I love reading with my daughter, Poesy, who has just turned six. We agree on almost all of her favorites, and re-reading them is one of our best-loved activities, and how we pass the time on boring bus-rides and so forth. However, there are a few books that Poesy loves, but which leave me cold. First among these is are the Ariol books, a long-running French kids’ comic series that are being swiftly translated into English by Papercutz (there are three books out so far, and a fourth is due in May). Ariol was co-created by the amazing and talented Emmanuel Guibert, whose other work includes the anarcho-gonzo Sardine kids’ comics; the brilliant WWI memoir Alan’s War, and the extraordinary memoir of doctors in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan The Photographer.
I love Guibert, but not Ariol. Poesy, on the other hand, can’t get enough of it. This is cool — and better than cool, because my reluctance to read her these books over and over (and over and over) has actually driven her to be a much better independent reader, and she often picks up an Ariol book, sits herself down, and reads it to herself for hours, snickering. Ariol is like your kid’s obnoxious friend who is so incredibly naughty that you dread his visits, and who your kid adores and wants to play with all the time (thankfully, he also lives in a comic book).
It’s exciting to see Poesy developing her own taste, separate from ours, and I wanted to give her a chance to explain what she likes about Ariol. So we sat down in my office and recorded this video review together. If you’ve got little anarcho-readers in your household, Poesy wants you to know that you should let them read some Ariol books.
There’s also a long-running French-Canadian Ariol cartoon, which has been dubbed into many languages. You can find tons on Youtube, including this English one.
Ariol #1: Just a Donkey Like You and Me
Ariol #4: A Beautiful Cow [forthcoming May 6, 2014]
