Meeselphe
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- HUF4,990.00
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- HUF4,990.00
Publisher Description
Confident, bristly-haired Meeselphe tumbles headfirst into a whimsical world of riddles, monsters, and magical landscapes – celebrated French children’s book author-illustrator Claude Ponti’s latest adventure
Leaning out of her treehouse window, Meeselphe wonders what it’s like way down on the ground, a place she’s never been – but she’s certain there are many unfamiliar, delightful, and curious things to discover. So she jumps! Landing on the forest floor and striding fearlessly into the wackanana landscape of chocolate rabbits and Penrose quinces beyond, bristly-haired Meeselphe encounters friends and feckless foes. Malivicious monsters stand in her way and nothing is as it seems in this whimsical and sometimes unfriendly world, but Meeselphe isn’t fazed: she has an answer for every riddle and a red paintbrush for every self-conscious ladybug. In the final showdown, scheduled for pages 38 and 39, our bushy-haired heroine makes a triumphant stand against the malivicious monsters. In detailed illustrations and Claude Ponti’s trademark wordplay, cleverly rendered in this inventive translation by Alyson Waters and Margot Kerlidou, young readers will experience the thrill of adventure and the pleasure of coming home again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ponti (Blaze and the Castle Cake for Bertha Daye) creates in pale-skinned Meeselphe an intrepid hero with mustard-hued garb, a button nose, and hair that sticks straight up. When she leaves her house-tree one day to explore a phantasmagorical landscape portrayed in sprightly, clear lines, she befriends a "sadbandoned" baby bird and coolly answers riddles posed by a series of blobby monsters. As she strolls along, bizarre creatures and plants portrayed with strange colors and startling forms provide a constant stream of diversion. Blaze, a masked chicklet, offers wisdom at the outset: "Here, on the land upon the ground, what looks real isn't always, and what looks mean or kind isn't always either." Saccharose, who grins like the Cheshire Cat, poses the first riddle: "If you say my name, I disappear. What am I?" Meeselphe isn't stymied ("It's silence, the answer is silence!"), nor is she worried about the monsters who warn that they will all meet again "on pages 38 and 39!" Waters and Kerlidou deal creatively with puns and invented words ("confusifying") in this surrealist excursion that builds, video game–like, to a final triumphant showdown. Ages 5–9.
