Ariol #4

The fourth volume of Emmanuel Guibert and Marc Boutavant's charming French series finds young Ariol — the wide-eyed donkey with his trademark round glasses and backpack — sharing a park bench with a cheerful cow character, hinting at the kind of everyday schoolyard social adventures that make this series so endearing. The warm pink cover and Boutavant's delightfully expressive character designs give the book an immediately inviting, playful energy that draws readers young and old right in. *Une jolie vache* ("A Pretty Cow") promises another slice of Ariol's wonderfully ordinary world, published by Bayard Presse in 2008.