This really wasn't for me.

Heartfelt story, lacking in some ways, but over all enjoyable.

This had a good message. Be who you want to be and not who your parents or other people want you to be, and it is okay to not know quite who you want to be. I thought the story was slow moving at times. I did not feel that engaged. I felt like it would have been told better with more details and if it were stretched out into a longer story.

I liked how it ended, especially with everyone finding their path.

The artwork was pretty.

This was a lovely and charming story of finding your own way, and learning when that path diverges with what is expected of you. I loved the artwork, which had a dreamy quality to it. And I liked the story well enough but didn't think it was anything terribly new, and it felt incomplete. Yes, this is the first book in presumably a series but there were several times I had to flip back because it felt like I'd missed a crucial storybox. I hadn't.

For middle graders, I think this is a good story to give to kids who are struggling with separating their identity from their parents' expectations.

A reasonable graphic novel about two sisters who are more and less successful at ballet respectively. The artwork was great, if you take the manga styling and googly eyes out of it - lovely colours, airbrushed style and massively thrown focus for the backgrounds make a greatly distinctive read. But as is so often the case with French bandes dessinees, the story needs to be read all in one go. This opening volume just gets one of the girls to an awkward crossroads, and the other to the first lesson - and then stops. There can be a heck of a lot to come, which is bound to be quality on this evidence, but reading this fragment is also frustrating in its lack of completion.

Book Review
Title: Emma and Violette
Author: Jerome Hamon (script) & Lena Sayaphoum (art)
Genre: Comic/Graphic Novel
Rating: *****
Review: The cover of Emma and Violette really intrigued me on NetGalley so naturally I requested it. So, from what I got from the premise is that Emma and Violette are sisters who share the same dream of attending Paris’s most prestigious dance school and the competition they face to achieve their dream. It is quite clear from the offset that the girls’ mother helps coach them as she is constantly telling Emma to dance more like her sister which Emma doesn’t want to do, she wants to be individual and different from Violette and it causes lots of tension between the three of them, which may play with the subtitle of this graphical novel; one dream for three.
The art style in this comic is amazing but the story itself is so heartfelt and real. After the audition at their dream school Violette is accepted but Emma is not, and this drives a wedge between her and her sister and mother. However, her mother learns that a lot of the best dancers never attended this school but other less prestigious schools. I really liked Emma’s dad and how supportive he is of her in her slight depression from the rejection of the school of her dreams.
Emma soon realises after watching her best friend Jack dance hip-hop that ballet isn’t really what she wants to do for the rest of her life, while she still wants to be a dancer she wants to change her style. With her father help she begins to change her life for her hair to her room, however, Violette doesn’t take this decision as well as she had hoped. This drives a strong wedge between the sister, but Emma is hopeful as she still has Jack who kissed her before he went away for a vacation. When he returns he has a girlfriend crushing Emma’s hope that they will be together even kissing her in front of Emma which I thought was very insensitive.
At the end of graphic novel Violette has travelled to the opera school and soon of her skills to the other girls who almost immediately accept her as one of the best dancers in the group. While Emma is feeling lost, alone and doesn’t have a clue in what direction her life is going. I really liked this graphic novel and will be getting the second instalment as soon as I can find an English translation. I highly recommend this graphic novel to all looking for a family centred story.

A lovely graphic novel with great coloring schemes and a good story.

*thank you to Netgalley and Europe Comics for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

3 stars.
This was good. I really liked the illustration. They were beautiful and had a real softness to them which was pretty perfect for a ballet graphic novel. One thing that did shock me, was finding out the age of one of the girls. She's eleven and based on the images, I was sure she was about at least 5 years older! She doesn't look that young. The writing is still very small, even on my tablet so this is definitely not for phones to be viewed on if your getting the ebook format. I really really liked the father. He had some very good advice for his girls and he was very loving and caring and allowing his daughters to follow their own dreams, even when those dreams change. It's an emotional story about how things don't always work out. It's lovely the way it's told, and just shows that when something happens that you get upset with, that it doesn't have to be all bad.

The art is really pretty and the story was alright, but it could have ended in a better way. It also ended kind of quickly in my opinion. I wanted Emma to have a happy ending, not just finding a path she's happy about, but also a love interest who didn't ditch her after one kiss. There is a second volume so perhaps when that gets translated and released, maybe it wraps the story up in a high note. Will be looking forward to it.

*Netgalley sent me this short novel for an honest review.

vol. 1 "One Dream for Three"
'Emma and Violette' series

My rating:

🌟🌟🌟

Book description:

Emma and Violette are sisters who share the same dream of attending Paris'most prestigious dance school. Violette passes the first audition with flying colours, but Emma doesn't... Their world comes crashing down. Buy if this vibrant and graceful story teaches us one thing, it's that there may be more than one way to dance through life...

