By Laudec & Cauvin
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 978-1-84918-003-0
Cedric is eight-years-old and the trials of his life will be familiar to everyone. I did question what this book could offer me, presuming it was aimed just at children, and perhaps because there's a slight resemblance to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, this didn't look like it was ever going to live up to that standard. Which was, of course, stupid.
My daughter (nine at the time of writing) snatched this one straight-away and squirrelled herself away for an hour with it. She came back beaming, enthusing about how funny it was and how much she liked the characters. So I picked it up with the intention of trying to look at it through her eyes, but really that proved unnecessary. The book is broken down into short stories, usually resulting around a family tension or Cedric's love for a classmate, Chen, but what makes it a particular draw is that you really do get a sense of what it was like to be eight. There's your inability to comprehend or influence certain situations, your bafflement at how adults operate, and the ongoing confusion over your own developing feelings. The focus of the stories was not that he was always getting into trouble or up to no good, but just that he was dealing with being eight, and you can't help but get attached to him for it. The illustrations are superb too, and beautifully coloured to maximise each panel. This is certainly a book I'll pick up again when future volumes come out, but next time my daughter may have to wait a little longer before she can read it.
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