{"id":5088,"date":"2020-04-21T09:04:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5088"},"modified":"2020-04-21T09:04:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:04:52","slug":"the-house-of-madame-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5088","title":{"rendered":"The House of Madame M<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nIt’s tricky to write about books like Clotilde Perrin’s<\/a><\/strong> The House of Madame M<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Gecko, April 2020), because it’s a paper-engineered one. That is, it’s tricky to show art from such a book, because there are flaps; pop-up elements (in this case, a pop-up fireplace); interactive moving parts, such as pull tabs; and even strings. These aren’t exactly things that can be captured in the static images at a website, but I have some art from the book for you today \u2014 in the hopes that you can still get a sense of Perrin’s distinctive style. (If you saw this 2018 book<\/a><\/strong>, you’re already familiar with the picture book joy she brings.) This one was originally published in French in 2019 and has been translated by Daniel Hahn. <\/p>\n

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The timing of the release of this English edition is interesting, because it’d be a fab book for Halloween. No mind. Just hold on to it till then (and in the meantime, we can pretend it’s October now and that we are living pandemic-free). And let me stress that it’s a book you can enjoy any<\/em> time of year. It’s an invitation into the home of Madame M, a home filled with sinister shadows and eerie discoveries; a sort of bird-human hybrid (pictured above) is our guide. You must enter quietly and not touch anything, we read, because she’s a “little peculiar” and “doesn’t live alone.” When you pull tabs and lift flaps to explore, opening cabinets, drawers, appliances in the ghastly kitchen, and much more, you discover that Madame M prefers the macabre. The text understates this (she “has rather odd tastes,” we read), yet our eyes take in sinister warnings everywhere; bones strewn along the floor; a hideous monster hanging from the kitchen ceiling; skeletons in the garbage disposal; and much more. The book’s interactive elements reveal most of the monsters, large and small, and skeletons, though they linger just about everywhere. Look closely, and you’ll even see a tiny winged creature, who appears to be a tiny angel \u2014 to balance things out, I suppose (though this angel could contain multitudes, for all we know). <\/p>\n

The Kirkus<\/em> review<\/strong><\/a> calls Madame M’s home “the Airbnb from, literally, hell.” That about covers it. It all culminates in a set of large, hairy arms. Pull the arm flaps open to see many of the nightmarish creatures spotted throughout the story, gathered in one spot, underneath a sign saying “Abandon hope all who enter here.” The door creaks as our guide mentions that “she” is back, adding: “Don’t you want to lie down for a bit? No? Are you sure?” <\/p>\n

Here are some spreads to give you a sense of what I mean, though remember: Since it’s hard to show static images of a book with interactive elements, you’ll see numbers where there is actually a tab (the numbers of course don’t appear in the book) \u2014 and some of the flaps simply aren’t shown here. Enjoy anyway!
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“Are you lost? Please, come on in. Lucky for you, there’s no one here just now. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“As you can tell, our hostess has rather odd tastes. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“You felt an icy wind brush past? No, you must be dreaming already. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

THE HOUSE OF MADAME M. English language edition \u00a9 Gecko Press Ltd 2019. Text and illustrations \u00a9 Clotilde Perrin. Translation \u00a9 Daniel Hahn. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Gecko Press.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s tricky to write about books like Clotilde Perrin’s The House of Madame M (Gecko, April 2020), because it’s a paper-engineered one. That is, it’s tricky to show art from such a book, because there are flaps; pop-up elements (in this case, a pop-up fireplace); interactive moving parts, such as pull tabs; and even strings. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}