Guardians of the Louvre

Gr 9 Up—Taniguchi tells the story of a Japanese artist who visits France and decides to spend several days at the Louvre. Shortly before going to the museum, he gets sick, and for most of the narrative, it is not clear if he is feverish, dreaming, or seeing things as they really are. Each day when the artist arrives at the museum, he sees things that should not be possible, such as people wearing clothes from other periods in history, empty rooms instead of crowded ones, and a woman who embodies the spirit of the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue. The artist is able to enter paintings, where he finds himself in different times and places, speaking to artists like Vincent van Gogh and admiring famous depictions of rooms and landscapes. This is a quiet, informative, and painterly work that sometimes feels like an infomercial for the Louvre. The title is oversize (bigger than a manga but not quite a coffee-table book), and since it's translated from Japanese, it reads from right to left. The story is illustrated mostly in earth tones, except for the Winged Victory of Samothrace, who wears a long pink gown.