This unusual graphic novel shows a slice of life under Communism through the eyes of school-children, revealing how small, innocent acts can have unexpectedly significant consequences in a society where it seems that everyone is lying, both to others and often to themselves. It begins with a childish kiss that forces a stop to a Stalinist propaganda film and ends with a small child being pressured to steal the work of his dissident poet father while his friends in turn find themselves revealing harmless pieces of information which could amount to a denunciation.

It’s a curious and not quite stable mix of the child-like and the more adult with the view-point of children on scenes of violence and oppression as well and truth and ethics and sometimes this makes it difficult to identify the intended audience. At times it veers close to an interpretation that seems a little too black and white, the good people too good and idealistic the bad people too bad (and idealistic too) but the glimpses of the personal lives and thoughts and doubts of the teacher and headmaster, as the representatives of the loyal, just prevent it from becoming too simplistic to be effective.

The artwork is beautiful, the depth of the scenes and the range of expressions on the face of the characters subtle and moving. The fear and suspicion pervading society is powerfully portrayed when children are placed under interrogation and used as evidence against their parents and there is a powerful message for independent thought and a defence of small truths in the service of larger ones, the small resistances in the face of oppression. Overall a thoughtful and beautifully produced story that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be or for whom.

Dark and twisty. This definitely did not end up where I expected from the cover and discription. Very dark.

Although it isn't named, this story is taking place after World War II in what, in the west, was known as the Eastern Block, the Eastern European countries that the Soviets took over. The children are being taught to love Russia and especially Stalin. It is at one such screening of a propaganda film that the little boy, in the title of the story, tries to kiss a little girl, and she screams. The film is stopped, and he is questioned, more than one would imagine for such a minor incident. His father is a writer, and the authorities think he is writing something that he shouldn't.

This is all being told from the view of a child. The child knows his father writes, but doesn't quite understand, in the beginning, why this is bad. As the child says in class "We can think whatever we want, but we can't say it."

It is a gripping, sad, thoughtful story of the little things you can do to not have the "state" take over your very thoughts.

Good, quick story. Recommend it highly. Very well translated.

Here are some examples of the artwork, which says so much with just a few pictures and words:
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/poverty.png">
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/classroom.png">
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Screen-Shot-2018-02-05-at-1.27.56-PM.png">

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.