What Marcel Found

Cedar Pruitt is the author of Fire Flight, illustrated by Chiara Fedele, which was named a 2025 Best Children’s Book of the Year by Bank Street College. What Marcel Found, illustrated by David Litchfield, is her second picture book. She lives with her family in Massachusetts. Visit her website at CedarPruitt.com.David Litchfield is the author-illustrator of The Bear and the Piano, which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in the illustration category and has sold in twenty-four countries, and Grandad’s Secret Giant. He is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including When the Sky Glows by Nell Cross Beckerman, Remarkables by Lisa Mantchev, and What Marcel Found by Cedar Pruitt. He lives in England with his family. Visit his website at DavidLitchfieldIllustration.com.

Pruitt and Litchfield’s reverent book brims with wonder as it recounts the events surrounding a child’s finding of the Lascaux cave paintings in 1940 France. Sensorial language narrates young Marcel’s search for a long-lost treasure in a forest described as a refuge from sounds of wartime fighting. After noticing a cave, the protagonist solicits the assistance of friends who “squint, search, squeeze, and crawl” through its passages before encountering hundreds of drawings on a cavern’s walls. Synonym-filled lines capture the magic of their discovery as they “stomp, whoop, holler, roar” with amazement, while philosophical narration evokes the paintings’ significance as “a discovery that teaches us about ourselves and how long making art has been part of being human.” Multimedia illustrations peppered with glittering dots bring a dazzling brightness to otherwise cave-dark settings. A sense of profundity permeates this ardent story of an archaeological marvel.