Nicolas

Grade 10 Up–Simple black-and-white drawings explore the author&'s life after the childhood death of his younger brother. Through short installments, Girard explores his process of grieving from his own childhood through his young adult years. While some of the stories are powerful with profound words, others offer a welcome and credible laugh when humorous episodes are recounted. This book is a pearl for teenagers who are dealing with the death of a loved one. Its brevity will appeal to reluctant readers, but it is fully developed and will engage more sophisticated readers as well.–Gregory Lum, Jesuit High School, Portland, OR
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In the simplest of styles—free-hand outline figures in barely detailed settings or, usually, no settings—Girard crafts a parable of loss and mourning that speaks volumes on those inescapable human experiences. The first few borderless-panel pages show a husky boy and a thin, littler boy playing with a recording machine. The succeeding pages focus on the bigger boy, from shortly afterward all the way to married adulthood and saying, “How about we start with one?” to his wife. The little boy, his brother Nicolas, died at age five, and although he cried, toughed it out, and denied, Pascal never completely recovered. His heart still aches, and a few pages after his words with Julie, he looks to the sky and thinks, “If you knew how much I miss you today!” The concluding pages return to Pascal, Nicolas, and the recorder. This exquisite, wee graphic novel’s extreme sparseness, verbally as well as visually, make it a possible godsend for many long-term mourners. --Ray Olson