Eon: My Pet Tardigrade

Written by Cybèle Young

Illustrated by Cybèle Young and Nell Jocelyn

Tundra Books

978-1-77488-041-8

56 pp.

Ages 3–7

Releases August 11, 2026 

 

Don't be surprised if you've never seen or heard of a tardigrade. They're very tiny. Very, very tiny. At about 0.5 mm in length, they are barely visible to the naked eye. Ah, but a microscope reveals this tiny creature to a young scientist with a new tool and captures her heart.

From Eon: My Pet Tardigrade, illustrated by Cybèle Young & Nell Jocelyn, written by Cybèle Young

Once she spots the micro-animal with his two little eyes and his ambling, plodding gait, she wants to take care of him. Actually, she wants to hug him but that's impossible so she plans to make that which he might appreciate. A bed? A chair? A slide? 

From Eon: My Pet Tardigrade, illustrated by Cybèle Young & Nell Jocelyn, written by Cybèle Young

But this young scientist knows it's best to ask questions, so she researches the little guy she names Eon, and learns he's a tardigrade a.k.a. a water bear or a moss piglet. She learns of the extremes at which it can live, and the diversity of habitats it can occupy. So, she prepares a wide variety of dioramas in which to live. And when she loses sight of him—he is very small—she learns more about what a tardigrade needs and gives him an opportunity for a new life where he might have a new home that is "the most magical most-est yet." (pg. 42)

From Eon: My Pet Tardigrade, illustrated by Cybèle Young & Nell Jocelyn, written by Cybèle Young

As small as Eon, the tardigrade, is, Eon: My Pet Tardigrade tells a big story. It's a story of scientific discovery, creativity, and benevolence. It's seeing what is almost not seen and educating oneself to help guide one's actions. Cybèle Young has garnered much attention and many awards with the intensity of her simple texts and the complexity of her mixed media illustrations. With Eon, she and collaborator Nell Jocelyn will charm readers into discovery, into looking deeper and smaller, and finding ways to express creativity. They've blended pencil drawings (Cybèle Young) with paper sculptures made with Japanese papers (Cybèle Young) and a variety of western papers (Nell Jocelyn). This blending of media gives substance and texture to a story of something almost imperceptible. Because Eon is so small, young readers may have to hunt for him on the many pages, especially when he's dressed in scuba equipment, hiding among stalagmites, or basking on a cactus. The creativity of the child—or rather Cybèle Young and Nell Jocelyn—to create miniature scenes of wondrous detail and movement brings Eon, the tardigrade, from insignificant to something substantial, a star of her displays and a superstar on the planet. (Read about tardigrades in Cybèle Young's "The story behind Eon" or do your own research. It will fascinate.)

From Eon: My Pet Tardigrade, illustrated by Cybèle Young & Nell Jocelyn, written by Cybèle Young

The story of Eon: My Pet Tardigrade is as much about the child and her response to Eon as it is about learning about tardigrades. I'd never heard of tardigrades and am now excited to learn more. Teachers might love to create lessons on adaptation, habitats, life cycles, and more based on these little invertebrates, but they shouldn't limit themselves to STEM lessons. Eon: My Pet Tardigrade gives opportunities for teaching about compassion, understanding, and letting go as well. For a little guy, Eon has a lot to give.

TOTSAPALOOZA 8: Coming February 6, 2016 (Toronto)

TOTSAPALOOZA

Small Print Toronto's

festival of 

picture books, indie-bands and DIY crafts 

is coming!  

Saturday, February 6, 2016

1 - 4 p.m.

at

Revival Nightclub

783 College Street

Tickets 

(get your tickets early as this event is often sold out)

Children (0-2 years of age)      Free

Children (older than 2)           $15

Adults                                      $20

Here's what adults and young people can enjoy:

Authors presenting picture books:

Neil Pasricha

author of The Book of Awesome presents his new kids' book

Awesome is Everywhere
Puffin

Cybèle Young

Governor General's Award winner  presents her newest children's book

Some Things I’ve Lost

Groundwood Books

(Reviewed here)

Lindsay Mattick
shares part of her family history in her book
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Kevin Sylvester

author of the Neil Flambé series shares (including providing books for sale!) of April release 

Super Duper Monster Viewer 

Groundwood Books

Arts & Crafts presented by magician craftician Kalpna Patel (December 2015's Ms. Chatelaine!)