My review:

It's a short graphic novel that gave me the vibes of Step Up movie. The story of two teen sisters that sacrificed years of life for this dream of becoming principal dancers in ballet companies is a story about:

❌pursuing goals
❌trying to fit into expectations parents put on their children
❌being brave to stand up for ourselves and our own dreams

It's very short read that shows us how hard are lives of people in prestigious, private schools. Students spend hours every day to develop and master their skills in order to achieve their dreams. Problem starts when these dreams are not their own but their parents'. Unfulfilled desires mothers or fathers have in their lives become the ultimate goals for their kids.

It's hard to stand your ground in front of other people but the hardest is to do it in front of our loved ones. Admitting to ourselves first and then to our family that their dreams are not ours is the bravest thing to do.

There is many ways to live happy life and many definitions of happiness. The most important thing is to live according to our own definition of happiness and not to let others dictate what we should do with our life.

The novel is very simplistic. It doesn't go deep into the subjects but it's written in very accessible way.

However it's not my kind of book. I guess I am too old to enjoy it as much as a younger reader would do.

#netgalley #emmandviolette #onedreamforthree #bookreview #review #GraphicNovel

This was a sweet story about two sisters who audition in Paris for ballet. However for some reason my copy did not have graphics but only text.

Despite the title, this first volume is about Emma, the older sister of the two middle grade teens. Both she and Violette have trained most of their lives to become prima ballerinas and have really perfected their dance. The book follows the girls trying out for the prestigious Paris Academy and examines what each of the characters want from their lives. The author gives the girls an authentic voice while also making the adults complicated but trying their best even when they fail.

Story: Emma and her younger sister Violette finally have an audience for the prestigious Paris Opera dance company. Excited, they have trained for this all their life. But Emma's more intuitive and less studied dance lead to her not being chosen while Violette's perfect form gets her in. Both girls are torn - Violette feels guilty and doesn't want to attend the career making academy; Emma is resentful but with the help of her father and best friend, begins to understand that there may be more for her in her life and dance than ballet.

Most of the book is about Emma coming to terms with the death of her dreams. She can attend a lest prestigious school but will likely never make prima ballerina. She's jealous of her sister and feels that she let her mother down as well. Her mother, meanwhile, has poured all of her efforts into helping the girls achieve admission to the school; after all, she also wanted to be a part of the Opera as a violinist but was rejected several times. If only HER parents had pushed her the way she is guiding her girls, then she might have succeeded. The girls' father recognizes what the mother is doing for the girls but also that it's time to respect that the girls are old enough to start deciding their own course in life.

Emma is a bit hard to like because she is the typical teenager; the author did an excellent job of nailing that fragile period of middle school in which a girl develops into a woman. But Emma has an excellent boy best friend who, like her father, has some good advice that gives Emma a different perspective on her world. But it is all about a teen's world shrinking to just themselves at that period in life.

The art is beautiful - a mix of illustrations and photo realism. It feels very modern and of its time. The dances are conveyed well but admittedly there were a few scenes that left me confused as to what the characters were feeling or doing (I even misinterpreted one scene as Violette sabotaging her sister's audition). The colors are muted tones of pink appropriate for the tone and setting.

If I have one major nitpick, it's that the female characters are overemotional and overcomplicated while the male characters always see through to the heart of the matter. Between Emma's father and her best friend, they always spout wisdom and dutifully protect the women. It's even the father who has to pull the mother back from her obsessiveness. I wish there had been more nuance in the genders instead of the guys being simple and good and the women being uptight and self centered.

In all, it was an enjoyable read and I look forward to continuing the story. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Am I the one who didn't find any picture inside?

Because, really, I'm confused. It is said that it's a graphic novel. I expected that there's some graphics inside. But I didn't find it. Is it because my computer didn't load correctly? Or, it is the author's style in delivering the story? I don't know the answer.
But I found that this book is a thought-provoking one, because it deals with self-esteem issue. If the author doesn't give any graphic inside, it makes sense, because people always judge first and we only remember what they said. So that's why in this book we only found words. :D

I really like the illustrations, clear and Sharp. The story line is simple yet complicated, maybe i would have liked 10 more pages to have more background about the sisters, but liked it anyway. A story about following your dreams, growing up, competition and talent.

Sadly upon opening this there was no illustrations and the text was unreadable.

Hello
I tried to download this file onto my iPad and onto my desktop using Adobe Digital Editions, but the illustrations aren't coming up on the file so i'm unable to read unfortunately. Shame, because it looks like a great book.
Claire (Book Blog Bird)