Relish: My Life In the Kitchen

It had been too long since I'd read a graphic novel and found Lucy Knisley's Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, which is an absolute delight. Knisley is the daughter of a chef and a gourmet and grows up surrounded by good food. She is taught the value of cooking and about our relationship with food and she explores these ideas in the format of a lovely little graphic novel. The result is a quick charming read, definitely worth checking out.

The Third Wheel

I bought Isaac the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, The Third Wheel. Isaac, Alan, and I all enjoyed reading the books as they came out so it's been a bit of a tradition to purchase the latest book, even though we don't buy many new books.

That tradition is over now. I hate to say it but I think this series is pretty much dead. The Third Wheel is Jeff Kinney's seventh book in the series and fifty percent of the book seemed like recycled jokes to me. And the way the book began (with Greg reminiscing about his life in utero) was both lame and weird. The end of the book (which unbelievably, I actually did get to) had some funny stuff that was enjoyable, but overall it was not good.

Marzi

I stumbled upon Marzi: a memoir (written by Marzeba Sowa with art by Sylvain Savoia) in the YA section of the library. It had been too long since I'd read a graphic novel and this one looked interesting. It's the story of an ordinary girl growing up in Poland towards the end of communism in that country. It's a fantastic portrait of how communism effected the daily lives of families and shows the struggle for freedom from the perspective of a child. It reminded me of Persepolis, but in a different country, with a different struggle. Sowa does a great job of telling the story through the eyes of a child in a way that's humorous and sweet.

Mi Barrio

I enjoy the occasional graphic novel. There are a lot of great biographical ones and I enjoy the way the story unfolds, the sparsity of the genre, how there are no words wasted, that everything said is important and often has a lot of meaning crammed into each tiny sentence. I read Mi Barrio which was written by Corey Michael Blake and illustrated by Shane Clester and is the story of Robert Renteria, who narrated his story to Blake. It's kind of a rags to riches tale with a heart. I found out about the book from a poster at the library and put it on hold, later learning that this book is used widely in the Chicago Public schools to inspire their inner-city youth. I thought it could perhaps be something my husband Alan used in his classroom as well. Then I read it and saw that some of the content (drugs, gangs, etc.) isn't entirely appropriate for a fourth grade classroom, but would work at the middle or high school level. It's a very short read (only 55 pages) but definite worthwhile.

 (Robert Renteria)