Loula Is Leaving for Africa

Quote of the Day:   

           "When a new book is published, read an old one. "

                                          ~Samuel Rogers

Title:  Loula is Leaving for Africa

Author and Illustrator:  Anne Villeneuve

Ages:  4-7

Loula  is from a privileged family.  Her mother is an opera singer and her father designs mustache's for a living.  Unfortunately, she has three "mean, horrible, stinky," triplet brothers who drive her crazy so she decides to pack her belongings....her essentials...her stuffed cat, her tea set and her best drawing and head off to Africa!!!!!   She encounters their chauffeur, Gilbert, polishing up their limo and he asks where she is off too in such rush.  She says she is going to Africa, to get away from everything, and dear, loyal Gilbert becomes her tour-guide and helps her plan her escape.  He tours her through a wonderful, magical afternoon of make-believe.  "Mademosielle, look! What luck! Here is a restaurant.  Which would you prefer," he says, offering her cotton candy and an ice cream cone. "Ostrich egg soufflé or a grasshopper sandwich?"  They cross the desert (a park sandbox), go for a camel ride (bouncy, playground ducks), and take a paddle boat to a faraway remote island.  On the island, in the stillness and the beauty of the sunset, they enjoy a cup of tea and together they watch the colour explosions overhead as the sun sinks slowly across the sky.  

The ink-and-watercolour illustrations remind you of fabulous ones from yesteryears.  They are playful and whimsical and I especially loved the tornado activity that was drawn above Loula's head to show her dissatisfaction and huffiness.  As the day proceeds the tornado shrinks showing her more calm and relaxed as she spends time with her friend Gilbert.  The different phases of the sunset are spectacular indeed!

 Gilbert is willing to spend quality time with Loula.  He happily plays along with her and is her protector right up the last moment when he carries the sleeping little adventurer back into her house.  It is a sweet, interesting story full of imagination and warmheartedness.  Every family needs a "Gilbert " in their life.  Don't you agree?

About the author and illustrator:  

Wandering through design school in her student days, Anne Villeneuve saw a door one day. It was marked “Exit into the world”. One fateful push and off she set on a lifetime journey of drawing and illuminating stories. Coloring, burnishing, doodling, clipping, begirding and rendering... It has been Anne’s life for the past 20 years.
An important swing in the social mood or simply a bored teenager on the bus? This fly on the wall will seize the inspiration and give life to new characters in a few strokes.
Anne’s work can be savoured on pastry packaging as well as in magazines, advertising. She is also the author & illustrator of many children’s books.Career achievements
TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award recipient, 2009
Marcel Couture Prize, 2009.
TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award recipient, 2005
Canadian Governor General's Literary Award recipient, 2000
Québec-Wallonie-Bruxelles Prize, 2000
Christie Prize, 1998She likes
Silence, back alleys, snow blowers in the night.She dislikes
Kraft Dinner, dandelion-free grass.Her clients
Brystol Myers, Nickelodeon, Transcontinental, Prentice, Hall & Ginn, Toundra Books, Picture Window Books, Formac Pub. Co. (Halifax, N.S), Société des Alcools du Québec, Red Bull, Dairy Bureau of Canada, Provigo, La Presse, The Gazette, Sidlee, Bleu Blanc Rouge

                   Book Review rating:    9  (close to perfection)

Read on and read always!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the e-ARC.  Publication date of Loula is Leaving for Africa is on Sept.1, 2013.   Ideas and thoughts are my own.