Review by Woodrow Phoenix
Rebis: Born and Reborn is, as the title indicates, a story about transformation, set in medieval Italy. In a small village deep in the countryside, villagers gather to watch as two women accused of being witches are burned to death. At the same moment a woman gives birth to a baby with no colour in his skin or hair, an albino. His appalled father is persuaded to keep him, but as he grows, little Martino becomes an object of shame for his parents and horror for the villagers who believe he is cursed and will bring ruin to them all. Carlotta Dicataldo’s strikingly lovely illustrations of this medieval world are full of detail and character as the bullied and shunned little boy wanders alone in the forest, playing with insects, which are the only creatures he can befriend. One day, deep in the forest he comes across a woman with strange, sorrowful markings on her face, who is not scared or repulsed by him.
A complication to how this book appears, because of how well all the colouring is superbly applied in expertly lit, gorgeously balanced palettes, is that the albino skin of Martino is integrated into Dicataldo’s beautiful compositions instead of isolated, as it is on the front cover art. So most of the time the reader does not get a sense of how jarring and strange pink eyes in a completely white complexion are. This undermines the story because Martino merely looks pale and rosy-cheeked, so it seems his father and the villagers are overreacting to some arbitrary silliness. When his father decides to get rid of him, Martino runs away and his new friend in the forest, Viviana takes him in. But there is a very good reason that she lives as far away from everyone as she does.
Without giving too much away about the second half of this fantasy tale, the word ‘Rebis’ comes from the Latin res bina, or ‘double matter’ and is generally used to describe a being ‘of both male and female qualities’. Irene Marchesini’s scripting turns magical and mysterious at this point as the deep bond born out of shared sadness between the child and the witch results in a rebirth for the boy into a new and happier form. But it is not a form that is any more acceptable to the villagers than before. What will Rebis do now?
Rebis: Born and Reborn is a beautifully told fable with many imaginative and subtle touches in the imagery. The tone of the story sits somewhere between children’s book and young adult and the result isn’t completely successful. However, as the colour palette shifts from yellows toward blues in the second half of the story, Rebis finally looks otherworldly, the secrets of Viviana are revealed and the ending seems to hint another book may follow this one. It will be worth looking out for.
