It’s the funeral of 94-year-old Eugene. His great-grandson refuses to wear a black suit: he’ll wear a dress, as flowery as great-grandfather Eugene’s garden! At the cemetery, the child causes quite a stir at the ceremony. Is grandfather Eugene really going to end up among all those stones? The little rebel is called to order by two of Eugene’s former comrades-in-arms: no one should disrespect a war hero! But the young boy’s sincere homage to his beloved grandfather Eugene gardening skills wins out, until the war is forgotten and the cemetery is covered with a carpet of flowers…

Publication: April 2025

Esther Bacot (text and illustrations)

This former engineer lives in Paris, where she now pursues a career as a designer and illustrator. Her picture books offer children the keys to understanding the world, and the chance to build their own lives in peace. Working in the traditional style, with ink and watercolor, she likes to set her stories in refined worlds where she gives life to endearing characters. Her first picture book, Chez Nonna (At Nonna’s workshop), was published in November 2023 by Cépages, followed by Les pieds sous la table (Feet under the table) in 2024.

A beautiful day begins. What if our little heroine took the opportunity to go for a walk by the river? What fun adventures and encounters along the way! Nature is home to so many wonderful animals. Life here springs from every nook and cranny, between the leaves, on the water or in the air. It’s an enchantment for the senses!

Publication: May 2025

Aziza El Kasri (text and illustrations)

Aziza El Kasri is a French-Moroccan illustrator and graphic designer based in the Yvelines (France). With a dual cultural background, this self-taught artist has been painting since a very early age. It was while observing illustrated encyclopedias on flora and fauna, that her desire to illustrate nature was born. She uses mixed media in her work and enjoys experimenting with new ways of creating. To date, Aziza has produced illustrations for publishers such as Larousse, Auzou, Hachette and Rue des écoles.

The light in the curtains in the morning. The countless drops of water in the tall grass. Shadows on the wall, silhouettes of endless amusements. A child recounts her admiration for the sun.

Carried by soft, luminous illustrations – bordering on hyperrealism – Morgane Bellec’s poem evokes the sensations that the sun offers us. From its warmth on the skin to its sparkling reflections in the water, she admires its rays, which transform everything they touch.

Sparkling days is the first volume in a trilogy dedicated to nature (and in particular to the sun) and the sensations it brings..

Rights sold: Korean language

Morgane Bellec (text and illustrations)

Morgane Bellec, an illustrator based in the Côtes-d’Armor region of Brittany (France), has never lost touch with her childhood passion: drawing. From art workshops to graphic design studios in Paris, she stands out for her sensitive, gentle style. Her pastel tones invite you to travel and contemplate.

In 2020, she illustrated children’s tableware distributed internationally by Hermès. At the same time, she brought out her first children’s book, À dos de loup (On the back of a wolf), published by Voce verso.

Since then, Morgane has drawn every day. Some of her personal creations are on show at the Galerie Club Sensible (Paris VIe), at Atelier b8 in Saint-Brieuc and on her social networks. In partnership with UNESCO, she is currently working on a new collection of children’s books, and is looking for new projects in the press and publishing industry.

More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. However, humans are not the only inhabitants: cities are full of life, from the smallest microorganisms to the largest animals. In Out of Place we discover which organisms inhabit our cities, in a journey that will take us from inside a house to the outskirts and surrounding countryside, passing through tree-lined avenues, parks, wetlands, ruins and castles.

From its title, this book reflects on the coexistence between man and nature – sometimes peaceful, other times a source of imbalances and problems – and on the actions we can take to make our cities more balanced and more livable for all.

Like the other books in this series, Out of Place guides us in observing the nature that surrounds us daily. The illustrations, poetic but with scientific rigor, are accompanied by a text suitable for young readers.

Publication: May 2025

Rights sold: Slovenian language

Valentina Gottardi (concept and illustrations)

Valentina graduated in Architecture and Visual Arts. Since childhood she has cultivated his two great passions: nature and drawing. Over the years she experimented with different artistic techniques, creating her own style made of ballpoint pen, acrylics and tablets. At Cocai Books she deals with the conception and management of all projects, artistic direction and illustration.

