, and the boys set out to help her find it, enlisting more help as they go, until the search party consists of five little white boys and girls including Colette, a brown-skinned girl of unspecified ethnicity, an Asian girl, a black boy, and a little black cat. When asked how they might identify the bird, Colette spins a grandiose tale, saying that her parakeet, Marie-Antoinette, is so big that she flies her on adventures to Paris, Japan, the desert, the sea, and the jungle. Her mother calls her in, and Colette turns to go, but the kids are full of questions about her bird, and she promises to tell them more tomorrow. Do they believe her, or is it just great fun to pretend? Arsenault's illustrations are done in black on white with bursts of bright yellow and occasional washes of pale blue, using pencil, watercolor, and ink in various textures to form a sweet style reminiscent of vintage illustrators Cynthia Amrine and Bill Sokol. Arsenault's story has the feel of a campfire song, increasingly fun and outrageous until the joyful end and its promise of new friendships. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.