The Court Charade
by Script by Kerascoët & Flore Vesco, art by Kerascoët
This plot has all the makings of a cute children's story. There's a heroine with grand dreams, there's mischief and mayhem, and even a power struggle. Best of all there's creativity with twists and turns. In The Court Charade, young Serine dreams of becoming a lady-in-waiting to the queen. As one can imagine, things don't quite go as planned. Serine often creates new words to get her out of scrapes, helping to pull the wool over their majesties' eyes. Sometimes her antics are reminiscent of The Emperor's New Clothes. This graphic novel has many aspects of European story-telling including life at court and a class-system, along with some publishing elements such as cursive font and even a few pictures depicting nudity of both genders. I very much enjoyed Serine's ability to stay one step ahead of the antagonist. However, there were moments where I felt the story, or the telling of it, might have got lost in translation. By that I mean, I felt perhaps some information was missing to make for smother scene changes or plot advancements. The images were beautifully done, highlighting key components of the story-telling. I think readers of upper middle grade books would enjoy this adaption of De cape et de mots. Thank you NetGalley and Harvard Common Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
