Outdoor Reading Season

A new addition to the Mile End series written and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault, Albert’s Quiet Quest introduces us to Albert, who just wants to find a quiet place where he can kick back and read.  Unfortunately, all of the neighbourhood children find his quiet place and it quickly becomes just as loud as the house he escaped to find quiet in the first place.

Isabelle Arsenault so beautifully created the neighbourhood of Mile End in her first picture solo picture book and Albert’s Quiet Quest follows in those same footsteps.  The illustrations and book design have a comic book quality to them making the story so accessible and providing a little extra whimsy. Beautifully dreamy illustrations in a simple orange and blue colour palette evoking all the calm and wonder of the beach so lovingly depicted in the illustrations.  There is a comfort in Isabelle Arsenault’s work. Everytime we read one of her stories there is a calm that descends and envelops us. The dreamy wonder in her illustrations have the ability to centre and there is the same feeling in not only the books she writes but also the ones where she collaborates with another author as the illustrator of a picture book. At the end of Albert’s Quiet Quest we get a lovely gentle reminder to take some time to be quiet and enjoy a really great book