French / Canada
Aux toilettes
(To the loo!)
Marois, André
(text)
Pratt, Pierre
(illus.)
Montréal: Éditions Druide, [2015]. – [32] p.
(Series: Motif(s))
ISBN 978-2-89711-168-7
School | Toilet | Transformation | Picture book
Reading age: 7+
White Ravens issue: 2016
One student after another interrupts the class of Francis the teacher, always with the same plea: They have to really, really go to the loo! It’s quite strange, what is this all about? Upon returning to class, every student has visibly changed: in appearance, clothing, behaviour or mood. Amazed, the somewhat clueless teacher Francis notes these odd goings-on and at the end of the school period goes to the place of the wondrous transformations himself. When he closes his eyes for a split second and wishes himself to the place of his dreams, he’s suddenly sitting in a little café in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. He returns to school for the next period with a little Italian flair. The students marvel! “Aux toilettes” is the first quietly ironic, buoyant co-production of well-known Quebec illustrator Pierre Pratt and André Marois, “shooting star” in the crime fiction scene.