Harvey: How I Became Invisible

by Hervé Bouchard, Janice Nadeau (Illustrator), Helen Mixter (Translator)

A sophisticated and original graphic novel, about a young boy's reaction to his father's death.

Harvey and his little brother are playing in the slushy streets of early spring when they learn, out of the blue, that their father has died of a heart attack. Everything changes and Harvey’s favorite movie, The Incredible Shrinking Man, suddenly begins to dominate his fantasy life. When relatives try to get him to look at his father in his coffin, Harvey finds himself disappearing.

Brilliantly illustrated, emotionally true and devastatingly sad, this book is an artful and utterly convincing study of one boy’s response to great loss.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Comics, Death, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Canada

168 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Herve Bouchard is a professor of literature at the Cegep de Chicoutimi and a novelist. His novel Parents et amis sont invités a y assister won the 2006 Grand prix du livre de Montreal. Harvey, his first children's book, won Governor General's awards for text and illustration. Herve lives in Saguenay, Quebec.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young boy comes home after playing with his brother and his friends - only to learn that his father has had a fatal heart attack. As the adults around him try to comfort his mother he starts to feel he is disappearing...poignant and powerful look at how we all navigate grief.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvey appears to be the first of a series of graphic novels by Bouchard, with lovely muted illustrations by Janice Nadeau. It's a story principally about grief, with a central powerful image inspired by Harvey's favorite movie: The Incredible Shrinking Man: As Harvey realizes hs father is truly gone, he begins to disappear, become invisible.

This premise was used for a bit more comic effect in The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide (and illustrated by Edward Gorey):

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Harvey and his little brother (who is actually taller than him) are involved in gutter toothpick races one summer, when they see an ambulance take their father--who has had a heart attack--away. The story is told from the baffled and confused perspective of a kid, which adds a layer of heartache to the tale.

It's a kind of cross between a graphic novel for adults and children, to be appreciated by both groups, and it is really more of an illustrated book than a graphic novel (more words than needed for a graphic novel, more words than Nadeau needed to tell the story with her deftly emotive images), and it ends dramatically (that disappearing act of Harvey) but a bit too abruptly, but I liked it a lot and hope they tell more of Harvey's story.

Check out this trailer to the 1957 Sci fi movie The Incredible Shrinking Man (which, yes, I actually watched in probably the early sixties):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnDfr...

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be quite beautiful and moving. Yes, it is sad but that doesn't make the book as a whole (story and illustrations) any less wonderful. Some comments I have read claim that this book does not have an audience or that it is not appropriate for a young reader but I respectfully disagree. A book like this is appropriate for whoever gets something out of it. Not every 10 yr old will like this book...certainly not! Not every 36 yr old will either. It's a special book and its special readers are out there. Do not discredit this book because it has a niche and do not mislead yourself into thinking the niche is tiny.

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the 7 books that I bought during the opening day of the 33rd Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) yesterday. I even filed a half-day leave just to be able to catch the best wriggling worms. While strolling around looking for bargain books, I was approached by a gorgeous TV station field reporter of GMA asking for an interview. I thought I'd love to but I remembered my boss did not know the reason for my half-day leave and my wife didn't know that I was there!

I went there with a fellow book lover, my friend Po. I was the first to spot this gorgeous book by Herve Bouchard Harvey so I showed it to him. He wanted to have his copy too so he tried going around and around but he could not find any. So, I told him that I would read this right away so he could borrow.

Originally written in French, this book won Canada's Governor General's Literary Award for graphic novels in 2010 and it's English translation (my edition) came out only last year, 2011. I got this only for P99 or $2.00. What a nice worm to find, right?

Have you seen the 2002 movie "Talk to Her" (Hable Con Ella). It is a famous movie because Time Magazine included it among the All-TIME 100 Greatest Movies. In the story there is a male caretaker who tells stories about the movies he has just seen to a beautiful ballerina who is in coma. One of the stories is about a shrinking man.

The idea of the shrinking man is also her in this book. One night, the young boy, Harvey can't sleep. So he goes out of his room that he shares with his younger but taller brother Cantin. He finds himself in the sala, he turns on the television, sees the story of the shrinking man and it becomes his favorite movie. One day, while he, Cantin and some friends are going home from school, they see many sad people in front of their house. Harvey and Cantin's father had a heart attack and they are just in time to witness the ambulance taking their father away.

The illustrations are uniquely beautiful. No strong colors. No sharp edges. Beautiful depiction of Canada's small town covered with snow. The texts appear like written by a young schoolboy using a grade school pencil complete with previous erasures. They appear as school work submitted as a school requirement of a grade school pupil. Very charming.