Music & Dance
• Indie roots-rock trio Bellwoods Trinity
• DJ Matt Blackett (publisher, creative director and one of the founders of Spacing magazine)
• Audience choreography led by Anne Marie Williams of Movement Lab

A Photo Booth fun for the whole family

Food
Handmade snacks for sale from Wanda's Pie in the Sky pop-up bakery

Some Things I've Lost

by Cybèle Young

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-339-1

32 pp. with fold-outs

Ages 4+

September 2015

Prepare for the wonder of turning and folding out pages to witness the astonishing artwork as twelve everyday objects, from a roller-skate and wristwatch, to a set of headphones and a lawn chair, are transformed through the skill, artistry and marvel of Cybèle Young.

The text is minimal, with a brief introduction about lost items having ends that are also beginnings, and then each small object is identified with a figure number, named and the location given where it was last seen.  Each double spread of an object displayed in a sea of white with accompanying i.d. is so sparse and bare, in such constrast to the detailed images of the object as it transforms into something fantastical and other-worldly.  How each becomes a deep-sea element– jellyfish, sea cucumber, sea urchin, coral, plankton, fish, seaweed–is left to the extension, feathering, weaving, wrapping, folding, trimming of the Japanese paper Cybèle Young favours in her paper sculptures.  How each becomes something new and wonderful is astounding.  A final spread of all transformations tells us simply that, “Anything is possible.”  And in her skilled hands, obviously anything is.

While we have all lost some things, and most of us have lost the very items displayed within Some Things I’ve Lost, never, ever have we seen anything as wonderful, as spectacular, as the creatures into which they have been converted with such skill and originality.  Some Things I’ve Lost is as unique in its premise as it is in its artwork and I suspect we will never, ever find anything like it again.

Out the Window

by Cybèle Young

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-370-4

30 pp.

Ages 1-4

October, 2013

It's hard to know what this little creature is (pika, perhaps?) but it doesn't really matter.  He is the small, playful, inquisitive one of Cybèle Young's newest book for children, Out the Window, and he or she could be anyone who has lost something out the window accidentally.

Oh, there's fun to be had by bouncing and throwing that polka-dotted ball but only until it flies out the window.  Then this little one (let's call it a "he") sees an odd assortment of shapes, structures, species as he struggles to reach, jump, grab at the window ledge, all without success.  Finally he pushes a chair into view and places it under the window, climbing upon it and changing the direction of the story in more ways than one.

You see, as that little one climbs upon that chair, the reader reaches the back page (as seen to the right here) which becomes the front cover of the back of the original pages and the continuation of the story.  It's sort of a flip book without any flipping over or rotation, just a reading of the other side of the accordion pages.  Now, from the perspective of outdoors, the reader witnesses the hodge podge parade of which our little pika (?) could only glimpse fragments earlier.  This parade of Seuss-like contraptions and creatures, instruments and acoustics delights him until his ball is returned in a most amusing manner.

Cybèle Young, whose paper sculptures and mixed media collages such as in Ten Birds (Kids Can Press, 2011), A Few Blocks (Groundwood, 2011) and A Few Bites (Groundwood, 2012) have garnered her multiple awards,  demonstrates the simplicity that can be achieved with mixed media while still providing the crisp details that complete the story's illustrations.  Out the Window is a wordless book, with only an occasional "Toot Toot" or "Ding Dong", relying on the illustrations to carry the storyline.  Astoundingly Cybèle Young is able to keep her graphics simple while plotting a rich story for very young children.  That takes skill.  As the recipient of a Governor General's award for children's illustration, I wouldn't expect anything less from Cybèle Young.

Cybèle Young Presents . . . Block Letters

Join 

Cybèle Young

author and illustrator 

of

A Few Blocks

written and illustrated by Cybèle Young

Groundwood Books

978-0888999955

48 pp.

Ages 5-7

2011

and

her newest

A Few Bites

written and illustrated by Cybèle Young

Groundwood Books

978-1554982950

48 pp.

Ages 5-7

September 1, 2012

on 

Saturday, September 29, 2012

from 1 - 4 p.m.

at the

Lillian H. Smith Library

230 College St.

(east of Spadina Avenue)

Toronto

for

BLOCK LETTERS

A Social Mapping Project for Kids

Children from 2 - 8 years of age are invited to enjoy an afternoon with the winner of the 2011 Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration and Small Print Toronto on a guided exploration around the library with follow-up activities

as part of Culture Days 2012.