Danio Miserocchi (author)

Danio Miserocchi is a naturalist and teacher. He collaborates with numerous museums and local institutions and has always cultivated and enhanced biodiversity by conducting research and popularization activities. His work alternates between popularization and research, with field trips and consultations, to “get his hands dirty” and keep a direct line with Nature.

Maciej Michno (author)

Maciej Michno is editor and administrative manager at Cocai Books. He has always been passionate about writing, translating, editing, proofreading and all the technical aspects of running a publishing house. He speaks four languages and has a great passion for human factors and for communicating science and technology through text and images.

An epic album to chase away boredom and overflowing emotions!

Sometimes we’re overwhelmed by emotions that are too much for us to handle… It’s time to let them out and free ourselves! On a rainy Sunday, when boredom is meowing at the top of its voice, a young girl finds herself confronted with a catastrophe: a stupid tomcat lurking in the hollow of her throat and determined to stay. To chase off this feline invader, she deploys stratagems with tenacity and vivacity, turning a dreary day into a busy whirlwind and leaving her with memories as crazy as a kitten in a Pandora’s box. This picture book reminds attention-seeking feline children that even the dullest boredom can be overcome by their imagination… With the added bonus of a honeyed sweet or a glass of milk!

Awards:

⭐  BRAW Amazing Bookshelf, Bologna Book Fair 2025

On Halloween night, Gaspard, dressed as a ghost, goes trick-or-treating. Suddenly, he loses sight of his mom and wanders off. It’s the start of a sleepless night between confusion and enthusiasm.

In this adventure, which takes the child from the city to the forest and awakens his senses, one emotion follows another: we’re scared with him, and we laugh too. As the setting sun sublimates the landscape, seeming to suspend time and stop the wild animals in their tracks, beauty prevails over worry. Left on his own, Gaspard reveals himself. As he takes off his disguise, he gradually discovers himself. At dawn, at last, he hears a familiar voice. What a joy for little Gaspard, who is now not quite the same: he’s grown up.

Publication: October 2025

Awards:

⭐ 2025, Illustrators Exhibition organized by Bologna Children’s Book Fair (winner)

Florian Pigé

A graduate of the Émile Cohl school in Lyon (France), Florian Pigé developed a passion for children’s literature. Since then, in his creative work, he has focused on plot-revealing details, simplicity of form and research into materials. In 2015, HongFei published Tout là-Haut (All the way up there), his first picture book as an illustrator (text by Morgane de Cadier). Other titles (Chut!, Les Incos Award 2019; Le Secret du loup), followed. They led him to break new ground, which he loves more than anything. With his trilogy Si petit (So tiny), Si gourmand (Always hungry) and Si curieux (So curious), he opened the doors to writing, a new mode of expression that he appreciates and implements in Bulle d’été (Summer bubble), a picture book entirely and masterfully created with colored pencils, and in which Florian puts a lot of himself.

In 2019, the album Chut ! (Shhh!), text by Morgane de Cadier, won LES INCOS AWARD, CP category.

In 2019, the picture book Si petit (So tiny) was chosen as part of the PREMIÈRES PAGES scheme by the Lot département and CAF to be offered to all children born or adopted there in 2019.

In 2020, the Bulle d’été (Summer Bubble) album was awarded the PRIX LANDERNEAU in the picture book category.

Outraged, rebellious, free – that was Gisèle Halimi from her earliest childhood! Represented here by a strikingly modern heroine, this ball of energy and willpower takes us on a journey with her, through a dozen sketches, each divided into three pages, to tackle the themes of injustice, choice, consent, knowledge, studies, the female condition…

Backed by modern, lively graphics and narration, this comic book, which combines the skills and talents of Sandrine Bonini and Annick Cojean, is a must-have for everyone!

A comic book version for 8/10 year-olds, in the spirit of Pénélope Bagieu’s famous Culottées!

