To become a child once more, a frightening old lady must delight the soul of the kindest of little girls, also a slug tamer… An illustrated story as moving as it is facetious. From 7 years old.
A surly old woman, adorable child and devil feline… An explosive trio, to laugh out loud. Illustration Clément Devaux/Gallimard Youth
Published on April 13, 2023 at 1:36 p.m.
AAt first glance, it is indeed a witch. The drawings that represent her are unambiguous. Archie old, dowdy like the ace of spades, big eyes, big nose, slouch chin, sparse fluffy hair. Brrr… And then his house, as described in the text, “all crooked, with a roof in the shape of a lightning bolt and chickenpox-colored walls”. We tell ourselves that we are immersed in a scary story, we curl up on the sofa. Especially since the old woman will soon make a pact with the devil, who has arisen on her windowsill in the form of a black cat with furry hair. In exchange for a return to childhood, a story of resuming her failed life from scratch, she will have to help him take the soul of the nicest little girl in the neighborhood. Kind to the point of having been able to tame a whole colony of slugs. That is to say !
We then say to ourselves that we will be scared, of course, but that we will have fun too. Because the text is full of incongruous finds à la David Walliams, the recipe for sausage with jam for example, or fireworks formulas. The story thus mixes realism and magic, seriousness and unbridled delirium, on the margins of storytelling, farce and poetry. And what is this novel whose narrator never ceases to challenge the reader and even his parents, to worry regarding his reactions and even to ask his opinion on the name of his main character, this old witch who will transform as a 9-year-old girl: “We’ll call her, if you don’t mind, Suzanne Griotte. » To the point of providing, here and there in the book, a few blank pages so that the reader can give his own drawn vision of the story and its adventures.
Read also :
Novel for children: “Tala the chimpanzee”, a clever story regarding meeting the wild world
In short, we shudder, we have fun, we burst out laughing. And we hardly expect, in the end, to be moved like that. Because this story of friendship between two loners abused by life, told with as much modesty as sensitivity, is devilishly moving.
