Jim’s crossing tells the story of the illness in a few pages tenderly illustrated by Nathaniel H’Limi who comes to translate the stupor, the anger, the incomprehension or the exclusion using drawings that are sometimes explicit, sometimes elliptical.
Jim speaks directly to the reader and tells him that he wants to tell his story. “Because the day my world was rocked by illness, I wish I knew where I was going. Above all, I would have liked to know that life goes on, even with cancer “.
When the doctor pronounces this word, still taboo, in front of him, the images flash through his brain. Cancer, of course he has heard of it, but to imagine that he could be affected by the disease, he, the handsome guy, quite funny and rather nice, as he explains, hooked from the outset on the buoy of humor…
Nurses in the spotlight in “Mademoiselle Papillon”
Anger, withdrawal, calm…
The journey begins with a meeting with the psychologist, but Jim is in a fog, does not answer any of the questions and then lets his anger explode. “I imagine there are as many ways to react to the news of cancer as there are human beings on Earth.” he specifies, adding that some friends were angry like him, others rather withdrawn into themselves. Alia Cardyn wanted to translate this diversity. “Everyone goes through challenges in their own way. So it was a big challenge. I interviewed young people who had been ill, doctors, psychologists from Canada, France and Belgium and I immediately decided that diversity would be the key word of this story. I wanted to give the reader freedom. Some people won’t want to get too emotional, others will. I really didn’t want to pass judgment. I remember meeting a person who didn’t want emotions but wanted calm. This marked me. I told myself that I should not project my own vision of things.”
It doesn’t take long for Jim to collapse. He remains on his bed, inert, no longer wants to move, speak, eat, wash. Just sleep. And then, suddenly, the words flow into his mother’s arms. Words but also tears, questions about the coming months, his life to come. “I cry in her arms and she rocks me gently. She keeps telling me that she loves me, that we will get through this together. It may be strange what I’m about to say, but at this precise moment, while my world is no longer my world, around her I feel good.”
Improvised rap
Revolt, feeling of injustice, need for normality, family tensions but also complicity with Safia, also sick, or with Jojo, the nurse, will further punctuate this story.
There will also be improvised rap in the hospital, the virtual meeting with the class, a great way to dispel preconceived ideas, to talk about the disease without taboo, to remind people that hair loss is not contagious and that moments of weakness are legitimate. Until the dreaded word, that of death, is spoken.
“During my interviews, I also met a black person. When we told her that she had cancer, she did not believe it because on the posters which mention the disease, there was never black children. She therefore believed that she could not develop it. That’s why I wanted to represent her. I had a lot of doubts during the writing. nurses, psychologists It’s a clan book more than an author’s book My publisher and the National Book Center also supported me a lot. “.
And the adventure has only just begun. The book has just come off the press but students from Cours Florent are going to perform it in schools. Furthermore, Alia Cardyn is already receiving very touching testimonials from parents. They read the book to their sick child, sometimes cry a lot, but say they have the feeling of moving forward.
The Readers Club Award for Alia Cardyn
⇒ Jim’s crossing | Youth novel | Alia Cardyn and Nathanaël H’Limi | Robert Laffont youth, 73 pp., €15. From 9 years old.
: “I told myself that I shouldn’t project my own vision of things”){kind=link}