CARMEN

The dark story of Carmen retold as a disquieting coming-of-age tale.

An unnamed 9-year-old boy narrates, announcing that he always carries a special ball, and though he hates fighting, he’ll do so if anyone takes it. He introduces his hero and friend Don José, a corporal in the Dragon Regiment of Alcalá, who, the narrator tells us, is a real dragon (he mostly appears as a man until later in the story). The boy also describes his plan to marry his beautiful, free-spirited neighbor Carmen when he grows up. Don José falls in love with Carmen, but his obsessive behavior leads to violence and tragedy. The innocent boy watches events unfold and in the end is left deeply disillusioned. The action is depicted as dance movements from Carmen as choreographed by the Spanish National Dance Company; the art portrays death and violence, and sexuality is implied. Complex black-and-white illustrations with touches of subtle color—bright splashes of red in Carmen’s costume and her signature rose, the green dragon in varying sizes, and the always-present brown ball—highlight and inform the text, translated from Spanish. In a few illustrations, Carmen and the dragon are shown as dolls, potentially causing some confusion. The boy shares profound, hard-won insights on the nature of love, though young readers might need to share this tale with a reassuring grown-up to fully understand it. Characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Difficult, disturbing, and shocking but worth the effort.