I don’t usually read graphic novels, junior graphics even less frequently, but this, I think, is one of those that transcends any attempt to pigeonhole it into a specific age category (see Maurice Sendak on the subject). The only reason I stumbled upon this gem was because I absolutely adore Isabelle Arsenault’s illustrations, which led me to do a search to sate my need for more Arsenault in my life.

Jane, the Fox & Me takes you through the life of a girl being ostracized from her class- and schoolmates, told in  quiet, black-brown & white illustrations  –  the blacks not quite black and, in not being starkly contrasted with the white, soft – with sudden pops of colour that introduce the protagonist’s, Hélène’s, inner world and imagination. The use of colour plunging the reader into the world of Hélène was a lovely touch, the illustrations of Jane Eyre appearing in full colour, seeping out into Hélène’s dull reality through the fox (then again, perhaps not – who knows where the fox existed, in truth?) before she is able to see the world as she saw her escapes from reality before.

Although I’ve so far only discussed the beautiful daydream-like quality of Arsenault’s illustrations, which help set the mood and renders this novel less of a cookie-cutter bullying story and more of a nuanced, multi-dimensional view of how ostracization affects its victim and those around it, the plot definitely deserves some praise also. The speed at which Britt proceeds in unfolding the story and revealing certain information at just the right time – when Hélène verbalizes all her insecurities and all the lies that had been thrown her way, which have no basis in reality, and realizes that her perception has been so skewed even though there had never been anything other than what the group of girls had repeated at her over and over – as well as showing not only the bullying itself, but also the life Hélène has apart from school, at home, and the relationship she has with her mother (how she doesn’t want to worry her mother, doesn’t want to admit to her mother that she’s being left out) – all of it is just so perfectly done!

Complement Jane, The Fox & Me with Virginia Wolf (written by Kyo Maclear), Alpha, and My Letter to the World (Emily Dickinson poems).