Review by Booklist Review
French cartoonist Barroux combines his talent for interpretative illustration with the real-life mystery of an anonymous WWI French soldier's diary, which he rescued from routine rubbish collection on a twenty-first-century Paris street. Maintained between August 3, 1914, when he was mobilized, and September 12, 1914, where it abruptly ends, the diary records pithy, unsentimental notations of weather, troop movement, and the effects of the battle on both soldiers and civilians as well as the diarist's experiences seeing significant battle action, getting wounded and treated, and suffering from the boredom of waiting for word from both home and the front. For each scene the simple record evokes, Barroux depicts moving images in pencil-textured, deeply shaded, and unbounded panels, filling the backgrounds with simple, sketchy figures. With back matter briefly describing other remnants found with the diary, photos of its pages, and an introduction by War Horse (2007) author Michael Morpurgo, this creative repurposing of almost-lost primary source material is an excellent all-ages memorial, especially fitting for the war's centennial.--Goldsmith, Francisca Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The hundred-year-old diary that forms the text of this work was found by French author-illustrator Barroux on a Paris sidewalk in a heap of trash. In entries rendered smoothly into English by Ardizzone, the anonymous author tells of his first months as an infantryman in WWI. Barroux (Mr. Leon's Paris) quarters the pages, providing rough, black charcoal drawings for each sentence or two of text. He conveys the monotony and dread of the soldier's life: the endless digging of trenches, the sight of wounded soldiers and fleeing families, the way dark and rain make everything worse. Only the clunky triangular noses and gentle features Barroux gives his human faces soften the grimness. Before long the narrator is wounded, and he describes his stay in the hospital, surrounded by suffering ("while a gunner who had been begging to die since the morning breathes his last"). The diary finishes abruptly: "Sometimes I'm sorry I didn't stay in the line of fire." The documentary-style pacing makes this account best suited to those with an established interest in accounts of military life, but it remains a remarkable artifact, given haunting new life. Ages 10-13. (July)? (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-An unusual perspective on the Great War. French author/illustrator Barroux found a soldier's diary among some belongings being discarded on the street and decided to depict this young man's words in the graphic novel format. The diary covers the first two months of World War I, as seen from the perspective of a French infantryman. The story is both fascinating and frustrating, as we read about the boredom and confusion experienced by soldiers who spend most of their time walking, digging trenches, waiting for letters, looking for shelter, and wondering where the war is, exactly. Once in a while they will see a plane overhead, or hear artillery fire off in the distance, or have to hide from the enemy. Instead of the usual "big picture" focus garnered from textbooks, readers see the war as a microcosm, as told by one of its thousand moving parts. Barroux's illustrations were created with thick butcher's pencil on watercolor paper, which were then covered with a tinted varnish. The overall effect is of black-and-white drawings seen through a sepia-toned filter, which make the pictures look as old as the story itself. This volume would be most appreciated by readers looking for primary sources about World War I, as well as anyone who wants to know what it was like to be a soldier a century ago.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An unusually personal view of World War I's early days, conveyed by new illustrations grafted to a French soldier's chance-found diary.Dated Aug. 3 to Sept. 5, 1914, the anonymous diary tersely records mustering, train rides, weary marches, efforts to scrounge up provisions and billeting, much digging of trenches, and advances and retreats under enemy artillery fire. Aside from occasional thoughts of family left behind, the writer's observations are detached in toneeven gruesome sights of a human leg caught in a tree and heavily wounded patients in a hospital ward are only noted in passing. Along with portraying how he rescued the account from a pile of curbside rubbish, Barroux illustrates the diary with large panels of heavy-lined drawings made with butcher's pencil and a pale yellow varnish wash. Most depict somber figures in uniform, drawn with geometrical noses that give them the look of puppets or mannequins, trudging through sheets of rain or sketched rural settings. The diary's abrupt end leaves the writer wounded but complaining of boredom as he recuperates; the artist closes with sample pages from a handwritten album of songs found with the document. In a passionate introductory note, Michael Morpurgo invites readers to "weep" over these glimpses of war.American children, at least, may not shed many tears, but they should come away feeling closer to understanding what that century-old conflict must have been like to those who fought in it. (Graphic memoir. 11-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