This is the sample of the page with Harvey, Cantin and their mother grieving:

While Po was searching for his own copy of this book, another friend and a fellow booklover, Tricia, arrived. She first told me that she would not buy anything this year because she has not finished reading even half of the books that she bought last year. I did not say anything because maybe I was in that same situation heehee. So, when I went back home last night, I picked this up right away and read. Not only to lend this to Po but also not to be like Tricia who is still to read the other half of her MIBF haul last year.

Last night I had a good start with this beautiful easy to read book. Thanks, Bouchard.

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad, affectionate and moving. Told with just a few sentences and lovely delicate drawings.

A tiny story of big loss and grief. One early day in spring Harvey and his younger brother come home from school finding a quiet group of neighbours and an ambulance at their doorsteps and their mother in despair. Their father has just passed away because of a sudden heart attack...

'Father took up all my thoughts and I found that he, all by himself, made for a lot of people in my head.
[...]
But if so many people here are seeing the same man, and if each of them has a different picture, that means no one is getting at the truth all by himself. And maybe the way to see for real is to listen to all of them, because maybe each of them is seeing less than they think.'

Voor een inkijkje: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSRoFXHIVE9/

[Josephine (biblioseph) · Rating 4 out of 5]

To say it was amazing seems bizarre. It affected me greatly. I wanted to cry for Harvey and his realization of his father's passing, but I was in a public place and supposed to be working. I've learned that people frown when you cry while reading Children's books.

This book is never obscene or grotesque, it's obsession is merely slight fixation, and it's dipiction of the deceased is through the mind's eye of a child. Definately alright for younger children who have lost someone or who express an interest to understand, as well as for anyone else who enjoys children's literature. This is wonderfully written.

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spring, a time of growth and the season that leads to those endless childhoods that reigns throughout the Summer is marred for Harvey by his father's fatal heart attack. After a day with his taller, younger brother, Cantin, and their friends racing toothpicks down a gutter, Harvey returns home to find an ambulance outside his house and his father gone. As our sole narrator, Harvey explains to us how this event was what leads to him becoming invisible...

Winner of no less than two of Canada's Governor General awards (for both the writing and illustrations), Harvey is a fusion text of sorts - part graphic novel, part mini novella - something that floats between both - displaced. Bouchard's text, translated by Helen Mixter, is melancholic throughout, tainted with a somber tone whilst Nadeau's captivating illustrations are a melange of smudged, browns and dulled yellows presented deftly played in from a range of perspectives often situated from Harvey's eyeline.

The final moments, when Harvey asks his uncle to raise him above the wake so that he can see his father in the coffin, are so sad and poignant. Wordless, we see Harvey raised above the crowd, gradually fade away from existence. This is a powerful and heart-heavy concept that I suspect many young children who have suffered loss like this will be associate with. Don't hide this from those that need it; share it.

[kezzie ʚ♡ɞ · Rating 3 out of 5]

✩ 3.75 stars

[Jamie Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, although it feels a little unfinished to me. I mean, logically, I understand the ending, but emotionally, I wish there was more to it. It won the Governor General's Award for both text and illustration. It is definitely a unique format for a book... Not quite graphic novel, not quite novel, not quite picture book, not quite wordless book... But a combination of all these...

Well worth a read, but with having read so many really good books lately, a little disappointing.

Also, it is considered a children's book... I'm not sure about that...

[Jackie "the Librarian" · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is one of those books that you either love or hate. This story of a boy's childhood in Canada, and what happens when his father dies, has a certain understated sensibility that I didn't connect with.
Muted colors, a slow pace, and wordless passages bringing us in to the setting through illustrations of stylized deconstructions of the village had a quiet, melancholy loveliness. I liked seeing the 50's style hairdos on the ladies, the village priest, and the kids racing toothpicks on chunks of ice getting carried off into the gutter. The book does an excellent job of evoking the feel of that particular time and place.
But I wanted more of an explanation of how and why Harvey, as it says in the title, goes invisible. And what happens after that. Without that, I was left feeling both mystified and unsatisfied.
Also, who is this book for? The sensibilities are juvenile, but the reminiscent feeling is more adult. I'm not sure who the audience is. The "special reader," I guess.
This gets a shrug from me.

[SkywalkerSyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

**3.5 stars**

This graphic novel takes a heartbreaking snapshot look at a little boy named Harvey, and the days after his father passes away from a heart attack.

This was a super quick read for me as the author lets the use of illustrations take charge and speak for the majority of the story. Surprisingly I think I spent more time on the pages with zero text just taking in the weight of the pictures and what they symbolized.

The part of this book that made me the most sad was just how innocent the children were to what exactly was going on. It broke my heart to read because Harvey and his younger brother search the entire house for their father as they are genuinely just my understanding what has happened. Definitely could have been a tear jerker if this story had established more characterization beforehand. But seeing as this is just meant to be a short look, I don't think that's a major downfall.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A captivating little book with beautiful pictures. The story focuses on a young boy's emotions on the sudden death of his father.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated and written, this story is a child's POV of his father's sudden fatal heart attack. The artist does not use framed images, opting for the page turn to create the closure a reader usually gets between frames. The illustrations have an editorial feel. The entire book seems like a preface or prologue so the ending felt as if the author and illustrator ran of steam to tell the story. There is a sequel planned. The book received the Governor General's Award in Canada.

