French / France
La clé
(The key)
Woignier, Julia
(text/illus.)
[Nantes]: Éditions MeMo, [2016]. – [44] p.
(Series: Les albums)
ISBN 978-2-35289-301-1
Friendship | Animal welfare | Liberty | Curiosity | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2017
Three animal friends discover a mysterious, Eden-like garden. Oddly enough, there are doors hidden behind the lush vegetation. Insatiably curious, the friends open them. Animals are concealed behind the doors, and they rambunctiously pursue the liberty they so long for, nearly trampling the friends in the process. In bright watercolour drawings, Julia Woignier carefully lets the comic plot unfold, building hidden meaning into the goings-on. The naive and chaotic trio turns the zoo topsy-turvy: the sleeping guard is the last one behind bars. Furthermore, the gang of boisterous rascals doesn’t know what they’ve done until they hand over the key to the sleeping zoo guard! The reader suspects things much sooner and is usually a laugh ahead. This thoughtful animal fable raises important questions for our time, without becoming overly didactic: Why do we still need zoos? Can we still justify keeping animals in captivity?