A universal theme, an engaging and powerful heroine; stories inspired by the life of Gisèle Halimi that will speak to today’s pre-teens.

WHO IS GISÈLE HALIMI?

French-Tunisian, Gisèle Halimi was a lawyer, feminist activist and politician. Throughout her life, she fought for women’s rights. She is the author of numerous books, including La Cause des femmes (Grasset, 1974), Avocate irrespectueuse (Plon, 2002), La Kahina (Plon, 2006) and Une farouche liberté (with Annick Cojean, Grasset, 2020).

SANDRINE BONINI (author)

A graduate of the Arts décoratifs de Paris, Sandrine Bonini has worked in animated film before writing or illustrating picture books, novels and comics.

ANNICK COJEAN (illustrator) 

A leading reporter at Le Monde and winner of the Prix Albert Londres, Annick Cojean is the author of several books published by Grasset, including, with Gisèle Halimi, Une farouche liberté (2020) – huge successes translated abroad and available in Livre de poche in a pocket book format.

How Alex, the little mouse did not want to go to sleep.

This is Alex. He is still a very little mouse. There are many things that he LIKES: his mom, buttered toast, gummy bears, excavators and dinosaurs, playing with toy cars, looking at pictures in new books, rhyming, and monkeying around. And there are many more things that he DOESN’T LIKE!

Elena Bulay

Elena Bulay is an artist and illustrator based in Moscow. She graduated from the Moscow State University of Printing Arts as a graphic artist and later followed the illustration course at the British Higher School of Art and Design. Elena illustrates books and magazines and also creates product illustration. She collaborates with publishing houses, advertising agencies, magazines and more.

Elena was among the winners of the Illustrators Exhibition organized by Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2021 and 2022. In 2025, Elena was among the finalists with the illustrations from her picture book Harold the snail. Her non-fiction The Dog Book was published in 11 languages.

A poetic celebration of a being’s first discoveries as he awakens to the world, beautifully realized in gouache by Morgane de Cadier.

Through the eyes of a character on the verge of existence, every element of nature – trees, sky, birds – becomes a wonder to be explored, and every sensation, from the freshness of grass to the exhilaration of running, is filled with the intensity of beginnings. This text, imbued with poetry and sensitivity, invites us to reconnect with the innocence and curiosity of our first steps.

This enchanting tale plunges the reader into a sensory and emotional adventure, ideal for children and adults alike, looking for a gentle way to reflect on the passage of time. First Day awakens in everyone a taste for discovery, and reminds us of the beauty of every first time. A work to give and share, to reconnect with the essential: wonder.

Morgane de Cadier’s first collaboration with Grasset-Jeunesse, vibrant and joyful, poetic and luminous!

Publication: March 2025

Morgane de Cadier

After training in academic drawing at the Ecole Emile Cohl (Lyon), Morgane de Cadier turned to her first passion: storytelling. Working mainly in gouache, she draws much of her inspiration from her plein air notebooks, the style of which can be seen in her paintings. As author, she has published several books with HongFei Cultures (several picture books in collaboration with Florian Pigé), one of chich (Shhh! / Chut!) has received the prestigious Les Incos Award.

The button was there. Maybe since one hour.

Maybe since one day. Maybe since ever.

A group of friends find themselves in front of a very strange button. While Fox, Squirrell and Rabbit are curious and would love to press it, a discussion starts as Bear, Owl and Hen are absolutely against it: what would pressing it lead to? Maybe it’s the button of distruction… But what if it’s the button of good things, indeed? At the end it’s just a button…But pressing it could be too dangerous…

While the discussion develops in the group, the reader is guided page by page through funny, bizarre assumptions and beautiful colours until at the very end…someone PRESSES THE BUTTON and..the end will bring surprise and laughs.

