Claudette

Helene Magisson, Claudette, Red Paper Kite Publishing, October 2020, 40 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780648450238

Claudette is a story about a man called Loutka ‘who was known for doing one thing’. He is a Puppet Designer & Maker. Often referred to as a Puppeteer – someone who designs, creates and dresses puppets and uses them to stage a live performance. Loutka, the puppeteer makes all varieties of puppets He works his ‘magic’ in a ‘cosy workshop at the end of the street’. His puppets never disappoint him as they ‘quivered into motion’ except for one particular puppet creation – named Claudette. She is like no other puppet and no matter how he tries he is unable to synchronise her body using the strings he attaches to her body. Frustrated and despondent he places Claudette on a shelf in his workshop and promptly forgets about her. Loutka continues with his work and creates a fairy, a princess, a handsome captain, and still Claudette remains on the shelf unable to be fixed by the puppeteer.

Unexpectedly ‘a gust of wind rushed into the workshop’ and blows Claudette around three times and carries her away, as if by magic – and indeed Claudette wonders herself if there is some form of magic at play. Travelling on her ‘kite sail’ she flies up into the sky and she sees the moon and looks down into the ocean below – feeling both exhilarated and slightly apprehensive.

Eventually the ‘magic wind’ returns her to the windowsill of Loutka’s ‘cosy workshop’ and she tells him of her adventures and gives him her collection of treasures from the ‘wind, the waves and the starry sky’. With each item of her treasure trove Claudette tells Loutka a wondrous tale that both excites him and interests him, but above all inspires him to be creative and adventurous with his own ‘art making’.

Claudette is a wonderful story of possibilities and perhaps even a little magic. Loutka the puppeteer is a gifted ‘maker of puppets’ but he believes as do the townsfolk that he is only ‘good at one thing’ and that is making puppets in his warm and safe workshop. Until Claudette. She is uncoordinated and does not respond to her attached strings in the usual way. Loutka is depicted as a person who becomes quickly despondent when things do not go according to plan and chooses to discard the ‘rickety puzzle’ called Claudette and relegate her to ‘life’ on his workroom shelf. It appears that Loutka is single minded and lacks the ability to look beyond the norm.

Claudette is the opposite. She yearns for travel, and adventure and although Loutka attempts to ‘dampen her enthusiasm’ to explore the world she remains steadfast and open to all possibilities. And so as if by magic she is carried by the ‘wind’, perhaps a metaphor for new opportunities, and sees things that she could only ever of dreamt of – sometimes awestruck and sometimes feeling a little overwhelmed, ‘strange’ or finding some of them even ‘a little frightening’.

Returning to Loutka (her maker, her ‘father’) and her ‘home’ in the workshop, she shares her stories and experiences, and brings back mementoes of her travels just as any traveller does when they return to their loved ones. Her enthusiasm for her journey becomes the catalyst by which Loutka’s imagination and creativity is sparked and fuelled. Not only do Claudette’s travels enrich her as a person they also provide another ‘lens’ through which Loutka is able to view the world.

The text in Claudette is minimal and yet succinct. The richness of ‘narrative’ conveyed through the illustrations complements the text perfectly.

The highlighting of one or two words or phrases in red emphasises the key ideas in the story to good effect.

The use of repetition of the following allows emergent readers to join in and ‘read’ with the reader and to predict what the added ingredient will be as the story of Claudette and Loutka unfolds. These ingredients also serve to reinforce the idea that there may be ‘magic at play’.

Loutka got to work.

Linen string. Nylon string, glue, paper, scissors … and Pixie dust, and stardust, and tinder box, and silver sparkles’ and finally ‘a magic spell’.

Some finetuning to the strings and clickety clop!

A puppet quivered into motion.

The use of ‘clickety clop’ is also appealing for early readers as it provides the opportunity for children to chant the words altogether, use a musical instrument such as wooden sticks, a hammer tapping on a nail, or the heels of shoes on a table.

Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable picture book suitable for children 5-8 years.

Reviewed by Julie Deane