AVAILABLE IN MARCH 2026!
Preorder this book by clicking here! Or by asking your favourite indie bookstore  🙂

AVAILABLE IN MARCH 2026!
Preorder this book by clicking here! Or by asking your favourite indie bookstore  🙂

It’s Fern’s birthday, and all she wants is a metal detector.

Instead, she gets clothes and a mysterious long box that turns out to be a gardening tool from her neighbor, Madame Musette, with a note about coming over to pull weeds. Sigh. Fern and her friend Newt lost her older sister Nicole’s jewelry box when they buried it at the beach, playing pirates. If they can just find it before Nicole returns from camp, they’ll be in the clear. But the quest is impossible without a metal detector!

Fern and Newt need to earn the money to buy one themselves. Luckily, Madame Musette offers Fern five cents for every root pulled and Newt agrees to help too. The money adds up—but very slowly—until the friends discover that Madame Musette will pay even more for butterfly eggs so she can let them hatch safely before releasing them outside. With the summer slipping away and Nicole due home at any minute, will the friends be able to earn enough for a metal detector and find the treasure before it’s too late?

Fern and Newt and the Lost Loot
Orca Book, March 2026
Text Mireille Messier
Illustrations Catarina Oliviera
Orca Echos series (illustrated early chapter books)
96 pages
Readers 6-8

ISBN : 9781459841567
Soft cover
$9.95

Themes:

life cycle of Monarch butterflies, animal habitat, friendship, collaboration, problem solving, early chapter book, humour, free play

Preorder this book by clicking here! Or by asking your favourite indie bookstore  🙂

Also available in French / Également disponible en français!

Nevin and his grandpa are heading to the park on a spring day, and Grandpa checks with Nevin about what shoes to wear.

Should he wear boots? NO! Sandals? NO! Slippers? NO! Running shoes? YES! YES! YES! Throughout the book, Grandpa lets Nevin choose which direction to walk in, what to play on at the park and, finally, what flowers to bring home for Nana. Nevin has fun getting to choose for himself, and he shows Grandpa that he might be little, but he knows a lot.

Nevin Knows
Orca Book Publisher, February 2025
Story by Mireille Messier
Illustrations by Elena Comte
32 pages

ISBN: 978-1-4598-3684-6
Hardcover
$21.95

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Join Vivi & Simon as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of the Big Nickel Cup. Was the coveted hockey trophy stolen by a rival team? Their grandmother’s strange new boyfriend? Or maybe it was aliens?

Follow our intrepid gumshoes as they solve a third mystery, this time in the streets of Sudbury.

Written by Mireille Messier
Les éditions David, 2024
168 pages
9 & up
$16.95
ISBN: 978-2898-660177

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Also available:

During a visit to the mysterious castle of Casa Loma, Vivi and Simon find an old miniature camera. Could this little gem have belonged to a spy? Only the clues in the salvaged photos will be able to tell the tale.

And so begins a story that will take the young reader on an extraordinary urban mystery through the streets of Toronto.

The second book in the brand new L.O.U.P.E. series of mini mysteries and adventures.

Written by Mireille Messier
Éditions David, 2024
174 pages
8 & up
$16.95
ISBN: 978-2-895-979845

Only available in French (for now… ;-))

Click here to order a copy of this book. Or visit your favourite french indie book store!

Also available :

Discover Canada’s national capital in this comic urban safari starring Viviane & Simon, a young franco-ontarian brother and sister sleuthing team, and their mysterious TWIGA.

The first chapter book in the brand new L.O.U.P.E. series of mini mysteries and adventures.

Written by Mireille Messier
Éditions David, 2024
118 pages
For readers 8 & up
$16.95
ISBN: 978-2-895979838

Only available in French (for now… ;-))

Click here to order a copy. Or visit your favourite french indie children’s bookstore.

Also available:

Many moons ago, in a tiny, thatched cottage at the edge of the woods,lived two children named Isaura and Arlo with their hedgehog, Crispin. When their beloved pet becomes ill, Isaura suggests that they seek the magical healing

power of gnomes. Convinced this will heal it, the children set off into the woods with humble offerings, hoping to attract the gnomes. The trick does not seem to work, however, and gnomes are nowhere to be seen despite the children’s good intentions.

The Magic Cap
Milky Way Picture Books, May 2023
Story Mireille Messier
Illustrations Charlotte Parent
48 pages

ISBN : 9781990252211
Hardcover
$23.99 (CAD) / $18.99 (USD)

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Now available in spanish and catalan!

Italian version available soon!

Based on the incredible life of the pioneering, feminist and queer artist Rosa Bonheur, this charming story depicts Rosa’s early years and her drive to fight for her dreams.

Rosa Bonheur loved to draw animals. She was good at it too! Unfortunately, in nineteenth-century France, girls were not allowed to be artists. But Rosa didn’t let that stop her. In this fictionalized account of her early life in Paris, Rosa studies art at home, bringing a menagerie of animals into the apartment to study up close. When she is kicked out of the horse market for sneaking in wearing boys clothing, Rosa must think creatively to challenge the rules in pursuit of her dream of becoming a world-class realist painter and artist.

No Horses in the House!: The Audacious Life of Artist Rosa Bonheur
Orca Book Publisher, March 2023
Story by Mireille Messier
Illustrations by Anna Bron
32 pages

ISBN: 9781459833524
Hardcover
$21.95

You can order this book by clicking here!