Often Akissi and her cheeky friends are very well aware that they're up to no good, such as when she's craftily charging all her friends to watch the adventures of Spectreman, who is basically Megaman, on her parents' TV whilst her parents are out. The more I stared at even just at the cover with a wild-eyed, rictus-grin-endowed Akissi, arms thrown wide, seemingly bursting out of the book like a motorcycle stuntman crashing through a paper target ready to start some serious mayhem, I thought, 'Yeah, I've got a lunatic exactly like that at home.' If Akissi and her chums could be wired up to the grid, they'd solve the world's energy crisis overnight.Ībsolutely everything about this book is lively on the eye! Even the title page background for each story is a different solid block of strong colour which, when I rapidly flicked through the book, gave me a weird childhood flashback to the plastic ribbon curtains you used to see in the entrance to butchers' shops to keep flies out! Comics, eh? You can practically feel the energy these kids are perpetually vibrating at near-light-speed with, imbued by Abouet's warm and witty writing, and therefore their parents and teachers' consequent mental and physical fatigue from trying to keeping up with them. There's a joyous rambunctiousness to Sapin's art which is immensely captivating. No, it's when the stray cat gets in on the action that it all got out of hand, in Akissi's mind at least.ĪYA: LIFE IN YOP CITY and AYA: LOVE IN YOP CITY's Marguerite Abouet returns, sadly not with collaborator Clément Oubrérie this time around, though artist Mathieu Sapin manages to capture the madcap goings-on of a vibrant small town in the Ivory Coast with equal aplomb, as feisty Akissi and her bunch of ragtag chums run riot and cause their parents and teachers immense trouble, repeated headaches, and indeed even one epileptic fit! She simply wasn't paying attention when listening to the directions she was carefully given by her mum, but I don't think that would be the excuse Akissi would come out with.

There is, of course, a very good reason as to why the mischievous, impish Akissi has failed to deliver an intact fish to Auntie Victo who only lives around the corner, as her mother instructed her to do several hours ago. Mum, Auntie Victo says to thank you but she's not a fan of fish head.

'Akissi! What on earth happened to you!?'

Akissi by Marguerite Abouet