Carbone

After the death of her mother, Nola receives a beautiful present from her father : a music box that belonged to her mom. She soon realizes that it isn’t just a beautiful object, but the door to another world, Pandorient.

Nola is a sweet character, ready to help Andrea and Igor, the new friends she meets in this strange kingdom. Forgetting her own grief, she does her best to save the life of their mother.

What attracted me in this graphic novel is the art. Each page is pure beauty and a colorful party. The story isn’t really original in itself : a young girl finds herself in another world where she helps the strange inhabitants, but it is still really well written and made me want to discover more of the world of Pandorient. Carbone slowly unveils the mystery, introducing the main protagonists in the process.… (mere)

This is an oddly beautiful graphic novel. It’s about a little girl Nolla who has lost her mother. It’s her eighth birthday and her dad assured her that it is one OK to celebrate and that her mother was looking forward to giving her a special gift. The special gift is an odd little music box. Later in the evening Nolla comes to learn that her music box is an inhabitant of a special world that she shrinks down explores. There she meets another girl her age and her brother and their sick mother and it’s up to Nola to help make her better and figure out what is poisoning her. Pandoriant is an odd little world the people are almost fairy or nymph like but there are monsters and Beings that are both good and evil or funny and grouchy. It’s an entirely new world or Nolla has no idea what’s going on. She’s been told to be careful because this new world is dangerous but besides what’s happening to her new friend’s mom, she doesn’t understand why it’s dangerous. We don’t get much beyond that in book number one, but it was really intriguing, and the art is beautiful. It’s a style of art not normally found in most graphic novels. This book is translated from French, and it’s very well done. So far there are a total of five books, and I plan on reading every one of them.… (mere)