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Children's Fiction Recycling & Green Living

The Wrench

by (author) Elise Gravel

translated by Charles Simard

Publisher
Orca Book Publishers
Initial publish date
Jun 2020
Category
Recycling & Green Living, Humorous Stories, Peer Pressure
Recommended Age
3 to 5
Recommended Grade
p to k
Recommended Reading age
3 to 5
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459824515
    Publish Date
    Jun 2020
    List Price
    $0.99
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781459824492
    Publish Date
    Oct 2020
    List Price
    $19.95
  • Downloadable audio file

    ISBN
    9781459827929
    Publish Date
    Jun 2020
    List Price
    $9.99

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Bob’s tricycle is broken and he needs a wrench to fix it.

He ventures out to buy one at the Megamart, where slick salesman, Mr. Mart, convinces Bob that it’s not a wrench he needs, but a fridge hat…singing pajamas…a screaming machine! Bob spends all his money on things that he really doesn’t need and before he knows it has no money and no wrench.

Lively illustrations and quirky hand-lettering make The Wrench a delight to read while also conveying an important message about consumerism and excess.

About the authors

ELISE GRAVEL a écrit et illustré une trentaine d’albums jeunesse. L’auteure use d’un humour mordant pour exprimer ses vues et éveiller le sens critique de ses jeunes lecteurs. En 2022, Elise a remporté le prix Vicky Metclaf, qui souligne le travail d’un auteur ou d’une auteure jeunesse. Elle a également reçu le prix du Gouverneur général en 2012 dans la catégorie illustrations pour son livre La clé à molette, de même que le prix Droits et Libertés et des droits de la jeunesse.

 

 

ELISE GRAVEL has won a Governor General's Award for illustration, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, the Rights and Freedoms Award from the Quebec Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, two Applied Arts Awards and a Grafika Award. She also was short-listed for Mr. Christie's Book Award. She has written and illustrated over 30 books for children in both French and English including Not Me (Pas moi), Everybody! (Tout le monde! and It's My Body! (C'est mon corps!). Elise lives in Montreal, Quebec.

 

Elise Gravel's profile page

Charles Simard is a Québécois editor and translator from Montréal, also known as Tiohtià:ke and Mooniyaang. He works as poetry, fiction, and non-fiction editor for Talonbooks in Vancouver on Coast Salish Territory. His published work includes the essay Littérature, analyse et forme: Herbert, Tolkien, Borges, Eco (EUE, 2010) and a number of translations for Orca Book Publishers, including Elise Gravel’s The Wrench and Myriam Daguzan Bernier’s dictionary of sexuality, Naked. As a lexicographer, he has collaborated on the making of the popular linguistic suite Antidote in its bilingual editions. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in comparative literature from Université de Montréal and was a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York’s Graduate
Center. His doctoral and postdoctoral publications focused on the poetics of avant-garde composer and writer John Cage. He lives in Montréal, Québec.

Charles Simard's profile page

Awards

  • Commended, BC Books for BC Schools
  • Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens

Editorial Reviews

“Colorful and comical.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Parents and teachers hoping to teach their children to be less acquisitive now have another tool in their belt (a new one, yes, but a good one). Recommended.”

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

“Gravel uses humor and a fun story to bring up an important lesson for parents and their kids.”

Sal's Fiction Addiction

“Lighthearted…Hip [and] colorful.”

Publishers Weekly

“Although Bob gets bonked on the noggin, Gravel does not do so to her young readers. The gentle anticonsumerism message is embedded in an entertaining story…An excellent primer on the value of time and money before the allowance years hit.”

Quill & Quire

“[Will] bring lots of laughs to readers.”

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