The best word I can use to describe the Akissi stories is simply "joyous". Ultimately this is a book that doesn't need critical dissection; it needs to be lived not analysed, absorbed not over-thought. A standout celebration of childhood.
Broken Frontier
Once again Marguerite Abouet & Mathieu Sapin bring Africa to vivid, vibrant life in a way that both appals the sensibilities (seriously Akissi, stop borrowing people's babies without their permission to play with!) and amuses uproariously in equal amounts.
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The autobiographical element from Abouet is crucial in that it offers a genuine quality to the stories, and having lived the life allows them to forgo any sentimentality. Instead Abouet imbues the stories with a sense of adventure that should speak loudly to so many American children reading it, possibly facing a cloistered, overbooked day-to-day existence. Akissi's life must be a dream come true.
John Seven, The Beat