The song of Rest

Non-final cover and inner pages

Mom has been at Chant du Repos for three months. That’s what Dad told me. He seems unhappy. Little by little, his sadness has spread and covered him like a raincoat. And the same thing happened to me. We don’t really talk to each other anymore. One day, on my way home from school, I hear a woman talking about Chant du Repos and ask her how to get there. She points to a large gate with two huge crows perched on it. They explain to me that to get in, I have to sing. How can I do that with this cloak tied so tightly around me?

Strong points:

– A poetic picture book that tackles the subject of grief with great accuracy and sensitivity.

– With sensitivity and skill, the author plays with the homonymy of “chant” (song) and “champs” (fields) to offer a gentle and luminous vision of death: both a transformation into a work of art and a state of rest.

– The illustrations in Indian ink and watercolor are delicate and tender, the colors soft and comforting.

Author & Illustrator

Fanny Chartres (author)

Fanny Chartres was born in 1980 in Châteaubriant. After studying librarianship, she worked as an international volunteer in Romania. She left for eighteen months but ended up spending ten years in Bucharest. It was in this city that she wrote Strada Zambila, her first young adult novel. Since returning to Paris in 2016, she has devoted her time to writing. A dreamer but always focused on the world around her, she composes novels inspired by the real and imaginary lives that come her way. Her characters are somewhat reminiscent of The Incredibles: endearing and funny superheroes catapulted into the strange galaxy of adolescence. She has already written eight children’s novels, published by L’école des loisirs and Seuil Jeunesse. Le Chant du repos is her first album to be published by L’Étagère du bas.

Sara Gréselle (illustrator)

Sara Gréselle is an author and illustrator who trained in applied arts at ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres in Paris. After experimenting with several different paths, she turned her attention to creating illustrated books in 2017. She draws on her dreams and childhood memories as material for her books. Winner of the “Découverte” illustration grant from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, her images, which border on magical realism, gained recognition with the 2021 release of the album Bastien, ours de la nuit, written by Ludovic Flamant and published by Versant Sud Jeunesse. She also writes and illustrates poetry for Esperluète. She lives in Brussels. At L’Étagère du bas, she has already illustrated La Balade du panda (text by Ludovic Flamant), published in 2025.