The Professor's Daughter

The Professor’s Daughter
Authors: Joann Sfar & Emmanuel Guibert
Publisher: First Second
ISBN 13: 978-1-59643-130-0ISBN 10: 1-59643-130-X

Book Description from the publisher:

A 3,000-year-old romance.
Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert bring the true spirit of Victorian London to life in this witty, engaging, sepia-colored tale of a proper but mischievous young girl and the mummy who opens his eyes for the first time in 3,000 years and instantly falls in love with her. Will the love between Lillian and Imhotep IV survive when their fathers, the London police, and even the Royal Archeological Society are all determined to keep them apart?

Written by the hilarious and insightful Joann Sfar and painted in watercolors by the contemplative and beguiling Emmanuel Guibert, The Professor's Daughter tells an engaging, heart-warming love story through affecting, delightful art.


Two of France’s famous graphic novelists have teamed up to create an astonishing, beautiful and bizarre tale. Lillian, the daughter of a British professor who is taking home a mummy to put on display takes the mummy out of the sarcophagus and takes it on a stroll through Victorian London.

The mummy is Imhotep IV and he and Lillian fall deeply in love. They can’t seem to get past a myriad of obstacles though, things just keep getting in the way. His dead spirit children come looking for him and wonder where their mother is, his father seems bent on destroying him, the Professor wants his mummy back, the London police want Imhotep for murder and oh by the way, did I mention he’s a 1000 year old mummy? Yeah.

The Professor's Daughter is bizarre, well told and completely wonderful. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. The sepia tones depict Victorian London in a way that makes the pages look like an old book from that era. Lillian is charming, elegant and such a lady. Imhotep IV is elegant, gentlemanly and tends to be a dysfunctional. His relationship with his father, for instance is just too funny. It’s like any normal father and son’s misunderstanding and angst with the added quirk of being dead mummies wandering around London.

This graphic novel was highly acclaimed in France and deserves equal recognition here. It’s highly recommended.

About the Authors:

Joann Sfar is the son of Jewish parents and is one of the most important artists of the new wave of Franco-Belgian comics. Many of his comics were published by L’Association, which was founded in 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu and six other artists. He also worked together with many of the new movement's main artists.

Emmanuel Guibert made his comics debut in 1992 with 'Brune', a painted comic story about the rise of fascism in Germany during the 1930s. He then did several comics for Lapin, the magazine of the renewing publishing house L'Association. One of Guibert's most impressive comics works of this period, 'La Guerre d'Alan', recounted the war experiences of Guibert's friend Alan Ingram Cope, who served as an American soldier in World War II, and later retreated to France.

FIRST SECOND is an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, which owns some of America's most prestigious publishers, known for great integrity and literary quality. These include Henry Holt, FSG, St Martin's Press, Tor and Picador, all of which have garnered the most coveted prizes in publishing.All images are © copyright by their respective owners.mail@firstsecondbooks.com

The Pull of the Ocean

The Pull of the Ocean

Author: Jean-Claude Mourlevat,

Translator: Y. Maudet

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN-10: 0385733488

ISBN-13: 978-0385733489

The Pull of the Ocean is a wild little story based upon the tale The Adventures of Tom Thumb by Charles Perrault and I absolutely adored it.

Yann Doutreleau has six brothers, all tall for their age, but he is no more than two feet tall. Yann is the youngest and mute but also the cleverest and most intelligent of the brothers as well as the undisputed leader. He communicates by gestures and looks and can say more with his eyes than most people can say with their voice. Yann loves school and learning while his brothers do not. The Doutreleau brothers are very protective of Yann and love him very much in spite of his differences or perhaps because of them.

On a dark and stormy night, little Yann, overhears his parents fighting and wakes his three sets of twin brothers telling them that the parents plan to harm them. They leave, led by Yann and start a journey to the ocean. It’s a strange little parade, three sets of malnourished, ragged twin boys and one very tiny doll of a boy leading the way sometimes from the inside of a bag.

Each chapter is narrated by a different person; a school social worker, police, a student, a baker, a writer, each of the brothers and others and each has their own perspective on what they saw, did or heard so the book ends up being 21 points of view.

I found the story completely enchanting from the very first page. It’s a lovely little jigsaw of a fable on the spirit of brotherhood and I highly recommend it. The Pull of the Ocean was the winner of a prestigious award when it was first published in France and I expect it will win its share here. Buy it and read it, you won’t be disappointed.

About the Author:

Jean-Claude Mourlevat is a major author of children's fiction in his native France, where his novels have garnered numerous literary awards. The author lives in France.

The Silver Donkey

The Silver Donkey
Author: Sonya Harnett
Illustrator: Don Powers
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763629375

This is one of the most elegantly simple and beautiful stories I’ve read in quite a while. The book reminds me of classics like The Secret Garden and has many of the elements of a classic tale from the early 20th century.

It is World War 1 in France and two small girls discover a blind and hungry British soldier in the forest. They are fascinated with both him and his good luck charm, a tiny and perfect silver donkey. They bring him food and, over the course of getting to know them, he tells them a series of stories about the silver donkey, one of which is the Christmas story told in a new way. The girls come to know that the soldier has deserted the army and will be in terrible trouble if found. They resolve to help and hide him and he becomes their “secret soldier”.

Coco and Marcel, the two sisters are tender-hearted girls and the plight of the blind soldier who is trying to walk home even though he is blind, moves them to extraordinary kindnesses. They pilfer their own modest pantry almost bare in feeding the soldier. They also bring their brother into their secret when they need his aid in helping the soldier find his way across the English Channel. What follows is an extraordinary fable of love, loyalty and courage.

The Silver Donkey is beautifully written and the tales within a tale are absolutely charming. The soldier’s story leaves no doubt that war is violent, horrible and changes people in profound and unexpected ways. While this is made clear, it is told in such a simple and honest way that it wouldn’t scare a child. It is gentle and sweet while warning that war is wrong. The book has a sense of wonder and innocence that sparkles.

The illustrations are gorgeously simple as well. Charcoal drawings give the book a classic and old world feel. Each illustration is charming in its simplicity, yet are very detailed and bring the French countryside as well as the children and the soldier to life. They call to mind the drawings of Garth Williams.

The book itself is a tactile pleasure with smooth, silky pages and a charming silver ribbon to mark your page. I highly recommend this book for children of all ages.

About the Author:
Sonya Harnett Sonya Hartnett is the acclaimed author of THURSDAY'S CHILD, WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, STRIPES OF THE SIDESTEP WOLF, SURRENDER, and several other novels. She has won many awards, including the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for THE SILVER DONKEY. Sonya Hartnett lives in Australia.

About the illustrator:
Don Powers is a fine artist who specializes in portraits and landscapes. THE SILVER DONKEY is his first book for children. He lives in Thomasville, Georgia.