[Myriam St-Denis Lisée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livre magnifique, bouleversant, poétique.

[Stephanie Pronovost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un magnifique album jeunesse. Il s'agit d'un roman graphique dont les illustrations viennent si bien soutenir la lourdeur de l'histoire, vécue à hauteur d'enfant. Beau, simple et touchant.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful graphic novel about grief and loss from a child's perspective. I would give it 5 stars but for the confusion around its intended audience. The pictures are quite sophisticated but the message is quite simple. I'm not sure a younger child would have the attention span while an older child might get bored. As an adult, I loved it.
I could see reading it to a child who has experienced grief as a discussion starter.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful story and illustrations. Very, very sad. Understated.

[Alina Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow, bleak zooming in, moving from gray, snow-swept landscape to a huddle of small houses, a dusty car, a small boy on a bike. So begins "Harvey," narrated, in diary-like form, by a boy of the same name. We are briefly introduced to Harvey’s brother, Cantin, with whom Harvey has a resentful relationship — Cantin is young, but significantly taller, and Harvey hates being small. Harvey’s mother, on the other hand, has an antagonistic relationship with the weather and a fondness for damning everything.

“But this time of first spring is also the time for the races in the gutters. And it’s also the time when Cantin and I lost our Father Bouillon. And it’s the time when I became invisible. So there are lots of things to tell.”

Harvey recounts his father’s death with a soft sadness, a lonely detachment, almost as though he is watching himself move through the events instead of being present to witness them. The somber illustrations, cast in a muted color palette of browns, light blues, and ochre, underline the sorrowful text, as does the shape of the text itself. The handwriting is deliberately neat, in all caps, with occasional eraser marks that show how Harvey struggled to tell the story. A bell-shaped priest offers little comfort; all of the neighbors shamefully watch as Harvey’s father is rolled away in an ambulance.

The illustrations almost seem like they are fading away before your eyes, much like Harvey’s happiness. Their house is no longer a house, but a black box in which the three unhappy residents — mother, Harvey, and brother — are doomed to wait out their sorrow. Harvey further conveys his hopelessness through a retelling of the film The Incredible Shrinking Man. Just as Scott Carey shrinks in the movie, so does Harvey’s sense of self shrink in the face of the tragedy. While attending his father’s wake, Harvey disappears within the pain.

The book doesn’t end on a false note of happiness, nor does it suggest that happiness is the natural state to which Harvey should return. Instead, the story ends in the middle of Harvey’s sadness, a powerful argument for the utility of mourning. Furthermore, the book is completely devoid of condescension, a quality that, by itself, marks it as a work of quiet dignity, a seemingly private story to which even I could relate.

Is this an uplifting book? No. But it’s very simple. And sometimes, when talking about something as empty as death, simple is all that you can deal with.

Overall rating: 4.5/5

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved everything about this graphic novel - which is a cross between a children's book and a graphic novel. The muted drawings were exactly suited to the text, of a child's experience of loss - since they resembled children's drawings. Even the lettering was perfect - and the drawings of the characters, also referred to the world of childhood.

The book is about loss, and trying to deal with it, from the perspective of a child. The world of the protagonist, Harvey, is portrayed or suggested, with his observations of the world, the snow, spring setting in, his relationships with his school mates and brother. The story within a story is the story he sees once on late night TV, a science fiction movie on a shrinking man. Does this refer to his own world, which is about to shrink or perhaps shatter into entropy with the loss of his dad? The book perhaps is a comment on the "boat" race - of the toothpicks in the gutter rivulet as the snow and ice melt. Scott Carey, the shrinking man, is the dot on Harvey's toothpick. That toothpick gets stuck on a miniature ice-floe, it is last in disappearing down the sewer grating, but it eventually disappears into the sewer - just as, the book seems to suggest, everyone and everything eventually disappears. And Harvey himself "disappears" - as part of his world is obliterated with the death of his father, a disappearance that is graphically illustrated at the end of the book.

This is a book that I would recommend to anyone of any age. You can read it in under an hour (even if you're a slow reader like me). You'll find drawings and text you can appreciate on every page.

[sarabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Harvey by Herve Bouchard is about a boy who becomes invisible when his father dies. The main characters of the book are Harvey, his brother Cantin and there mom. The book takes place in the town they live in. The conflict of this book is that Harvey’s father dies and he is too short to see his father for the last time, because he is in the coffin. The story’s resolution is that Harvey’s uncle lifts him up to see this father for the last time and that’s when he becomes invisible.


