Petit, the monster

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

At first glance, the opening spread is idyllic: Petit, a smiling boy, is tossing a twig to his ecstatic dog. But the way the colors don’t quite fit inside the lines—not to mention the book’s title—hints that all is not well. Indeed, Petit is as much Hyde as Jekyll: “Petit can be very nice to Grandfather Paco / and very mean to pigeons.” This duality, for which he is duly punished by Mother, torments Petit. It’s an existential crunching of numbers that just don’t add up—how can he be both bad and good? There is a glimpse of understanding—despite how much Petit dislikes the class bad boy, he feels sorry for him when he is scolded—but, thankfully, it’s just a glimpse. Isol resists serving a lesson on a platter, choosing instead to let readers agonize along with the tortured antihero. The pencil-and-oil pastels run a fine line between cheery and nervy, leading to an unusually ruminative ending, in which Petit ponders if goodness/badness is more far-reaching than he thought: “Could it be that it runs in the family?” Grades K-1. --Daniel Kraus