Cécile Roumiguière

A gripping little book illustrated by none other than Benjamin Lacombe in dark tones of red and brown about a little girl "The Child of Silence", who dares not speak, but instead only murmurs a little ditty to herself, even though her teacher and the lady at school who "smells of toast and banana" wish she'd talk to them. But the girl doesn't know how to explain the house of wolves she lives in, with the painful red days when she knows she is to blame for the anger of the beasts, and then the soft and loving calm blue days filled with cuddles and lots of love. The French prose reads like poetry and the ending is hopeful, but this is one book that probably requires plenty of explaining and reassurances for the young readership it is geared toward.… (mere)