The book was good, but it was a little confusing. The pictures they show in the book are very clear and you can tell what is happening. It starts when they are walking home, Harvey and his brother cantin, from school and they get home and they see a lot of people around their house. They wonder what is going on. Then they find out their father has had a heart stroke. They are all sad. The day of the funeral comes and Harvey is too short to see his father in the coffin. He thinks he will not see his father for the last time, and then he sees his uncle holding out his hands. Harvey runs to his uncle, his uncle lifts him up he sees his dad and that’s when he becomes invisible.

[Julie Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

HARVEY is not a book to read if you don't want to be depressed, but it's THE book to read when you are depressed.

If we wanted books to find readers in their own time, the way HARVEY made its way to me is the stuff of book marketers' dreams. A librarian handed me a copy not knowing I had at one time worked for Groundwood Books, just that she thought I'd dig it, nor did she know (or I) that soon there'd be a significant death in the family and that the youth would have trouble understanding the loss or its weight on their mother, my partner. In the days that followed, I sat in bed at night, her head in my lap, and read HARVEY aloud.

There's no sunny ending that awaits the reader. The clouds don't part. There's no catharsis. Instead, it concludes on a somber note of new beginnings and what it must feel like to be a child who will spend his life growing up without a father.

Janice Nadeau's illustrations are particularly stunning, an absolute perfect rendering of the sensation of loss: sparse, somewhat foggy, and faded.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most of the illustrations in this book are just beautiful. However, the illustrations are the only good thing about it. It has a depressing, confusing plot that doesn't get resolved. It just ends, abruptly. Who is supposed to red this book? It's too dark for kids, too simple for adults, and not interesting enough to appeal to teens. "Harvey" cannot be classified as a graphic novel, because it doesn't have boxes or speech bubbles. It's formatted like a too-long picture book, although it's too short for a novel. I would advise you to stay away from this so-called "arty" book.

[jenna Hudrlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRILLIANT AND BEAUTIFUL! LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous and moving. My best purchase at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF.)

[Sylvain Bérubé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Histoire d'enfance et de deuil, avec ces questions sans réponse, ces situations sans sens.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvey is a graphic novel written by Hervé Bouchard, illustrated by Janice Nadeau, and translated by Helen Mixter. It is a sparse, evocative look at a father's death.

An early spring day is forever changed when Harvey and his brother arrive home, just as their father is being wheeled into an ambulance, dead of a heart attack. Harvey's mother curls up alone and because of his small stature, Harvey can't see into his father's coffin, and he mulls conflicting images of his father based on mourners' comments. When an uncle lifts him up for a better view, Harvey disappears, like many might wish they could in such a situation.

Harvey is written and constructed rather well. In somber shades of mauve, teal, and charcoal, Nadeau's delicate, smudgy spot art and full-bleed scenes create a stark world for Harvey's plainspoken observations. Heartbreaking imagery abounds: after gawkers disperse, the silhouette of the family's home suggests a gemstone, white-hot under pressure.

All in all, Harvey is a pensive graphic novel, with hushed, desolate notes and is best suited for thoughtful readers, who are ready for a quiet literary examination of loss.

[Alreem · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "Harvey: How I Became Invisible" is one of my favorite realistic fiction books i've read so far! Harvey and his younger brother are driving home from playing in early spring when they learn that their father has died of a heart attack. This is an incredibly moving and entirely true story about a young boy's loss. I gave this book 5 stars as it really makes you think and the book makes you go through lots of emotions while reading it. It's a book I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes realistic fiction books.

[Anna Ilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je viens de terminer la lecture de ce magnifique album de jeunesse qui traite de la mort et du deuil. Harvey et son petit frère doivent traverser une dure épreuve, celle de la mort de leur père. Cette histoire est très touchante et pourrait être intéressante à exploiter avec les élèves de tous âges.

[Gunjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read any book on grief and death to divert myself. I have lost my father 2 weeks ago and I wanted to be alone with any book. Humans' interactions are killing me at this time. So, I order a few books for myself and they all are about how to deal with grief. We are living in such a horrible time now that any book related to grief and death in the library is on hold and there are 50 people in the queue to get it. This book is the only one that was available after a week so I put a hold on it. I got the notification today that it is available in my account now and I started reading it.

It helped me in a different way which I can't express in any words. I feel numb so there is nothing else to write how I feel nowadays. But this book helped me to accept my reality.

[Beatriz · Rating 5 out of 5]

“As pessoas veem o mesmo homem, Cantin, mas cada um tem desse homem uma imagem diferente. Isso quer dizer que ninguém por si só vê o que há de verdadeiro. E o jeito de ver a imagem verdadeira é talvez ouvir aqueles que o olham, porque talvez aqueles que o olham vejam menos do que querem fazer crer.”