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Annotated Award-Winning Titles

		Prix illustrations jeunesse du Salon du livre de Trois-Rivières 2006 Illustrated short novel category Les cendres de maman Lolita Séchan Illustrations: Lino Montréal: Les 400 coups, 2005. 62 p. ISBN 289540268X Ages 12 and up
Les cendres de maman Source

As usual, after school, Mia hurries home to jump onto the living room sofa, turn on the television and dig into the delicious snack her mother prepared for her. But curiously, her mother is not home to welcome her today. Mia decides to look for her, but finds nothing but mysterious spots of soot everywhere in the house. Could it be that the chimney sweep took away her mother? Mia immediately sticks her head up the flue in search of her mother. Her quest leads her into a strange universe peopled by unusual characters who accompany her on a fantastic voyage.

Les cendres de maman is a bizarre and baroque tale that depicts the absurdness of a world not unlike Alice in Wonderland. This contemporary story about the kinds of stress that children of separated parents sometimes experience is illustrated craftily with humour and tenderness.

–DSH