Antonin Louchard

Antonin Louchard is the author and illustrator of wordless picture book 'Lttle Star'. The setting is pretty clear thanks to the art of the first two page spreads. An achored ship by a light house, where under the water there is a starfish close by the aanchor. I like how Louchard shows a water current sweep up the anchor. This shows that that current was strong enough to lift the starfish upwards to the surface of the sea where it is caught by waves and floated to a beach. The starfish is found by a child who places the starfish on their hair when a seagull swoops downa nd santches the starfish. This is where Louchard lost me, as the seagull flies out in to space. The space part did not seem random; i actually enjoyed the change of pace. What did confuse me was that the seagull left the star out in space amongst other stars. Then the shooting star falls back to earth into the ocean next to the ship's anchor. After looking the book over a couple more times I still did not understand the plot. Then I found a poem Louchard added on a page before the story starts. It seems this poem by Hubert Michel is the inpiration for Louchard's picture book. The poem made the story have more sense to it. I know wordless picture books are supposed to be open in how we see it, but it jutst left me confused. I am sure there are others who will get something out of the star's adventure. But personally, I think having to read the inspiration of a wordless picture book defeats the purpose of getting the story across.… (meer)