Wall Street Journal Review - Mela

In “Mela,” Maddalena Schiavo adapts the real-life experience of the book’s illustrator, Eleonora Pace, in telling of a timid puppy that is adopted by a young girl and her family. At one point, Ms. Pace shows Mela traveling by car to her new home under a gorgeous starry sky; at another, she depicts the young dog cowering at the onslaught of unfamiliar crowds and noises. “Any sudden sound could make her run and hide,” the girl tells us, as lightning snaps over distant mountains. “But she realized I would find her and make her safe.” “Mela” doesn’t so much tell a story as it traces emotional arcs: from solitude to togetherness, from unease to contentment, from anxiety to calm. —Wall Street Journal

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