Bon Voyage, Mister Rodriguez - Hardcover

Duchesne, Christiane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1772780898 ISBN 13: 9781772780895

Publisher: Pajama Press, 2019

Synopsis

A growing number of curious children discover their village’s most enigmatic figure has an unexpectedly beautiful job to do

Every afternoon at four o’clock, Mister Rodriguez steps out of a narrow laneway and strolls through the street. The village children watch him go, ever more curious about the enigmatic old man with the bushy white mustache. Some say they’ve seen him float above the ground. Others say he played a piano without touching a single key. The truth, though, is more beautiful than any of the children could have imagined.

Author Christiane Duchesne and TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award-winning illustrator François Thisdale bring a touching story to life with delicacy and heart.

About this title

About the Author:

Christiane Duchesne hails from Montreal. She has written for television, film, and radio in addition to her work in children’s publishing. Her works La Vraie histoire du chien de Clara Vic and Victor won the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature in 1990 and 1992, respectively.

François Thisdale's work blends traditional drawing and painting with digital imagery. He is the illustrator of The Stamp Collector, which is on IBBY Honor List, and That Squeak, an honor book for the IBBY Canada Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Picture Book Award. Missing Nimama won the TD Canadian Children's Book Award. François lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Review:

Praise for Bon Voyage, Mister Rodriguez

“The story line speaks to the reality of death in a whimsical way, introducing it by way of it occurring to someone known by the children in the book but not someone with whom they were particularly close. VERDICT Young children beginning to learn about the concept of death will find this book to be an easy introduction to this inevitability in their lives.”―School Library Journal

“[A] surreal allegory...Acrylic and digitally altered artwork by Thisdale offers crisp, photographic realism, with misty skies of purple and green that suggest atmospheric otherworldliness.”―Publishers Weekly

“Bon Voyage, Mister Rodriguez has found another gap to fill: what about the death of a neighbour, or those people you see every day but don’t know all that well? Those who, when they suddenly disappear, take a part of the community with them?...No tears, no sentimentality, no explicit mention of death – it’s possible to read this book as a quirky story about a magical musician. It can also be appreciated just for illustrator François Thisdale’s gorgeous, painterly spreads, with their becalming greens, blues, and ochres.”―Quill & Quire

“Observed by village children, an elderly man prepares for death in this misty allegory....Duchesne adopts a first-person-plural narrative voice in which matter-of-fact declaratives bob against mild speculation and culminate in an unflappable conclusion.”―Kirkus Reviews

“The blue and grey backdrops of sky and sea are at once misty and luminous, grounded by the pretty shuttered buildings and the solid human figures, emphasizing the juxtaposition of the reality of a continental town with some pretty unusual plot elements. Bon Voyage, Mister Rodriguez is a rather special picture book...”―CM Magazine

“Christiane Duchesne’s text leaves open what the children actually see and what actually happened to Mister Rodriguez but still laces it with the heartfelt emotion of a dear friend’s passing. Because of the surreal, perhaps supernatural, texture of Bon Voyage, Mister Rodriguez, François Thisdale’s illustrations, created with acrylic and digital media, have the perfect blend of the ethereal and the realistic....Bon Voyage, Mister Rodriguez presents the concept of death in a wholly unique fashion, leaving open what happens after we leave the physical world.”―CanLit for LittleCanadians

About this edition

• Publisher: Pajama Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1772780898
• ISBN 13: 9781772780895
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Thisdale François