I'm slowly working my way through the Read Around the World challenge, trying to expand my reading, and while trawling through my local library for possibilities, I came across this graphic novel from the Ivory Coast. It's for kids, but I don't care: kids books are great. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It's based on Abouet's childhood experiences, so I understand, and the main character's a little girl called Akissi, who spends her time getting into trouble. She fights with her brother, she feeds the neighbour's baby garbage stew (he looked hungry! so she made stew from things she found on the ground, as most kids do - my sister and I used to make Ewey Stew from mud and flowers and silverbeet and so forth, and it was, indeed, ew), she gets a pet and loses it because she won't keep it on a leash... that sort of thing. Akissi is appealing and funny and kind of gross, as most small children are - she actively tries to get head lice, and gives herself worms by eating food dropped on the ground - but that just makes her the more recognisable.