A hurricane in a skirt named Miss Acacia, a pet hamster with a very naughty name, and a cameo appearance by Jack the Ripper make this a memorable book. In Mathias Malzieu's "The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart," Jack's damaged heart functions with the aid of a cuckoo-clock installed in his chest. But Jack must be careful, because anger or love will break this fragile mechanism. In spite of the risk to his life, he journeys from Edinburgh to Andalusia in search of his beloved Miss Acacia. Malzieu paints delightfully gorgeous and grotesque pictures with words. His lush, fruity, sugar-adorned imagery leaves me hungry for more of his pretty prose. Jack's unwavering adoration of Miss Acacia is so fairy-tale perfect that it is uninteresting, but Malzieu's lustrous images and amusing supporting characters make up for the dull romance. I love journeying with Jack through laboratories filled with small mysterious bottles, a twinkling 19th century Andalusian circus, and a ghost train decorated with bones dragged up from the catacombs.
Tim Burton fans will especially love the balance of eerie and romantic imagery. "The Mechanics of the Heart," an animated film based on the book, comes out in October 2011 (and no, Burton wasn't involved). The Brentwood Library has one copy of this book. Place a hold on it today!
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