Publication: July 2025

Rights sold: Czech language

Matilde Tacchini (author & illustrator)

Matilde Tacchini is an art director, illustrator and author for children. At primary school she became passionate about art and dreamed of a future as a madonnara. At the age of 19, she gave up chalks and dedicated herself to a degree in Art Direction at NABA. After 15 years of successful advertising campaigns, she opened a creative studio in Piacenza, where in addition to graphic design she devoted herself to literature for children, her true passion. Convinced that, in the end, creativity is one thing.

Sometimes It Happens Like This. You Wake Up And You Already Know Where You Have To Go.

It is the first day of school: a father accompanies his son to the entrance, and greets him with a story that parallels school and the life of a sailor… and that of all of us. In presenting the different situations that we find ourselves living even – and especially – without having planned or chosen them, we find the sense of possibility: the importance of living to the full what life offers us, just like at school.

Sometimes you go straight on your way

But then you make unexpected encounters

Sometimes you leave with someone instead

But you come back alone.

And you’re happy that way too.

And then there are those times as frightening as storms…

A gentle, enveloping rhythm that reassures as, wearing the protagonist’s yellow mackintosh, we gently sail with him through the sea of life.

Publication: May 2025

Francesca Di Vito (author & illustrator)

An illustrator and graphic designer, she has gained various work experiences in Italy and abroad in the field of Graphic Design, before specialising in illustration, a field in which her passion for drawing and writing finds full expression. She conducts readings and art workshops for children at schools, bookshops and libraries.  She collaborates with publishing houses, fashion brands and game companies.  She illustrated the book Il Rinotigronte (Sabìr Editore, 2024).

Unknown stories of men and women who changed the world.

Take for example the streets of our cities. Street names are a dedication to people who have distinguished themselves throughout history, our way of recognising their merit and importance: artists, war heroes, sportsmen, partisans, engineers, architects… street after street, all the professional categories are celebrated. All except one.

In the streets, in the squares, in the gardens echoes the oblivion of those who contributed to the progress of our society. Men and women capable of great things: they unravelled the mystery of the cryptometabolia of cave-dwelling beetles, allowed millions of Italian immigrants in America to taste the flavour of a ripe fig and inspired Hollywood colossals. For the sake of knowledge, they stuck to apple trees, travelled in space and had their blood sucked by vampires. Yet, society has marginalised them and even denied them a suburban alleyway. Now, however, the time has come to say enough. To fight this professional injustice, to raise their (our) heads and shout their (our) sacrosanct value to the world.

The book you are about to read wants to erase this outrageous silence forever and recount, once and for all, the exploits of these heroes of culture.

Yes, precisely them, the entomologists.

This book tells glorious and incredible ‘stories of ordinary entomology’.

Publication: April 2025

What makes a day perfect?

There are so many little things that make an ordinary day … a special day. Or perhaps it is our own view, that makes “simply” ordinary days unique? And a wonderful day for someone, will it also be a wonderful day for someone else?

The little protagonist of this entertaining book shows us precisely that it is the point of view, very often, that determines more or less good days…And, above all, she urges us to look at the everyday by embracing a different, particularly different perspective: that of children!

Between mud baths, trips to the zoo and visits to relatives, the book plays with points of view and the narrative contrast between text and illustrations, in an irresistible succession of colors and must-see moments.

Publication: March 2025

Loredana Erbetta (author)

A graduate in Animation Cinema from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, she specialized in production and writing for children and young people. Loredana works as producer, screenwriter and assistant director for the Milan studio Vallaround Creative Contents and is involved in training in the field of audiovisual and illustrated books, offering courses and workshops for both children and adults. She has also been involved in educational services for 20 years in collaboration with associations, public and private entities. Loredana lives in the countryside and has three garden geese for neighbors. She loves chocolate, travel, bad movies, and cats.

Anna Spreafico (illustrator)

Anna Spreafico is a freelance illustrator who graduated with honors from the IED in Milan. In 2021 she was selected in Carthusia’s Silentbook contest with the book Per tutta una vita, dedicated to grandparents. In 2023 she founded together with Lorenzo Duina an illustration studio based in Milan: Daruma.lab, and was selected by the Shanghai Children’s Bookfair. In parallel to her two-dimensional illustration, she customizes by hand products for brands, design and recycled objects in a variety of materials, although her primary passion remains books and stories.

