Dix petits nuages
By: Muzo
Publisher: Èditions Autrement, France, 2007
Format: Hardback
Ten little clouds...
This cute little book is published by Èditions Autrement, a house that published a series of great silent books between 2007-2014, amongst them the Fox and chicken-triology that we have already reviewed. All of their wordless books are in the same format: a 16x27 cm hardback binding. This is a good size for small hands, and when opened, it creates long horizons to be filled for the artist.
Dix petits nuages ( translates to "Ten little clouds"), is not a complicated silent book, but a very sweet story with lots of smaller stories hidden inside. At the first picture we see ten little clouds in the sky. As we turn the pages, one by one cloud finds a purpose: One provides shade for a character in the desert, one is a soft nest for a bird, one is a ballon for a character that is sad because he lost his real balloon, one is the head of a snowman. All of these characters and actions makes room for lots of little stories. At last, there is only one cloud left, looking rather sad and lonely. He flies over a witches´ house, and the steam from her brew creates a pink cloud. In a cheeky and sweet little passage they kiss, hide in a tree and reappear with eight little baby clouds.
The book has a variety of spreads with one picture per page, or series of 3-4 pictures. The characters are all anthromorphized animals: Dogs, chickens, cats etc., wearing clothes and walking on two feet - apart from the witch that is a woman with black clothes and a hat. All items on the pages has clear outlines in black, filled with bright colors. The background is white, leaving lots of room for the reader to "fill in" the enviromnent. The title is printed only on the spine, leaving both the front and back cover completely wordless, which is always a nice touch in a silent book.
Even though this is an uncomplicated story, the spreads where the layout shows a series of illustrations of the same character (like a storyboard) is sometimes difficult to read for the youngest children. They tend to read a spread like that as many different characters, not one character doing different things. Because of that, this book can also be great for developing visual literacy and an understanding of how these kinds of books, as well as comic books (where this is a common storytelling technique), can be read and interpreted.
