Explorer Amelia grew up listening to her grandfather’s stories about the legendary island of Toucania and its wondrous creatures. She is finally able to visit this mysterious place as the fog that enshrouds it lifts, an event that happens only once every 50 years. The aromas and colours of Toucania take her breath away. Amelia encounters all the unique and fascinating animals that filled her head as a child. She comes across wild panboars somersaulting through the foliage, merbears swimming in the ocean and walking on land, a leoskunk who lets out a foul-smelling fart, and a pride of lionutans lounging among laceferns. She must hurry back to the boat before the dense fog returns to surround the island, but she vows to return in another 50 years. This picture book is filled with beautifully whimsical illustrations. | Marianne Ferrer is the winner of the Prix Lux for her illustrations for Le jardin invisible.

48 pp., 6.5 × 8.5", colour illustrations

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - BC Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Originaire du Venezuela, Marianne Ferrer a immigré au Canada en 1998. Après avoir étudié l’illustration et le design au cégep Dawson à Montréal, elle a poursuivi ses études en design graphique à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, où elle habite toujours. Marianne a illustré de nombreux ouvrages, notamment Toucania (Monsieur Ed), Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act (Annick Press) et The Invisible Garden (Orca). Son style est empreint de charme, de délicatesse et de profondeur.

Marianne Ferrer's profile page

Valérie Picard is the artistic director at the Quebec publishing house Monsieur Ed. After obtaining a diploma in visual arts and a degree in anthropology, she fell in love with children's literature. She draws, reads, buys way too many books (ignoring the fact that she has no more space for them) and entertains herself with online Harry Potter questionnaires in order to discover in which house the Sorting Hat would place her. Valerie lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Valérie Picard's profile page

Charles Simard is a Québécois editor and translator from Montréal, also known as Tiohtià:ke and Mooniyaang. He works as poetry, fiction, and non-fiction editor for Talonbooks in Vancouver on Coast Salish Territory. His published work includes the essay Littérature, analyse et forme: Herbert, Tolkien, Borges, Eco (EUE, 2010) and a number of translations for Orca Book Publishers, including Elise Gravel’s The Wrench and Myriam Daguzan Bernier’s dictionary of sexuality, Naked. As a lexicographer, he has collaborated on the making of the popular linguistic suite Antidote in its bilingual editions. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in comparative literature from Université de Montréal and was a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York’s Graduate
Center. His doctoral and postdoctoral publications focused on the poetics of avant-garde composer and writer John Cage. He lives in Montréal, Québec.

Charles Simard's profile page

• Commended, BC Books for BC Schools

“Whimsical.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Fun and magical...A perfect bedtime story for all little adventurers.”

CM: Canadian Review of Materials