Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child Deborah Stevenson Hartland, Jessie . Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child; written and illus. by Jessie Hartland. Schwartz & Wade, 2012. [48p]. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-96944-7 $20.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-86944-0 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9. The centenary of Julia Child's birth is bringing out celebrations of the noted cookbook writer's life, such as Reich's picture book (reviewed below) and this quirky graphic-novel-styled biography. Hartland faithfully follows Child's life, outlining her war service and her relationship with her husband, then focusing in detail on her encounter with French cookery and the long process of creating her seminal [End Page 511] cookbook, then depicting her emergence as a surprising television star. The story is particularly effective at evoking Child's sometimes peripatetic life (page footers identify each new locale), her gusto for exploring food and cooking wherever she went, and the painstaking and complex process of translating French cookery into an American bestseller. The draftmanship evinces a childlike visual style, but the simplicity is deceptive—the dense and sometimes chaotic design of the pages and handwritten text in both cursive and print takes sophistication and patience to navigate, since the book lacks the clear panel boundaries of most graphic novels and requires readers to often sort out the directional order of the text for themselves. The pell-mell mix of text, captions, and art and insouciant disregard for geometry may appeal to kids who cut their teeth on Maira Kalman, though, and the overpacked pages, with whimsical gouache figures in childlike style of unabashed awkwardness, recall the work of Bruce Ingman (Ahlberg's The Runaway Dinner, BCCB 9/06). Julia Child is a fascinating slice of history from quite a few angles, and readers interested in food and cooking may not be the only ones who find this story of her culture-changing life intriguing. A recipe (from the author, oddly, not Julia Child), a brief note about visitable sites, and a partial bibliography are appended. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois