Jane, the Fox and Me

July 15, 2013
The pain that cruel schoolmates inflict on solitary, book-loving girls is familiar territory, but Britt and Arsenault’s take on it is worth a second look. Tormented by her classmate Geneviève—“I stuck a fork in your butt, but you’re so fat you didn’t feel a thing!!”—Hélène retreats into the pages of Jane Eyre. “Everyone needs a strategy,” she observes, “even Jane Eyre.” Arsenault (Virginia Wolf) uses velvety reds and blacks for Hélène’s ruminations on Brontë’s novel; elsewhere, she renders landscapes, interiors, and portraits of Hélène and her classmates in delicate grays. A small miracle presages change as Hélène is approached by a wild fox on a school camping trip: “Its eyes are so kind I just about burst.” Then a classmate named Géraldine absconds (not entirely believably) from the mean girls and befriends Hélène. Arsenault signals the change by introducing the fragile green of new leaves into her monochromatic landscapes. Subordinate characters are lovingly drawn, and time and place references (the McGarrigle Sisters, the Bay department store) add piquancy. More than a few readers will recognize themselves in Hélène and find comfort. Ages 10–14.

August 1, 2013
Lonely young Helene begins to get out from under her body-image issue with help from a new friend--and Jane Eyre. Weighed down by cruel graffiti ("Helene weighs 216!"--a figure belied, later, by the "88" on a doctor's scale but not before the damage is done) as well as looks and snickers from her former circle, Helene walks slump-shouldered and isolated through a dreary world rendered in sepia wash. A class trip to nature camp brings no relief, as it entails a painful expedition to buy a swimsuit ("I'm a sausage") and then exile to the "outcasts' tent." Only following Jane Eyre's growth into a woman "clever, slender and wise" lightens her spirit. Then a brief encounter with a fox and the arrival of Geraldine, an extroverted fellow camper, signal at last the beginnings of a brighter outlook. Hand-lettered but easily legible, her sparely told narrative suits the swiftly drawn look of the art. Ably capturing Helene's emotional tides, Arsenault portrays her (as a child of plainly average build) in dark sequential panels that give way when she's reading or dreaming to full spreads, usually in subdued tones of orange and blue. Those colors and others show up as highlights in closing scenes that are capped by a final glimpse of the bright fox amid burgeoning greenery. A sensitive and possibly reassuring take on a psychological vulnerability that is all too common and not easily defended. (Graphic novel. 10-13)

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Starred review from November 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-Helene is unhappy with her life and prefers to escape into books. At school, she is tormented by the insults of her former friends. The book shifts back and forth between Helene's reality and the world she enters whenever she reads Jane Eyre and begins imagining herself in the character's place. Helene admires Jane, who is "clever, slender and wise," who is loved by others even though she is not a traditional beauty. The style of Arsenault's artwork varies if Helene is in the real world, in the fictional world of Jane Eyre, or if she's inspired by something that makes the real world better. The illustrations are expressive and accomplished, shifting back and forth between urban and natural environments, between black and white and radiant colors. Readers will be delighted to see Helene's world change as she grows up, learning to ignore the mean girls and realizing that, like Jane, she is worthy of friendship and love. The large size of this book might be off-putting, but it is a special one for special readers.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013
Grades 5-9 Pubescent H'l'ne sees herself as fat and beleaguered by her more popular and social classmates, so she turns to Jane Eyre to find a model for setting her prospects both high and anywhere other than her immediate circumstances. Britt's well-constructed narrative is achieved sensitively through Arsenault's impressionistic artwork, in which we see that H'l'ne is a pretty-ordinary-looking little 11-year-old in spite of her self-image. While her everyday lifewhich has become further burdened by an all-class camping tripappears in a gray palette, when H'l'ne daydreams about Jane's life, pastel washes and a vivid red appear. During the camping trip, H'l'ne comes across a red fox in the woods and begins to make some human friends. After a postcamping trip weigh-in, where she sees she's perfectly normal, H'l'ne's everyday world also takes on color. An elegant and accessible approach to an important topic, for readers of Erin Dionne's Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies (2009) and other novels about girls learning to cope with their own expectations of themselves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
In this powerful picture booksize graphic novel, Hilhne, ostracized by her former friends, escapes into reading, specifically Jane Eyre; in Jane, Hilhne discovers an outcast kindred spirit. Arsenault uses varied page layouts and a mix of illustrative techniques to pace the story and express emotion. Britt's poetic prose captures Hilhne's heartbreaking isolation in this brutally beautiful story.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from January 1, 2014
Britt and Arsenault's powerful picture book-sized graphic novel about bullying, self-image, imagination, and (ultimately) hope centers on H'l'ne, ostracized by her former friends and now a loner at school persecuted via washroom wall scribbles ("H'l'ne weighs 216!") and acts of public humiliation ("I stuck a fork in your butt, but you're so fat you didn't feel a thing!!"). With her shattered self-esteem and (mistaken) belief that she looks like a "big fat sausage," H'l'ne escapes into reading, specifically Jane Eyre?; in Jane, H'l'ne discovers an outcast kindred spirit. Arsenault uses varied page layouts and a mix of illustrative techniques to pace the story and express emotion; monochromatic sketches depict H'l'ne's unhappy existence as well as surreal scenes that reflect her feelings, while pages in warm colors relate Jane's story. Britt's poetic prose captures H'l'ne's heartbreaking isolation, nowhere more acutely than on a class camping trip, when her desperation climaxes in an encounter with a vivid red fox: "Its eyes are so kind I just about burst. That same look in another human's eyes, and my soul would be theirs for sure." But it is after the fox has been chased away (and when even Jane Eyre can't help) that she makes a new friend, the ebullient and compassionate G'raldine. This relationship transforms H'l'ne's world, as color begins to appear on the final spreads, highlighting her road to recovery. It's a profound ending to a brutally beautiful story. cynthia k. ritter

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2014
Britt and Arsenault's powerful picture book-sized graphic novel about bullying, self-image, imagination, and (ultimately) hope centers on H'l'ne, ostracized by her former friends and now a loner at school persecuted via washroom wall scribbles ("H'l'ne weighs 216!") and acts of public humiliation ("I stuck a fork in your butt, but you're so fat you didn't feel a thing!!"). With her shattered self-esteem and (mistaken) belief that she looks like a "big fat sausage," H'l'ne escapes into reading, specifically Jane Eyre?; in Jane, H'l'ne discovers an outcast kindred spirit. Arsenault uses varied page layouts and a mix of illustrative techniques to pace the story and express emotion; monochromatic sketches depict H'l'ne's unhappy existence as well as surreal scenes that reflect her feelings, while pages in warm colors relate Jane's story. Britt's poetic prose captures H'l'ne's heartbreaking isolation, nowhere more acutely than on a class camping trip, when her desperation climaxes in an encounter with a vivid red fox: "Its eyes are so kind I just about burst. That same look in another human's eyes, and my soul would be theirs for sure." But it is after the fox has been chased away (and when even Jane Eyre can't help) that she makes a new friend, the ebullient and compassionate G'raldine. This relationship transforms H'l'ne's world, as color begins to appear on the final spreads, highlighting her road to recovery. It's a profound ending to a brutally beautiful story. cynthia k. ritter

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)