In All Year Round (originally published in 2012 as La ronde des mois), a young child offers a poetic ode to the pleasures of the seasons. Like a “giant,” he tromps through January’s winter-white forest on snowshoes. Confetti rains down in March as the birthday boy blows out candles. In June, he zips around on his green tricycle “race car” as fast as his cherubically chubby legs can carry him. Donning a clown’s nose and hiding behind a pumpkin, he enjoys October’s spooky festivities.

Each month’s succinct free-verse poem rings with rich sensory experiences children will relate to, like the shivery cold taste of snowflakes or the whistling sound of a fall wind “singing a nursery rhyme.” Some of the stanzas have a riddle-like quality, such as when the boy describes the weightlessness he experiences while swimming: “I am so light I can fly, but I have no wings.”

Emilie Leduc was shortlisted for a 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award for her softly focused, retro-tinged pencil-colour illustrations. With his smiling, oblong face and strip of floppy bangs in the middle of his forehead, the little boy resembles a contemporary Campbell’s Soup kid. In every scene, readers will also spot the child’s faithful feline companion, Mademoiselle Clementine, as she bats at falling leaves, hides under a carpet, and sulks like a bedraggled sourpuss after a splash from the pool. The colour palette changes
in harmony with the seasons: June’s backdrop a fresh, minty green, and August’s a beach sunset radiantly captured in luminescent
yellow and orange.

This cheery, winsome picture book will inspire a calendar year’s worth of exploration and appreciation for all that each season brings.