Puddle Stories
By Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet, illustrator and animated film director
Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet spent the summer of 2024 in New York City researching the history of French immigration to the United States. During his residency, he also developed his second book as an author-illustrator, De l’autre côté de la pluie (On the Other Side of the Rain).
The book follows Mary, a ten-year-old New Yorker who admires the city as reflected in puddles after a storm. Suddenly, her own reflection takes the form of another young girl, Carol—an ancestor who immigrated to New York a century earlier. What begins as a moment of wonder soon becomes a journey through time and space, as Mary and Carol come to know each other while witnessing New York’s transformation over the last hundred years. Lyet captures the city’s effervescence with sensitivity, and his depictions of the city were quickly recognized for their imaginative use of color. What follows is a selection of pages from De l’autre côté de la pluie.
Mary has to head home to Brooklyn. She decides to walk to the next subway station.
Drip, drop! The raindrops fall, and the city shimmers.
Splish, splash! Mary’s footsteps bounce across Manhattan.
Mary wasn’t dreaming. There, in the middle of the puddle, a little girl watched her with an amused smile. She looked like Mary, but she was dressed in the strangest clothes.
As she follows Carol, Mary looks around. The cars, the people on the street…everything was so different a hundred years ago.
And here is Times Square, perfect if you are in the mood for a crowd!
Illustrations by Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet
Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet is a French author and illustrator. His debut picture book, That Day—a meditation on grief and loss—was published in English in 2024.
De l’autre côté de la pluie was published by ABC MELODY Éditions in 2025. All illustrations © ABC MELODY, 2025.
This portfolio first appeared in States, the annual magazine of Villa Albertine, published in January 2026.
