A Place for Pauline
by Anouk Mahiout ; illus. by Marjolaine Perreten
Primary       G     roundwood    48 pp.       g
9/22      978-1-77306-609-7     $18.99
e-book ed.  978-1-77306-610-3    $16.99

Pauvre Pauline! The eldest of three (soon to be four) children in a lively bilingual (French/English) household, she needs a reprieve from the family chaos. Cozy setting details such as family photos and comfy, rounded forms make her home feel like a loving one in Perreten’s busy paneled cartoon-style ink drawings, but Pauline longs for a place that’s “just mine.” She finds sanctuary in a closet under the stairs. “Here, I have my cushions, my books by the ­Countess of Ségur, my cacti, my glass marble, and above all…silence!” Inspired by her books, she imagines fantastic adventures but grows lonesome and worries that no one realizes where she is. Instead of immediately joining her noisy family, Pauline concocts a plan to hop aboard a ship to visit her grandmother in France. Before she can stow away, however, her mother invites her to work in the garden. The flowers will bloom in the hues of the French tricolor, but it’s her mother’s undivided attention that truly entices Pauline to feel that she’s in the right place after all.

From the November/December 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.