Review by Booklist Review
A girl visits her grandfather during summer vacation, exploring the generous fields of grass surrounding his home. An arriving train brings a tiny elephant, come to stay for a while. Despite grandpa's best efforts, immediate tension escalates to unfortunate lengths, and things suddenly become more dreamlike. Girl and elephant find common ground at a village masquerade fair, and, departing on a dream-train, the girl meets a boy who may in fact be the elephant, presaging a final melancholy surprise. Blexbolex, an award-winner for this book in his native France, crafts a distinctive design that make the work feels like a true artifact of the past. Nostalgic imagery; fading print; heavy, textured paper that begs to be caressed; a wordless story that evokes a silent era all reach out to a history when the imagination and craftsmanship of the creator were several steps closer to the reader. It does, however, make for an esoteric experience, and while some may find it alienating, others will surely be entranced.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The enigmatic visual storytelling of French artist Blexbolex's Ballad (2013) is more prominent than ever in this reality-bending wordless outing, which can be read as an extended picture book or as a graphic novel. In silk screens that call to mind Winsor McCay's Little Nemo comics, readers meet a dark-haired girl exploring the woods outside her grandfather's stately home. She's abruptly summoned back to the house and is unhappy about the interruption; Blexbolex uses inset panels to move the action forward or bridge time and distance-in this case, a circular panel shows the girl's grandfather calling to her. Her mood doesn't improve after they pick up a new arrival at the train station-a small golf-club-toting elephant, whom the girl treats like a disliked relative. Their emotive squabbles form the brunt of the book, leading the elephant to disappear in a storm and require a rescue. Tracking the action calls for careful attention as the story dips in and out of dreams and imagined journeys. Puzzle-loving readers will adore teasing out the book's mysteries, and many more will simply want to lose themselves in its enchanting images. Ages 8-up. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-A young girl is enjoying her summer vacation in the quaint, peaceful countryside until her grandfather brings home an unexpected visitor. The guest, a young elephant, does his best to get along, but the girl isn't interested in sharing her time, her toys, or her grandfather's affection. After the girl smugly chases the elephant away right before a dangerous storm, her grandfather sets out to bring him home safely and resolve their tumultuous relationship with a magical evening at the carnival. Blexbolex stretches the boundaries of typical graphic novels in this deeply expressive wordless title. Relying on screen-printing techniques, he gives images a textured appearance, masterfully evoking Roy Lichtenstein's pixelated pop art and Little Golden Books' subdued retro charm. The artwork features a tapestry of rich earthy and celestial tones-red clay, forest green, goldenrod, navy blue-and soft lines abound, though the foliage and other natural elements often appear jagged and untamed. Images frequently bleed into each other, with no discernible framing on the small panels inlaid on full-page spreads. Although the characters don't speak, they unmistakably convey emotions (anger, surprise, regret, wonder), particularly the young girl, and will raise questions of how feeling and circumstances affect our perceptions of others. However, the narrative takes an odd turn during the carnival scene that may leave readers perplexed. VERDICT This stunning yet unique offering may have trouble finding an audience, but more sophisticated fans of graphic novels and wordless books may appreciate it. Under the guidance of a thoughtful adult, the work might also spur discussion about its deeper meanings.-Alea Perez, Westmont Public Library, IL © Copyright 2018. 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 Horn Book Review
This winding, wordless summertime story spotlights childhood observations, anxieties, and fantasies. A young protagonist explores the outdoors in solitude until an older, mustachioed caregiver (her grandfather, perhaps?) calls her inside. She freshens up, reluctantly, and the pair walks to the train station to meet a small, sailor-hat-wearing elephant. The visitor brings stress and disharmony, and despite the caregivers attempts to build community, the girl and elephant do not get along. When the three visit a carnival, a mesmerizing bonfire transports the girl to a celestial train station resembling a giant cuckoo clock. The child meets a new friend in this scene and wakes up in bed the next morning, disoriented. After the elephant departs, the child returns to the comforts of exploring nature--but not before a final moment of surprise. This is a tense, surreal story with nods to Windsor McCays Little Nemo. Inset boxes and the use of clocks superimposed onto the illustrations offer timestamps beyond the space between panels and pages, and lush colors and screen-print patterns radiate from the roughly textured pages of the physical book, creating an open-ended, dreamlike reading experience that is as tactile as it is visual. elisa gall (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Storm clouds darkenboth literally and figurativelya young girl's solitary summer idyll when her grandpa welcomes a new houseguest.Blexbolex teases with the new guest's identity in this wordless outing, as it may look like a small gray elephant in most of the pictures, but it behaves like another childand appears as a boy in a pair of dream sequences. The girl greets the new arrival's friendly overtures with a cold shoulder and mean pranks initially, but she repents after alienating him so that he doesn't come home one evening and then forcing her grandpa to go out into a blustery night to fetch him back inside. By then he's fed up, though, so the standoff continuesuntil the night everyone in the community dons animal masks and gathers beneath the stars for a country fair. But just when it seems like the quarrel might be resolved, the girl wakes up next morning and he's gone. She catches a final glimpse of the ladand, astonishingly, the elephantwaving from the departing train. This poignant tale of lost opportunity is presented through a series of small action and reaction shots set within larger views of a tidy country house in serene woodsy surrounds, all printed in serigraphic style on rough surfaced cloth. Emotional tapestries are easy to plot, both through the interplay of rich colors and deep shadows and the characters' strong, graceful postures and gestures. The primary (human) cast is pale-skinned.Magical work, as immersive as the author's Ballad (2013) or his larger-format picture albums. (Graphic fiction. 10-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.