So, I have a little confession for you. I’m not that keen on change. I never have been, and as a child, maybe the thing I needed to combat that was a well written, well illustrated book! So, it may be 20+ years late, but here it is!

Marcel, written and illustrated by Eda Akaltun and published by Flying Eye books.

Meet Marcel, a French bulldog pup residing in New York. He and his human know all the best spots there. They have a close bond and nothing will come between them! Well, that’s what Marcel thought. But when his human meets a handsome Frenchman, suddenly, it’s all change in his life and the young pup isn’t sure it’s for the best.

I’m going to launch straight into the glorious illustrations in this book. a mixture of simple shapes in a grungy style and the inclusion of photos to the human illustrations makes for a fantastically unusual and quirky style which just works in a super way! Marcel the pup has a lovely appealing face and bags of glorious personality which children and adults will fall in love with. I certainly did. It feels, very much, like the book is from his point of view. You never really see the humans as a whole until the end, which emphasises his confusion and lack of understanding of what’s happening through the story.

The book is written as if Marcel is narrating, so the language is simple and very clear. Taking children on a lovely, happy journey through New York, showing the strong bond between dog and his human. When the Frenchman enters their life, the story switches to that of confusion and frustration, showing the difficulties dealing with this shift in his family situation. It’s really quite wonderfully done.

Eda Akaltun explores family relationships so beautifully. This is the kind of thing we get asked for in the library often, and this will certainly be my go to book in helping children accept and understand change within the family.

Marcel was released on 17th June 2016 so available from all good bookshops and libraries.

You’ll be happy to hear that Eda Akaltun has a corner of the internet all to herself, and you can find it here:
– http://www.edosatwork.com

Thank you for reading this Book Monster review.