The Land of Lines

April 15, 2015
A boy and a girl explore an unknown world of sharp lines, conquer monsters, and tumble their way into new lands. Lost in an uncharted land full of angular cliffs and edges, a boy meets a girl who is similarly lost. They befriend each other and learn that hiking and jumping through new terrain is more exciting with a partner than alone. Along their journey through red- and blue-inked landscapes, a yellow, two-horned monster captures the girl. With a bit of ingenuity, the boy saves the girl, and the two escape. With barely enough time to recover from the evil beast, they stumble upon another boy and help him find his way home before returning to their own. Originally published in Switzerland in 2014, Hussenot's pen-and-ink illustration hardly requires translation for its mostly wordless but action-packed pages. His economy of blue and red lines offers surprisingly detailed scenes fraught with hostility or bursting with playfulness. The plot veers into the too-familiar trope of boy meets girl, they fall in love, and boy saves his damsel in distress, but young readers will enjoy every skip, jump, and plunge the characters take on each page. A familiar plot retold in imaginative drawings that beg multiple readings. (Picture book. 5-10)

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July 1, 2015
True to its title, this story--about a boy and a girl who meet, are threatened by a beast, reunite, etc.--is told exclusively in line (and the occasional written-out sound-effect word). Each of three colors--red, blue, and yellow--corresponds with one of the three human characters. Despite these self-imposed limitations, Hussenot elicits loads of feeling with his story(line).

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)