Amongst the flood of new releases and publications last week was this hardback gem of a pciture book, telling the story of Victor, a hunter who achieves his life's ambition of shooting a cheetah between the front end-papers and the title page of the book!
Despite the successful start to the book (for Victor, at least!), the fulfilment he feels at first does not last long, and we spend the rest of the book seeing Victor rethinking his attitude to hunting after a dream which causes him to change his attitude and ways...
I won't spoil the book by revealing his cunning plan, but this is a story with warmth, humour, empathy and kindness as its central messages, told in a highly original (and beautifullly-drawn) way, from the cover right up to the final end-paper denouement of the plan, when we see Victor's new approach to hunting big game put into practice!
I love this book - simply told with limited words in short sentences, but with a powerful message about redemption, forgiveness and the ability to change for good. The illustrations are bold and oversized, simply laid out but elaborately detailed, inviting the reader to search for detail and events upon the page to accompany the tale.
Thanks to Poppy and Pushkin Press (@PushkinPress) for the review copy of the book - I have never encountered the work of Jacques and Lise before - an award-winning Belgian couple - and am delighted to have been given the chance to have an early look at this, their first book to be published in English.
Review by Rich Simpson (@richreadalot) September 2020
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