Since I discovered the book “Things small and wonderful” in a bookstore (I took several copies so I could share them and offer them to those around me), I open it and leaf through the pages of this book for children as a sacred decompression snack. Going through it makes me feel really good.

Sandrine Thommen's illustrations are so soft and so Japanese that you travel there by falling into them like a dream. It really gives me the impression of traveling with these idyllic childhood sensations: nature, the seasons, the perfumes, the house, the family, the way to school, the holidays... the short texts by Nathalie Dargent are enough and these words, these sentences, carry us away with the images, like poetry.

The nostalgia I have for the seasons (which have changed it seems to me in recent years) and their beautiful transitions surely makes me love this book even more. The sun, the wind, the rain, the snow, the autumn leaves... It is a short story in images of a hymn to childhood and the beauty of the seasons which punctuate and illuminate us.

Sandrine Thommen, former student of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, lives and works in Montpellier.
For the more curious, you can find his website here

“Small and Wonderful Things”

Illustrations by Sandrine Thommen / Texts by Nathalie Dargent

published by Picquier Jeunesse, published in November 2014