“A playful, poetic hide-and-seek from the seashore to the shores of the imagination.”

On the beach, a child discovers a goldfish that seems to be inviting him to join it in the water. The child gladly accepts the invitation, but the fish has disappeared. What follows is a playful and poetic hide-and-seek from the seashore to the shores of the imagination. We come across a pair of whales, multicolored fish, a lost island, a tropical forest and… a bathroom.

Valérie Michel takes us on an aquatic journey where sensations are the order of the day and the pleasure of swimming is contagious.

Valérie Michel (author)

Valérie Michel was born in Paris in 1978. After graduating from ENSAD in textile design, she worked as a home stylist. However, increasingly interested in drawing and driven by a desire to tell stories, she abandoned this path in 2013 to become a full-time illustrator. Now based by the sea, Valérie works mainly for children’s publishing and advertising.

Mmmh! Did you smell that? It’s a flower! It’s small, it’s discreet and it’s named after a color. It’s violet! Tap its seeds to open them and help the insects spread them around the garden. Move the pages of the book to make the butterfly  fly. Violet flowers make delicious sweets. Can you make some?

Clémence Sabbagh poetically invites us to stop for a moment and smell a flower, observe it and discover it. And on closer inspection, there’s a wonderful buzz of life all around. Laura Kientzler accompanies this floral exploration with her soft, cheerful illustrations.

This sixth volume in the Garden Colors (Couleur jardin) series tackles a new aspect of nature: the life of a flower and its ecosystem. And to continue the discovery, an activity adapted for toddlers is proposed at the end of the book.

Garden Colors, a series that celebrates biodiversity in the garden in all its colors.

Clémence Sabbagh (author)

Clémence Sabbagh was born in Paris. One day, she decided to head south: since then, she’s seen life in pink in Toulouse. From museums to children’s magazines, games and multimedia, Clémence has built her career around one fixed idea: awakening children’s curiosity. A jack-of-all-trades, she is constantly taking on new challenges (illustration, photography, video, writing…) to pass on to children her taste for words and images.

Laura Kientzler (illustrator)

Born on a late summer’s evening, Laura Kientzler grew up in Lorraine, amidst the forests of the Vosges and the fields of the Meuse. Later she made her way to the École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine in Épinal, then over the hills to the École des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg (now known as HEAR). Since 2014, she has been working as a freelance illustrator in a studio near an island. She also makes images for the press for young and old, and sometimes meets children around art workshops.

A young boy discovers a very old book in his grandmother’s library. Curious, he opens it and discovers dried leaves and petals. His grandmother explains to him that each of these plants has witnessed major milestones in her life, her parents’ lives, and then his own. Some pages are still blank at the end of the book:

“Grandma, let’s go on, there are still lots of pages! But some of them are blank…

– Because there are so many leaves left to glue.

– To remember all the extraordinary days to come! ”

A sweet and joyful text, poetic illustrations, an invitation to collect leaves and flowers that bear witness to the great moments of our lives, and to insert them in a book to keep a trace and a memory.

16 special pages to create your own herbarium of memories (or inspire the reader to create one in another notebook) at the end of the picture book, simple and easy, accessible to all.

LENIA MAJOR (author) 

Lenia Major is the author of over a hundred books for young people: fantasy series (including La fille aux licornes (The girl with unicorns), published by Talents Hauts, winner of the Prix des collégiens du Touquet award and the Prix Fleur de sel award), novels for teenagers and younger readers, and picture books. In life and through her writing, she defends the animal cause, as with the multi-award-winning Caballero. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. Her endearing heroes and the rich worlds she depicts make her a fantastic storyteller… mostly with a happy ending!

