If Found Please Return To Elise Gravel

Welcome to the charming world of cartoonist Elise Gravel's Notebook, where her imagination runs wild with creatures of all shapes and sizes In the outrageously amusing If Found..., Elise Gravel offers readers a sneak peek into her sketchbook, where colorful monsters, imaginary friends, a grumpy things reign supreme. Meet Donald, who sings off-key; Francine, who likes to eat stones; and Marvin, the man with lots of stuff in his beard. Mixing the real with the fantastical, Elise’s drawings exude curiosity, as microbes and mushrooms share the page with speckled pepperpops, gloppers, and floofs. Filled to the brim with vibrant felt marker illustrations, If Found... is not just an exhibition of Gravel’s work, but a challenge to young artists to keep a daily sketchbook. She reveals her top tips to becoming a successful illustrator–practice! practice! practice!–while empowering young artists to face their fears of making “ugly drawings.” Stop worrying about what makes a drawing good or bad—Elise draws anything and everything and you can too! Translated from the French by Shira Adriance.

Join Elise Gravel as she explores the science of some of nature's weirdest and wildest characters—mushrooms! Elise Gravel is back with a whimsical look at one of her family’s most beloved pastimes: mushroom hunting! Combining her love of getting out into nature with her talent for anthropomorphizing everything, Gravel takes us on a magical tour of the forest floor and examines a handful of her favorite alien specimens up close. While the beautiful coral mushroom looks like it belongs under the sea, the peculiar lactarius indigo may be better suited for outer space! From the fun-to-stomp puffballs to the prince of the stinkers—the stinkhorn mushroom—and the musically inclined chanterelles, Gravel shares her knowledge of this fascinating kingdom by bringing each species to life in full felt-tip marker glory. Governor General award winning author Elise Gravel’s first book with Drawn & Quarterly, If Found...Please Return to Elise Gravel, was a Junior Library Guild selection, and instant hit among librarians, parents, and kids alike. Fostering the same spirit of creativity and curiosity, The Mushroom Fan Club promises to inspire kids to look more closely at the world around them and seek out all of life’s little treasures, stinky or not!

In The Bug Club, Elise Gravel shares all her favourite and most interesting facts about these marvelous creatures, some of which are so unique and strange, you could almost imagine them living in outer space! Most people know that spiders have eight eyes, but what about the caterpillar? These little critters have them beat with a whopping twelve! Did you know mosquitoes are attracted to smelly feet? That the honey bee has hair on her eyeballs? That butterfly feet double as noses? And grasshoppers have ears on their bellies? These are just some of the many things about bugs that make them endlessly enchanting. Elise’s inquisitiveness and charm pop off the page as she takes us on a walk through her mind—and the awe-inspiring natural wonders that exist right outside our doorsteps. If you’re curious what the inside of a slug looks like, The Bug Club has you covered. Not only does Elise answer these burning questions, but she draws it all beautifully and brightly in her signature cartoony style. The followup to her award-winning The Mushroom Fan Club, where Elise shares her delightful and family-friendly mushroom hunting adventures, The Bug Club offers more activities and fun for the whole family. This time, the treasure is hiding just below a rock or that pile of fresh fall leaves.

A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year! Meet Olga, the amazing child scientist who LOVES animals (because they are super-cute)! Brightly put this heavily illustrated don't-miss book on their "Ultimate Summer Reading List for 9- to 12-Year-Olds." Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere is jam-packed with fun: vibrant illustrations, word bubbles, quirky humor, olgamus facts, and plenty of excitement for readers who love making discoveries and meeting new friends. Olga is a charming combination of independent, curious, and smart—making her the coolest girl scientist around—perfect for fans of Dork Diaries and Captain Underpants. When Olga crosses paths with a weird creature and becomes the first kid to discover the species olgamus ridiculus, she is ecstatic! What does an olgamus eat? How does it poop? Why does its burp sound like the word rubber? With her trusty observation notebook and the help of a librarian, a shopkeeper, and some friends, Olga sets out to do science—learning the facts about her smelly, almost-furry pal and searching for him when he goes missing. The scientific method is the best way to discover anything!

Don’t take the title as a metaphor: it really is the worst book ever. Governor General Literary Award winning children’s book author and illustrator Elise Gravel takes readers on an unexpected journey through the world’s most boring book. The story’s characters and omniscient readers alike quickly become annoyed by the author’s bland imagination and rebel against her tired tropes and stale character choices, spouting sass in an attempt to get her attention and steer the narrative in a more interesting direction. After all, you don’t even have to buy the book, but the characters? They’re stuck in there for an eternity, and they’re going to do their best to make the most of it, or at least have a little fun where they can. As the charming and bizarre true nature of the characters overpowers the dry attributes given to them by the author, this once blasé story quickly picks up speed, transforming the story into something much more unique than originally promised. With Gravel’s signature goofy characters behind the wheel, no silly twist or rude body function is off the table!

Animal lover and kid scientist Olga is back! Great for fans of the acclaimed graphic novels Real Friends and Invisible Emmie. In this second installment of a series Franny K. Stein creator Jim Benton called “great, kooky, monstrous fun,” Olga wants to leave earth in search of Meh’s home planet, but first she’ll have to discover why Meh is acting so strange. Olga: We’re Out of Here is jam-packed with facts and fun: Elise Gravel’s classic comic illustrations, hilarious word bubbles, space travel facts, and a diverse cast of memorable characters. Brightly.com put Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere on their "Ultimate Summer Reading List for 9- to 12-Year-Olds." And Kirkus said of it: “A visually interesting mix of illustration and story, punctuated by numerous lists, comic panels, and cartoon diagrams and led by a smart female protagonist. A bubble-gum crowd pleaser with wide audience appeal.”

An accessible picture book that oh-so-simply and graphically introduces the term "refugee" to curious young children to help them better understand the world in which they live. Who are refugees? Why are they called that word? Why do they need to leave their country? Why are they sometimes not welcome in their new country? In this relevant picture book for the youngest children, author-illustrator Elise Gravel explores what it means to be a refugee in bold, graphic illustrations and spare text. This is the perfect tool to introduce an important and timely topic to children.

An exploration of empathy and unity - featuring Elise Gravel's signature quirky monsters! Everybody is unique and different. But we are all more similar than we think. Just like you: Everybody has fears. Everybody has moments of joy . . . and moments of sadness. Everybody makes mistakes . . . and can fix them. And, just like you, everybody needs to feel safe and valued. From beloved children's author Elise Gravel comes a reassuring picture book, perfect for trying times.