Belgium
(French)
111
Andriat, Frank (text/illus.)
Aurore barbare (Barbaric dawn)
Namur: Mijade, 2008. – 189 p.
ISBN 978-2-87423-018-9
Latin America – Village – Massacre – Survival
Somewhere in Latin America, soldiers exterminate an entire village. »Leave no trace behind«, the leader commands, as he has the maltreated corpses thrown into a pit and the village burned to the ground. The children Eusebia, Tonio, Paco, and Pepito survive and gather ten years later to honour the dead and to act against the instigators of the massacre. What is unusual about this young adult novel is that even the dead have a word. In a constant change of perspective, the dead and the living speak
respectively in the first-person voice, so that the reader
is thrown into the midst of the horrendous events. The connections and the
atrocities thus gradually close in on each other, so that the tension is
preserved until the end and the emotional impact remains strong.
(12+)
112
Herbauts, Anne (text/illus.)
Les moindres petites choses (The littlest things)
[Bruxelles et al.]: Casterman, 2008. – [26] p.
(Les Albums Casterman)
ISBN 978-2-203-00963-9
Garden – Moment – Time
Madame Avril (Mrs. April) lives alone in her house in the midst of plants
and animals – that is the whole story. This picture book comes to life not
through an action-packed story content; it comes to life through »les
moindres petites choses« (the littlest things). It is day and it becomes
night; clouds draw, and it rains. Madame Avril is sometimes sad, sometimes
happy; she waits, reflects, sits with her rabbit in her lap in the garden,
looks out and thus comes to know the world. Lingering in the moment can be
cognitively grasped by means of the brief poetic-metaphorical text, visually
by means of the loving detail of the warm-hued illustrations, and tactilely
by means of carefully opening the triptychs. It is a big book about
the seemingly little things in life, which every reader might experience
differently in his or her reading.
(5+)
13
Ramos, Mario (text/illus.)
Le roi, sa femme et le petit prince (The king, his wife, and the little prince)
Bruxelles, Paris: École des Loisirs, 2008. – [32] p.
(Pastel)
ISBN 978-2-211-09093-3
King – Queen – Prince – Visitor – Companion – Repetition – Children’s song
The French children’s song »Lundi matin« (Monday morning) teaches kids about
the days of the week. Mario Ramos makes the modernity, impertinence, and
absurdity of the well-known text obvious in his humorous picture book. The
king, his wife, and the little prince wish to pay someone a visit on Monday
morning. But as that person is not at home, they come back later… and then
again later – each day returning with a new companion. The simple, black and
red pictorial language draws out spontaneous laughter with its unexpected
comedy: be it the forceful queen who towers over the king, or the prince who
always gets on his mother’s nerves with his playing and singing. As the
number of companions rises, so does the suspense, which culminates in an
astounding finale.
(3+)
114
Tasset, Éric
Dardéa <proper name>
Bruxelles: Alice Éd., 2008. – 314 p.
(Thomas Passe-Mondes; 1)
ISBN 978-2-87426-078-0
Parallel world – Grandmother – Grandson
Naturally Thomas gets upset when the Brutoni brothers bug him and his friend Pierric again. But aside from that, the fourteen-year-old, who lives with his grandmother since the death of his parents twelve years prior, leads a contented life. Everything changes, though, when he
discovers that he has the ability to walk through walls and reach a meadow in a parallel world. In the mysterious world Anaclasis, he meets strange creatures, gets to know the »Animaville« Dardéa, a gyroscope-shaped »live city« that floats in the air, and meets the brave Ela. In the first part of the series Thomas Passe-Mondes, we become acquainted with an exciting fantasy world along with the protagonist, in an accessible and gripping style. (12+)