Seraphin

April 29, 2019
French artist Fix chronicles the adventures of dreamer and tinkerer Seraphin and his young friend Plume. Rendered gracefully in a new translation by Nicholson-Smith, Fix’s winning narrative voice (“You felt relaxed there,” he writes about Seraphin’s barn, “and you had an urge to sing”) is matched in charm by his wonderfully intricate, warmly lit illustrations. Seraphin’s job as a ticket puncher in the Paris Metro doesn’t last long, but readers get a hint of his abilities when he crafts an elaborate machine powered by Plume’s hamster Hercules. Then Seraphin inherits a ruined mansion that he and Plume painstakingly renovate—a magnificent spread shows the result, a cross between a lighthouse, a vine-clad Metro station, and a construction crane. New joys follow: Seraphin creates a fantastical pushcart to peddle ice cream and chestnuts, the house’s carved and painted images come to life one magical night, and Seraphin invents a mechanical orchestra machine out of scrap. The idyll comes to an end as developers force Seraphin and Plume from their beloved mansion; happily, their mechanical prowess leads them in an entirely new direction: up. This vision of an existence unbeholden to anyone else offers a satisfying escape from the everyday. Ages 5–8.

April 15, 2019
Dreamer Seraphin finds difficulty working and living in modern-day Paris. After he's fired from his job at the Metro, he lingers in the "sun-filled streets" and "parks resonant with birdsong." Back home, Seraphin finds a letter: He's inherited a crumbling mansion! A jovial narrator guides readers through this meandering story, Nicholson-Smith's conversational translation retaining Gallic eloquence. English-speaking readers will marvel at lithe turns of phrase: The "strange, harsh words" of the men who evict him to make way for new development "wounded him like so many poison arrows." Readers will also fall under the spell of Fix's inexhaustible imagination, transferred onto the page as immense, richly detailed, golden-hued watercolor-and-ink illustrations. Only older readers could consume the entire narrative start to finish in one sitting, however, and many might find Seraphin, a middle-aged, pale-skinned innocent whose only friends are a round boy named Plume and a pet hamster called Hercules, a bit bizarre. Christian culture casts seraphim as angels associated with purity and light, and while Seraphin is similarly guileless and radiant, he also seems somewhat strange, making rounds with a peddler's cart of toys--inventions to attract and entice a group of exclusively white children. A gorgeous but elusive import. (Picture book. 8-12)

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July 1, 2019

Gr 1-4-A happy life is one worth living, no matter the work required to create it. Meet Seraphin, a ticket-puncher in the Paris Metro. After only a short time working there, he realizes his true happiness lies elsewhere and he is quickly relieved of his position. Serendipitously, Seraphin inherits a dilapidated house on a plot of land and, together with his young friend Plume, they create a masterpiece of a house with Seraphin's savings. They are happy there for only a short time before land developers arrive and threaten to destroy their beautiful home in the name of progress; Plume and Seraphin are left to decide whether to give in or find another, unexpected alternative. Oversized, glossy pages create the foundation for this imaginative tale of two friends rejecting societal expectations. The story is long and intricate, making it best suited for an older audience with a longer attention span. Translated from the 1967 French edition, the story feels clunky at times as it occasionally conflicts with standard English phrasing. Despite this, the story is an enjoyable examination of the progress of society through the lens of magic realism. Detailed, wholesome illustrations add beautiful complexity to the story, providing a delightful visual experience for the reader. VERDICT Fans of stories like Up will enjoy this depiction of two people whose imaginations are big enough to carry them away from the mundane, predictable world.-Mary Lanni, formerly of Denver Public Library

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