(Akissi gets worms, which shoot out of more than one orifice after treatment.) This whole book is wow. The type is perhaps forbiddingly tight, the illustrations are small and detailed, and the humor and situations may shock American kids with delicate sensibilities. I’d give “Akissi” to kids 10 and up, though the official publisher’s recommendation skews younger. Scary things happen: rogue coconuts, burning hair, poisonous snakes. There’s an accident, and suitcases and pots and sheep go flying (the frame depicting the upside-down, freaked-out animal saying “baaa” as it flies over a cliff made me laugh out loud), but Akissi saves the day. They take a shared minibus (with “LET’S DRIVE FAST, WE’RE IN A HURRY” painted on the side), bouncing along dirt roads with a huge-eyed, bewildered sheep tied to the roof atop a giant pile of luggage. In a bravura extended sequence, Akissi and her cousins visit her Nan’s distant village. She plays middle-of-the-night tricks (pee is involved), behaves appallingly in church, and sneaks into a movie.
“It’s you whose head looks like a huge pot!” she yells back, fleeing from him down a bright orange street with curly action lines shooting out behind her.) Akissi kidnaps a baby, gets a pet marmoset and deliberately contracts lice in an attempt to get her mom to cut off all her hair and avoid the pain of getting twists or braids. Akissi has dark brown skin, beaded hair and a round Charlie Brown head (“You, with your big empty head, you’re gonna get it!” her brother Fofana says through gritted teeth after she tattles on him. The colors are electric - purples, oranges, turquoises and bright yellows. Based on Abouet’s childhood memories of growing up in the port town of Abidjan (which also formed the basis of her award-winning “Aya of Yop City” books for older readers, which have been translated into 15 languages), the rapid-fire, action-packed tales are wild and antic. Translated from French, it’s a collection of 21 six-page comics about a little girl in Ivory Coast, and it is utterly unputdownable.
I reviewed this for the NYT last week but here's the gist:ĭang, this book feels new, daring, exciting and singular.
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