An Enchantment

Gr 9 Up—At an evening celebration at the Louvre in honor of his retirement, an old man sneaks away from the spectacle and security to reminisce about his time as a clerk in the building, surrounded by the art. He encounters a mysterious young woman who tries to teach him how to see the exhibits in a new way and perhaps enable him to experience a deeper mystery. Primarily told in lustrous sepia browns reminiscent of archives and age, this is a whimsical story with an undercurrent of sincere redemption. The panels and pacing give the narrative lots of space, letting readers feel the vastness of the empty museum rooms and, by extension, the majesty of the reproduced paintings and the intimacy of being able to encounter them in this rare way. Both characters are sketches, almost ciphers, standing in for a standard type of aged bureaucrat and the pixie dream girl trope, but that's because the story is really an excuse to provide the rarified Louvre experience. The book was originally produced as one of a short series of Louvre-sponsored bandes dessinée, which is presumably what allows for the excellent and faithful re-creations of so many paintings (including blousy post-Renaissance nudes), as well as reproductions of the architecture. Evocative and touching, this is an enjoyable fable about what is, or should be, truly important.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH