School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-This comprehensive volume includes the seven short stories featured in Abouet & Sapin's Akissi: Cat Invasion, along with 14 others. The tales, translated from French, follow Akissi's day-to-day life in her Ivory Coast town. In "Good Mothers," Akissi and friends steal their neighbor's baby to play "mums." In "Sunday Feast," Akissi consumes all the food for Communion at church (including the wine) before the service begins. In "Midnight Pee," Akissi's brother, Fofana, refuses to wake up to accompany her to the outside bathroom, so she urinates on his blanket. The short story format sacrifices some character development, but the dynamic among Akissi, her brother, and their parents is classic nuclear family drama and hilarity. Realistic moments are not softened, such as when Akissi eats rotten fruit off the ground and contracts tapeworms that crawl out of her nose. But with its gross-out humor and plucky heroine, the collection reads like Dennis the Menace meets Pearls Before Swine, set in West Africa-and may appeal to fans of both. Sapin's art is earth-toned, with a scratchy yet precise line quality. The panel structure is consistent, with no more than six similarly sized panels per page. Dialogue font is generally small. Bonus content includes three recipes and instructions on how to make African braids. VERDICT This volume fills a gap in children's comics featuring African characters and settings. Highly recommended for middle grade graphic novel collections.-Alec Chunn, Eugene Public Library, OR © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In her town in the Ivory Coast, Akissi cannot go more than a few days without causing calamity or getting into trouble. For American readers, she'll recall Dennis the Menace, with an attitude that is equal parts sassy, assertive, curious, and precocious. This collection of adventures explores her life in an African town as she deals with the day-to-day challenges of girlhood. Her exploits include playing football with the boys, dealing with worm infections, sneaking into movie theaters, accidentally setting her friend's hair on fire, and much more. Sapin's richly colored artwork complements Abouet's tales, which bring to life universal aspects of childhood, illustrating the silliness, resourcefulness, and mishaps that are experienced all over the world. Ages 6-9. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Compiled from a bestselling comics franchise in France, this import captures the hilarious misadventures of a township girl as she rewrites the bounds of African girlhood one comical short story at a time."Akissi, do you want to look beautiful?" her mother says as Akissi suffers the pain of getting her hair twisted. How does young Akissi respond? "No Mum! I want to be ugly and bald!" This is how the over-the-top story "Lice Games" begins as Akissi searches for a way out of these excruciating hairdo sessions by self-initiating her own head-lice infestation. Such mortifying premises can be found throughout this extended English compilation (containing the same seven stories as the 2013 volume of the same name, plus many more), taken to their unpredictable and uproarious conclusions. The rivalry between Akissi and her older brother, Fofana, takes the spotlight as the source of much ribbing and many pranks. In "Tattle Tattle, Toil and Trouble," Fofana squeaks out a win (possibly just until their parents find out), while in "Midnight Pee," Akissi is able to get one over on him, leaving Fofana with surprise soiled laundry (yeah, it goes there) on an overnight camping trip with their grandparents. French artist Sapin provides the loose, colorful illustrations that accompany Abouet's tales, which take inspiration from her childhood growing up in the Yopougon neighborhood of Abidjian, Ivory Coast.An unforgettable, boundary-busting, falling-over-funny collection that defies the narrow representations English-language readers receive of growing African girlswe stand desperately in need of more Akissi and more Abouet. (recipes) (Graphic short stories. 8-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Abouet's childhood memories of growing up in Côte d'Ivoire are the basis for these slice-of-life strips starring charmingly impish Akissi. Each six-page comic follows Akissi as she comes up with a scheme, which often leads to mild mayhem. Akissi gets in trouble for climbing a coconut tree, accidentally abducting a baby, eating too many sweets, and blaming her brother for her misdeeds, among many other things. Her selfishness, impetuousness, and tattling are all played for laughs, and the occasional story where she does something kind or guileless nicely breaks up the pattern. Sapin's fine-lined artwork is filled with vibrant, saturated color, and his cartoonish figures are comically expressive, from their over-the-top gestures to their slapstick humor. Akissi's irrepressible mischievousness doesn't come without consequences her brother taunts her meanly, her mother routinely doles out scoldings, and she often gets injured but the lack of lessons is typical of European kids' humor comics. While aspects of daily life in Côte d'Ivoire will be unfamiliar to many, Akissi's antics will ring true to kids across the board.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2018 Booklist
