Page 22 - Trillium Book Awards 2021, ONTARIO CREATES

Trillium Book Award for Children’s Literature
Finalist
Éric Mathieu
Capitaine Boudu et les enfants de la Cédille
Éditions L’Interligne
On the U+00B8 space station, commonly called “the Cedilla,” Félix and the other child members of the crew are living under Captain Boudu’s authority until, one day, everything changes: an extraterrestrial space vessel hits the space station.
Félix and the captain are taken on a crazy adventure on a faraway planet, and Félix displays great bravery when he discovers a tower of Babel in reverse and an ancient stone that decodes languages.
A professor at the University of Ottawa, Éric Mathieu is passionate about languages. With this his first novel for young readers, he has created a fantastic universe to initiate children to language. He is also the author of the novels Le goupil (2018) and Les suicidés d’Eau-Claire (2016).
Jury Comment: With Capitaine Boudu et les enfants de la Cédille, it’s both as a virtuoso of narration and a merchant of dreams that Éric Mathieu takes the gamble of originality in offering his young readers the best of three worlds. First, there is the universe of science fiction, in which the space voyage of his young heroes on the mysterious Station U+00B8 turns into a true initiating odyssey. Then there is the fascinating world of a planet on which colonization has left a heritage that strangely reminds us of what we find in many locations on our dear Earth. Last but not least, there are the battles that it’s sometimes necessary to fight against something stronger than we are to preserve our language and culture while risking losing ourselves. Without ever giving in to didactic temptation, the author has written a very philosophically rich book here coupled with a subtle ode to cultural heritage, the arts and freedom.
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