Akissi: Feline Invasion

K-Gr 2—Akissi lives with her two siblings and their parents in West Africa. The book consists of a series of brief anecdotes, the subtitle coming from the first one. It would be overstating the case to say that the stories depict Akissi's adventures; they're nice, possessing the quiet charm of dinner-table anecdotes, and have a similar unpracticed lack of structure or resolution. Quaintly redolent of an oral tradition, they lack spark as stories on the page, never seeming to build either a composite understanding of Akissi's character or of the environment and culture in which she plays. The artwork is lumpy and scratchy, eschewing most formal cartooning techniques, but this, along with the nature of the stories, helps give it a personal, authentic feel. Brief and ephemeral, this will distract young readers momentarily, but there's nothing memorable here.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH