'The World According to Francois' by Zabus with art by Collin is a graphic novel about a young boy who likes to make up stories.

Young Francois likes to make up stories, but the other kids make fun of him for it, so he gives it up.  That is, until a mysterious lady shows up and shows him what his imagination can do, and how he can help her fight off an evil writer.

I think this is for younger readers, but it's a bit hard to follow what is going on because the story jumps around and is missing information.  The art is pretty nice, but the choice to letter in script also makes it a pain to read.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I really enjoyed this story and am excited to read the next two books in the series!
There are some points early in the book where it is a bit difficult to understand what is going on, but I felt that added to the experience - we were with Francois in his confusion as some unusual things were beginning to happen. Sticking with Francois is well worth it and results in a in a wonderful climax and ending to this part of the story.

Francois is a small boy who makes up stories thanks to his fierce imagination and spirit. This book is aimed at middle grade. The art is nice and the story is pretty decent too.

Fun and cute, just for everyone and in every moment of their life. Art style is really cute and the story is pretty good.

Not for me. I LOVE graphic novels and was definitely interested in this story by cover alone. The story and context was not enough to keep me loving it.

A beautiful, magical tale about a young boy's journey to embrace his true identity. Francois's character is richly drawn. The prose is crisp and narrative smooth. A tighter editing would have made a difference though. Overall, it was an engrossing read.

I found this a very interesting concept for a graphic novel. Lovers of reading will love this. I have been introducing my students, learners of English to the graphic novel and they will love Francois and his imagination. As others have said, the writing on the digital proof was difficult to read, but I won’t take stars away for this as I believe it to be the reduced quality of the proof files rather than the final version of the book. 


 Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Two and a half stars for this one – it showed a child using their imagination and getting down to the nitty-gritty of being creative, but in quite awkward ways.  Francois is always making up fantastical legends and tales, and narrating them to any kid at school who'll care to listen, and a lot of others besides who won't.  But his gift, even if he gets told to quit his imaginative ways and knuckle down in the here and now, is one that's being sought after by some older woman, and her surprisingly talkative sheets of paper…

What we have is quite the adventure, then, as the child's destiny is shown to be pre-ordained, and then fought for.  But the artistic style, all angular wackiness and Saturday morning TV cartoonishness, really doesn't provide the story with any richness.  The opposite is the case – the magical worlds that Francois invents – and the even more magical one he finds himself in – look brash, tawdry, and not worth fighting for.  (And at the mention of fighting, it has to be said that a lot of the action scenes really needed much more clarity.  What even was that with the whip and the picture and the ping pong ball and the cat??) For a story that's supposed to show the wonder of the written word and all it can do, it has drama and novelty aplenty, but cheapens all of that with the visuals.

This is a colourful, action packed middle grade graphic novel. Francois is a slightly defensive child with a vivid imagination and he is often mocked for his love of creating stories - I didn't find him to be an entirely likeable character but children may appreciate his defiant spirit.

The story got more interesting when Francois discovered he may have a special connection to words and the magical element came into it. However, the story did seem to jump from one scene to another quite quickly and I found it somewhat distracting.

The overall message of accepting yourself for who you are was a lovely one.

Thanks to Europe Comics and Netgally for this ARC.

I was lucky to receive a review copy the children's graphic novel The World According to Francois by Zabus and the artwork by Collin which I found very colourful via Netgalley.  The graphic novel is about Francois who wants to both have a vibrant imagination and being able to  use it in the real world but most of the time this does not work and he is ridiculed.  The story was okay but I found it to be a bit all over the place and some of the writing was so tiny it was very hard to read  and it did not match the artwork which was pretty good.  So for this reason I am awarding The World According to Francois 2 Stars

François is a child with a huge imagination. He’s always creating stories, each one crazier than the last one, and even though everyone makes fun of him, he can’t help it. At times the words come together in his head to form a story, but at other times they act as if they had a life of their own and express themselves openly without his intervention.

But he has reached a point where he is very tired of being the target of everyone’s mockery. He wants to be a normal kid, like everyone else and not the weirdo in the class. He has decided that since his stories do not like or entertain anyone, he will stop writing them. And so, he gets rid of everything he had written so far to start what he expects, be his new life without the interference of the crazy stories he came up with.

François doesn’t take into account the strength of the letters. That no matter how hard he tries to bury them, they will get to the surface and make themselves heard as many times as necessary because together they are invincible.

The World According to François 1-The Writers' Secret is the first part of a trilogy that promises to be different, fun and very entertaining. The premise from which the comic was written seemed to me to be very original and well presented although this first part is very short and we can see only what will be the beginning of adventures with a lot of rhythm and interesting stories.

This was such a cute read! A few comic strips could have been a bit longer and elaborated on, but overall I loved the drawing style and want to know more about Francois and his world! I love that we are left in the dark at the beginning and then get little pieces of his life that add to the big puzzle.

*I received this book as an eARC from Europe Comics via NetGalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Francois is a kid with an excellent imagination. He comes up with inventive stories. He gets bullied so he tries to give up on storytelling, but some force won't let him. There's a mysterious lady and a whole magical world that is unveiled. There's some impressive world building. 

This is a fun, middle-grade graphic novel. It's fun and inspirational. This would make a great gift for a young, aspiring writer. I give this book a 4/5.

A good read! ^^

François is a young boy who invents fabulous imaginary stories. One day, he discovers that words are more powerful than he could believe...

The idea's great, even if the comic is short: a few more pages wouldn't have been too much!

Illustrations are nice, the only problem that I had when reading this book is the text bubbles, which are sometimes too condensed...

In short, a nice read, but too short! ^^

4.5 Stars

A Must try. 
This is a nice story about a young boy who speaks stories without control on himself. I loved the story. I was actually very confused at the start but as the story unfolded, I understood the concept. The story is short but sweet. It also has a moral that life always gives you trouble but you will always find a way to fight it. I liked the moral and style of the story.
 
0.5 taken was due to the tiny print and confusion. Mostly due to tiny print. I judge a book by all the possible things I can use. So a tiny print and painful eyes are added to that too. Otherwise, I loved the concept and the way the author played with the words was a classic too. Its a must-try and the book is worth spending money on.
 
Try it, read it, enjoy it.

*thank you to Netgalley, Vincent Zabus, Renaud Collin and Europe Comics for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


2 stars = just OK.

While the illustrations are simply amazing I found the story to be a bit jumpy and didn't really flow well. I liked the idea of the story but it just didnt work for me.

This was a cute entertaining graphic novel about a 10 year old boy that had an active imagination for writing and was bullied in school for it. He tried to be a normal kind but in the end he settled for both. 
This graphic novel had great drawings but the copy I got it was kind of blurry which made it hard for me to see the words.
The story in general was good and it was fun witnessing François finding himself and not giving up on his passion.

This was definitely an interesting and yet still weird read. 

I think the idea was really intriguing, but it all just happened so fast. The plot was a little weird. I like the message this is trying to convey about writing and how stories should be approached when written and created, but something just didn't work.

A little boy François, loves using his imagination to tell and write stories.  His teachers and classmates become bored with his constant story telling and he is bullied by other children.
He decides to stop writing, at which point he is befriended by an old woman who tells him he is the chosen one. She wants to use François to get rid of the current, self-placed chosen one. Can François overcome the obstacles in his way to take up that position? A great book with lovely art work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this free book in return for an honest review.

A charming story about a little boy who has a gift of story telling. The only problem is that his stories are rather peculiar and his classmates laugh at his constant efforts.

Francois decides to ignore his story telling abilities but something happens. He discovers that he is the Great Alphabet, the person who is responsible for enabling words to form imaginative stories. This calling is fraught with danger because there is already someone pretending to be the Great Alphabet and this person will not yield his power easily.

Francois is thrown into a big adventure as he grapples with this calling and whether or not it is something he actually wants to do. This is a children's story with good artwork and a nice story. It has magic, a young boy and a challenge for this young boy to be fully who he really is. 

An interesting story for a young audience.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.