Three things will help you with the background on how I chose this book:
1. I read many books simultaneously, and one of the categories of books that emerged relatively recently is graphic novels. I do not have a comics-reading background to lean on, so this is a new way of reading that I am embracing as a part of my kaleidoscope of consuming stories.
2. When I encounter a new topic that I would like to familiarize myself with or when I am having a hard time reading a book (or finishing it), one of the strategies that I've found helpful is to look for a kids' version on the same topic.
3. The "Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben is a very interestingly titled book that came highly recommended, and I really wanted to love it. I checked out of the library several times, but somehow never finished. So when I saw a graphic adaptation by Fred Bernard, I had to check it out, and now I am happy to report - it is a glorious graphic novel!
Benjamin Flao is a comic artist with a fabulous line of a dip pen in a flexible ink who did all the illustrations. There is a lot of light in this book! It is filled with trees and plants and all sorts of creatures. I especially enjoyed pages where the artist used a scale distortion! (see below how our main hero is crawling inside the tree to explain the parts of the bark?) I used to own a book on human anatomy where the main character was traveling through the body - I cannot find the name of the book, but it was a real thrill to follow through the adventures. Our protagonist has a companion with a great grin and a happy tail. There are four seasons, which are illustrated with such care! And through all the ups and downs of this story, I felt very much invested. This kind of feeling is something I treasure.
And it was obvious that the artist loves to draw. I am sure that by the end of drawing 235 pages on the same subject - and in a multi-panel comics structure to boot, anyone would be really happy to do a different project. Yet the line is alive and playful. It reminded me of a "Carnet de Voyage" graphic novel by cartoonist Craig Thompson in the way he enjoys building compositions of amazing humans, architecture, and animals intertwined on a page made with the Pentel pocket brush (my love for this tool is abound). I love "Carnet de Voyage" more than "Blankets" - possibly because the subject is much closer to me, and possibly because it feels like it was drawn in a much freer way - the way "Hidden Life of Trees" is drawn in.
