L'Enfance Volée (The Stolen Childhood) is the first of three graphic novels in Le Petit Verglas (Little Icicle) series. We get two stories here: one of a boy exploring the woods and finding a mysterious place (and gaining mysterious healing powers), and another of a girl growing up in an unusual experiment. The girl gets more of an explanation, as she's been sheltered from almost all human contact since a very early age, in the hopes that a person without physical and mental attachments will be a better human than one smothered with "excessive maternal love and caring." The two storylines cross near the end but there's no cliffhanger moment prodding us to want to read any further. I did like the art -- it set a pretty good mood through the story, even if a few of the panels were a bit dark.

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LT Haiku:
Nature or nurture?
Experiment with girl might
Give us the answer. ( )