Lafrance, Marie 1955-

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Lafrance, Marie 1955-

Personal

Born 1955, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; married; husband a musician; children: Béatrice. Education: Attended Cégep du Vieux-Montréal and Studio Graff.

Addresses

Office—4398 boulevard St-Laurent, Studio 303, Montreal, Quebec H2W 1Z5, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Artist. Freelance illustrator; has also worked as a silkscreen printmaker.

Member

Association des Illustrateurs et Illustratrices du Québec (member of board).

Awards, Honors

Governor General's Award nomination, and Alcuin Society Design Award citation, both for La Diablesse and the Baby by Ricardo Keens-Douglas; Louis J. Battan Author's Award shortlist, and Information Book Award shortlist, both 2007, both for Who Likes the Wind? by Etta Kaner.

Illustrator

Madeleine Bouchet, Le comment et le pourquoi, Madibou (Notre-Dame-de-Ham, Quebec, Canada), 1982.

(With Philippe Germain) James Rousselle, Huguette Lachapelle, and Michel Monette, À lire, Centre Educatif et Culturel (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1988.

Mimi Legault, Le club des moucs-moucs, P. Tisseyre (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1988.

Joceline Sanschagrin, Le prince Mathieu charmant, Chouette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1990, translation by Penelope Cowie published as Matthew, Prince Charming, 1990.

Nadia Ghalem, La rose des sables, Hurtubise HMH (LaSalle, Quebec, Canada), 1993.

Ricardo Keens-Douglas, La Diablesse and the Baby: A Caribbean Folktale, Annick Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Anne Louise MacDonald, Nanny-Mac's Cat, Ragweed Press (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada), 1994.

Isabelle Clerc, Mandarine, Éditions Héritage (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 1995.

Lynette Comissiong, Mind Me Good Now!, Annick Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

Ricardo Keens-Douglas, The Miss Meow Pageant, Annick Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Gilles Tibo, Le petit musicien, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2001.

Gilles Tibo, Le grand magicien, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2002.

Angèle Delaunois, Le grand voyage de monsieur Caca, Les 400 Coups (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2003, bilingual English/Spanish edition translated by Daniel Zolinsky published as The Long Journey of Mister Poop/El gran viaje del Señor Caca, Cinco Puntos Press (El Paso, TX), 2007.

Gilles Tibo, Émilie pleine de jouets, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2003.

Paule Brière, La poupée de Noël, Les 400 Coups (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2003.

Marie-Danielle Croteau, Réglisse solaire, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2004.

(With Robert Dolbec and Céline Malépart) Nicole Durand-Lutzy, Laisse-moi te raconter, Fides-Médiaspaul (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2004.

Anique Poitras, La fée des bonbons, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2005.

Marie-Danielle Croteau, Gouttes d'ocean, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2005.

Lionel Daunais, Le petit chien de laine, Montagne secrète (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2005.

Marie-Danielle Croteau, Le secret du carnet bleu, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2006.

A.S. Gadot, The First Gift, Kar-Ben Publishing (Minneapolis, MN), 2006.

Etta Kaner, Who Likes the Wind? ("Exploring the Elements" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Etta Kaner, Who Likes the Snow? ("Exploring the Elements" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Etta Kaner, Who Likes the Sun? ("Exploring the Elements" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Etta Kaner, Who Likes the Rain? ("Exploring the Elements" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Carmen Campagne, Dors mon petit, dors, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2007.

Roger Poupart, Edgar-la-bagarre, Soulières (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2007.

Mireille Levert, Le sorcier amoureux, Dominique et Cie. (Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada), 2007, translation published as A Wizard in Love, Tundra Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2009.

Carmen Campagne, Les douze jours de Noël, Secret Mountain (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2007.

Carmen Campagne, Nous sommes les musiciens!, Secret Mountain (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2007.

Also illustrator of textbooks, magazines, book covers, and posters.

Sidelights

A former silk-screen printmaker, Marie Lafrance has illustrated numerous children's books that have been published in the United States and Canada. One of her illustration projects, Mind Me Good Now!, is a Caribbean version of "Hansel and Gretel" by Lynette Comissiong. The book centers on the misadventures of Dalby and Tina, two siblings who disobey their mother and cross a forbidden river, only to encounter Mama Zee, a seemingly gentle old woman who turns out to be an evil creature known as a cocoya. According to Janet McNaughton, writing in Quill & Quire, "Lafrance's illustrations are tropically lush and just surreal enough to suggest magic from the very first page." The First Gift, a work pairing Lafrance's art and a text by A.S. Gadot, examines naming customs around the world. A Publishers Weekly critic complimented the book's illustrations, stating that the "creamy acrylic paintings feature fluid, elongated characters and dreamlike background scenes with folk-art-style motifs." In Booklist Ilene Cooper similarly noted of The First Gift that Lafrance's "characters have the look of carved wooden figures."

Lafrance has collaborated with Etta Kaner on a series of early readers in the "Exploring the Elements" series; these works employ a lift-the-flap format to provide young readers with basic information about weather phenomena. Quill & Quire reviewer Philipp Sheppard praised Lafrance's artwork for series installment Who Likes the Wind?, stating that "the overall impression of each double-paged spread is dynamic," while Carolyn Phelan commented in Booklist that the "acrylic paintings offer attractive scenes of children at play as well as good visual explanations." Reviewing Who Likes the Snow? in the Canadian Review of Materials, Cheryl Archer observed that "the book flows smoothly in a visual sense," and a Kirkus Reviews writer stated of Who Likes the Rain? that Lafrance's "simply rendered groups of illustrations behind the gatefolds work to help children understand the scientific answers" presented in Kaner's text.

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Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of Mind Me Good Now!, p. 818; April 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Who Likes the Wind?, p. 67; October 1, 2006, Ilene Cooper, review of The First Gift, p. 64; March 1, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of Who Likes the Sun?, p. 86; January 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Who Likes the Rain?, p. 66.

Canadian Review of Materials, December 8, 2006, Cheryl Archer, review of Who Likes the Snow?

Horn Book, July-August, 2006, Betty Carter, review of Who Likes the Wind?, p. 463.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2007, review of Who Likes the Rain?

Publishers Weekly, July 31, 2006, review of The First Gift, p. 78.

Quill & Quire, September, 1997, Janet McNaughton, review of Mind Me Good Now!; March, 2006, Philipp Sheppard, review of Who Likes the Wind?

Resource Links, July-April, 2006, Suzanne Finkelstein, review of Who Likes the Wind?, p. 30; February, 2007, Tanya Boudreau, review of Who Likes the Snow?, p. 23; June, 2007, Tanya Boudreau, review of Who Likes the Sun?, p. 21.

School Library Journal, December, 2006, Mary Hazelton, review of Who Likes the Snow?, p. 124.