Back to childhood

It's always a pleasure to discover a gifted illustrator I've never heard of before. And that's absolutely the case with Dav (real name: David Augereau; ° 1979), a French scenarist and illustrator! The cover already caught my attention. But diving further into this book, took me way back to my childhood memories of Disney, the Fievel-movie (directed by Don Bluth) , ... And it's no wonder that these came to mind, as they seem to form a real inspiration source for Dav. Just take a look at his sketchbook from 2016 to 2018 and you'll know what I mean. 'Beneath the Trees: A Fine Summer' forms the third part in a four-book series. Each standalone story takes place in the same forest, but during a different season of the year. In this book grumpy old Mr. Owl and Mr. Toad don't appreciate the noise and laughter of the playing children in the pond under the summer sun. Will they find their inner child again? Actually, this book holds the middle between a picture book and a comic book. There's not much text and most passages are even wordless, which makes it a very accessible book for young readers. But in fact, the pictures and the story will delight a very broad public and thus is perfect for all ages. You can take a sneak peek at the French version of this book here (just click on 'lire un extrait). For those who master the French language, there's an interview with Dav here (I haven't listened to all of it yet, but it seems interesting though; if possible, I'll edit this review later on and add some of the mentioned info) Finally, to see how Dav transforms a white page into a beautiful work of art, I can totally recommend this 4 minute movie ! *Thanks to NetGalley, Magnetic Press and Diamond Book Distributors for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.