On the Odd Hours

July 1, 2010
Gr 11—-fter Bastien, a cantankerous deaf-mute, nearly blows his chance to be an intern at the Louvre, a mysterious museum guard offers him a unique opportunity. Also hearing impaired, Fu Zhi Ha takes Bastien into his confidence and reveals the nature of his employment—he must use a special set of drums to periodically free the "souls of the artwork" lest they become frustrated and flee the Louvre for good. Bastien's disbelief turns to wonder when he sees that Fu Zhi's drumming causes characters from famous paintings to become animated and move about the museum. When Fu Zhi disappears, Bastien finds himself drawn further and further into the museum's strange "odd hours." With excellent artwork, particularly sensuous, swirling watercolors, and compelling subject matter, "On the Odd Hours"is a creative and likable work; Liberge's depiction of sign-language dialogue is particularly original. That said, the overly long and convoluted plot makes the story hard to follow at times and detracts from the book's uniqueness. Still, it's a fine supplemental purchase for artsy/adult-oriented collections.—"Dave Inabnitt, Brooklyn Public Library, NY"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Like Nicolas Crecys Glacial Period (2007) and Marc-Antoine Mathieus The Museum Vaults (2008), the third Louvre-sponsored graphic novel is a fantasy, though set in the present, not the future. A guard accosts burly young Bastienhead shaved except for a forelock and goateeeating within the hallowed gallery. Conveying that he is deaf, Bastien scribbles a note explaining he has an appointment there. Humiliated, he stomps off before his storys fully checked. But a wizened Chinese man signs to him. The old man, a guard himself and also deaf, is the person Bastien had to meet all along. He expects Bastien to succeed him in watching over the souls of the artworks, which escape canvas, stone, and metal during the odd hours of deep night. Despite misgivings and his girlfriends overbearing caretaking, Bastien decides the jobs the perfect fit for him. Virtuosically rendered by Liberge, who merges elegant clear-line figuration, expressionistic pastel coloration, and in the odd-hours sequences, superimposition effects, Bastiens story powerfully expresses the frustrations of deep hearing impairment and the irrepressible life of great art.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)