Le Prix de mes Larmes

At the end of the previous volume, Héliotrope had lost her pretty blue colour and seemed at last at peace… Until she realises that her tears, the first in a long time, are turning into strange blue crystals! Could this be another twist of fate, or a sign that something disastrous is waiting for her in the woods? Frightened, Granny decides to sort the matter out as quickly as possible and whisks her granddaughter off to the strange icy mountains, where there is an astonishing city populated by worrying creatures…

After 54 albums, it was bound to happen: Basile is having a bit of a meltdown! He’s still serving science, but where’s the joy in that? Fortunately, to save Mozzarella from boredom, Leonardo has come up with a brilliant idea that’s worth all the antidepressants in the world: the circus! Taking pies, getting beaten up, confronting wild animals or entertaining the gallery – all in good fun – that’s what Basile knows how to do. He’s even a genius at it!

At the age of 10, Christine sees her mother die of complications she had during pregnancy. She finds solace in running—a passion that remains with her into adulthood. When she finds out that there is a Paris Marathon, she knows she must take part. What she doesn’t know is that women are not allowed to enter…

Sitting in the front room of her brothel, Madam Anne Bonny, once a pirate of the South Seas, looks back on her life… and the story of her adventures is
rather shocking!

An illegitimate child born in a remote Irish village, Anne escaped her dreary destiny by fleeing to the Caribbean, where she fought with pirates and met the love of her life, Jack Rackham.

Claire Richard plays with the clichés of the pirate genre in this feminist rewrite of a well-known story, whose humor lies in the disconnect between official history and modern reinterpretation.

At the Tockburger circus, Teddy, a child of the ball, meets donkey Pom and horsewoman Maggy. Together, they leave the circus and embark on countless adventures and investigations – often with the help of the colossal Tarrass Boulba, their protector. 70 years after it first appeared in the pages of Journal Tintin, Le Lombard is giving François Craenhals’ series, a veritable jewel of the clear line, the setting it deserves.

Veloce, an anxious and reckless young velociraptor, is on a quest to find answers to the mocking mammals’ claims of the future extinction of his species. The small mammals mock Veloce and his fellow creatures, saying they are too big, too pathetic, too stupid to survive. For them, the dinosaurs are doomed to extinction, and all the better because they eat all the resources of the planet, destroy their habitats, and roam the earth aimlessly. Veloce tries to ignore it, but the predictions still worry him. His parents, too busy with other priorities, tell him that only the wise Troodon and the old Ankylosaurus have in the past already figured out the long journey our heroes will take.

Parents Emma and Malo don’t know what to do about their son Sacha. He is 8 and, like most other kids of his age, is a manga fan, his favorite character being Mitsuo. But, when they watch him closely, they notice that Sacha is not like other kids at all. He is in a different world, his own world—or rather the world of Mitsuo. For Sacha, reality is what he reads, and he lives his life through his hero.

Communicating with Sacha becomes increasingly difficult, until finally his teachers inform Emma and Malo that he can no longer attend school because he requires more attention than they can give him.

Faced with this crisis, Emma and Malo have different ideas as to what to do. When they are unable to agree on a course of action, Emma decides to run away with her son… and, like him, to take refuge in the world of Mitsuo.

François’s mother would like him to leave the Resistance. In fact, the struggle is intensifying. Everywhere, clandestine cells are attacking the workshops and men of the occupying forces. People are getting organised in anticipation of the Allied landings, which seem imminent… In response, the Nazis issue the Sperrle Decree, which ramps up repression in France, aided by the French Militia. François, Lisa and Eusèbe are now young adults… and if they get caught, they will be condemned as such. But now is not the time to give up!

Alix is a young woman who seems to have everything going for her. No sooner graduated in Art than she lands herself a job and signs a publishing contract for a graphic novel. In her personal life, too, she is having a smooth ride, living happily with her long-term boyfriend. Yet this happy public image contrasts sharply with a private anguish. Alix suffers terribly every time she makes love. At first, she blames herself, convinced that she must continue to have sex if their relationship is to survive. But before long, the pain becomes unbearable and she must tell Seb the truth.

In this autobiographical story, Alix Garin speaks for thousands of women who suffer as she did but don’t dare admit it—because female sexual desire is still a taboo subject in our society.

It’s with great pleasure that we return to the benches of Belle Épine school and Monsieur Perrault’s class. In the village, while the shop fronts decked out in their finest finery warm the hearts of the pupils, the bitter cold heralds a harsher winter than the last. Never mind, it’s high time to write a letter to Father Christmas! Greta would like her mum to find a boyfriend; Tartarin is fed up with wooden toys and wants lead; Hansel and Bretzelle want their weight in sweets; Narcolette wants unicorn pyjamas… As for Monsieur Perrault, he seems to be in deep thought on the eve of the holidays…

Alongside life at Belle Épine and the many allusions to fairy tales that readers will delight in discovering, in this volume the teacher reveals a new part of his story, the dark and sad story of the war years. In ‘Les racontages de M’sieu Perrault’, the light-hearted scenes of snowball fights and walks in the woods sit alongside more reflective, even difficult sequences, just like the tales from which they are inspired. An ode to friendship and kindness, Volume 2 offers a new interlude that is both poetic and infinitely gentle.