LAURA GIRAUD (illustrator)

Laura grew up and lives at the top of the Savoyard mountains, with her head in the clouds and her nose in the snow. After three years studying at ENAAI in Chambéry, her relationship with images has never ceased to grow. She has published or is publishing several picture books with the publishers Alice Jeunesse, Auzou, Kilowatt, Grenouille, 400 coups, Flandronnière, Voce Verso, Le Grand Jardin (The man with the iron jaw)…

From renowned and beloved Portuguese illustrator Catarina Sobral (nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2020, 2022, and 2024) and from Brazilian–American author Victor D.O. Santos (author of the acclaimed picture book What Makes Us Human, a 2023 White Ravens book), comes a fun, funny, and possibly beautifully weird book about people’s quirks.

Have you noticed the world is full of weird people? In this book you will meet several of them. Could it be normal to be weird? If so, would it be weird to be normal? Huh . . . weird.

Author’s project

Rights sold: English (world), Italian, French (world), Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America Excluding Argentina), Catalan, Korean languages

Awards and selections:

⭐ Selected for the dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picturebooks (2025 edition)

Authors:

VICTOR D.O. SANTOS (author) is a Brazilian-American picture book author. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed picture book What Makes Us Human (a White Ravens 2023 selection already translated into 30+ languages), of My Dad, My Rock (A Kirkus Best Book of 2022), of Before I Forget (a dPICTUS Unpublished Picture Book Showcase 5 selection), of A Birthday Friend (selected for the dPICTUS Unpublished Picture Book Showcase 6 with 19 votes) and of the upcoming picture book Things I Learned From My Dog, illustrated by Dena Seiferling and coming out in Spring/Summer 2026 from Milky Way Picture Books.

Victor raises two trilingual and multicultural children in the American Midwest and talks to them only in Portuguese, which makes him look weird to some people around him. 

CATARINA SOBRAL (illustrator) is a multi-award-winning and internationally acclaimed author–illustrator. She won the 5th International Award for Illustration at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the 2023 Portuguese National Illustration Award, and has been nominated several times to the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). Her books, translated into tens of languages, have been selected three times for the White Ravens catalog. Catarina lives in a house owned by two cats – Mooncake and Eggs – who supervise her work, sleep, and other activities. 

I was very lucky to grow up between two sisters, two role models, and I sometimes wanted to be one and sometimes the other. The three of us shared many things: the same haircut, a passion for outdoor games and doll’s clothes. But one day, I had to leave the garden and Mirabelle’s sweets behind to follow Julie to school. What can you do when you’re dreaming of a dog’s life?

Strong points

-Mélodie Baschet’s sensitive writing offers a tender, funny album about siblings and sisterhood.

-The author-illustrator’s bright, meticulous gouache illustrations aptly depict the important place of pets in the home, as integral members of the family.

-A moral full of gentleness: growing up is above all a matter of searching, groping, trying to be like others… to finally build and become oneself.

MÉLODIE BASCHET (author & illustrator) graduated from the furniture section of the Arts Décoratifs de Paris, where she studied both image and volume. Since then, her work has always resonated with nature. In her compositions, fauna, flora and people enter into communion. Her heroes are usually animals. In this way, each new project is an opportunity for her to remind us that life is a fragile balance. She works freelance for fashion, home, garden and the environment. Since 2016, she has illustrated several children’s albums for Marcel & Joachim, Albin Michel Jeunesse, A2mimo and Mango Éditions. Fosfore et les contes des sages, published by Seuil Jeunesse in 2022, won the Prix du Public du Livre Audio Francophone 2023, organized by Plume de Paon and the Institut français. Sœurs is her second album published by L’Étagère du bas, following La Vieille Ourse, released in 2021 (text by Amélie Billon). She lives in Montreuil, near Paris.

A very small family lives peacefully and quietly together: a man, a lady and a cat. Until suddenly one day the door slams open and a little monster enters their lives! But what do you do with a monster? What does it eat? Why is it shouting? Where does it want to sleep? A charming picture book for little monsters and their big, sometimes dull adults, about how chaotic a process building a family can be … and ultimately: how lovely and hug-inducing!