Julia, Child

by Kyo Maclear, Julie Morstad (Illustrator)

Overview

Julia and Simca are two young friends who agree that you can never use too much butter — and that it is best to be a child forever. Sharing a love of cooking and having no wish to turn into big, busy people who worry too much and dawdle too little, they decide to create a feast for growing and staying young. A playful, scrumptious celebration of the joy of eating, the importance of never completely growing up and mastering the art of having a good time, Julia, Child is a fictional tale loosely inspired by the life and spirit of the very real Julia Child — a story that should be taken with a grain of salt and a generous pat of butter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770494497
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	237,265
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

Kyo Maclear is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author for big people and little people. Her previous picture books for children include Spork, Mr. Flux and Virginia Wolf, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for Illustration, Canada's most prestigious children's book prize. The Letter Opener, her first novel for adults, won the K.M. Hunter Artists Award and was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her most recent novel, Stray Love, appeared on several notable "Best of 2012" lists. She lives in Toronto with singer and composer David Wall and their two children. Visit her online at kyomaclearkids.com.

Julie Morstad is an author, illustrator and artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her most recent book for children, How To, marks her authorial debut, and has received starred reviews in Kirkus, School Library Journal and Quill & Quire, as well as a Governor General's award nomination. Books she has illustrated for children include When You Were Small, recipient of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award; When I Was Small, winner of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize; and Singing Away the Dark, which was shortlisted for a number of children's literature prizes.

Editorial Reviews

A Parents Canada Favorite Children’s Book

PRAISE FOR Julia, Child:

"Julia, Child is not only a book about the joy of cooking, but the wonder of childhood, and, like the best cooking, is meant to be savored.... I guarantee it'll leave you hungry." —The National Post

"Maclear works in a genre that I believe she has invented: the fictional childhood anecdote of a famous person." —Quill & Quire

"... a lighthearted ... allegory about inspiration and its gifts. Intriguing for an adult familiar with the real Julia and perhaps for the perceptive child who will understand that it's not about how old you are, or about what you cook, but about what you bring to the table." —Kirkus Reviews

"If the combination of Canadian gems Julie Morstad and Kyo Maclear doesn't fill your heart with joy I don't know what will." —Vikki VanSickle, author of If I Had a Gryphon

"Toronto-based author Kyo Maclear presents a story that celebrates the joy of eating, the art of having a good time and the importance of never fully growing up." —West of the City

"A playful, scrumptious celebration of the joy of eating, the importance of never completely growing up and mastering the art of having a good time [...] a story that should be taken with a grain of salt and a generous pat of butter." —49th Shelf (blog) 

From the Publisher

01/01/2015
K-Gr 2—This is the story of a girl named Julia who falls in love with French food at a young age (any resemblance to the real Julia Child is purely coincidental). She and her friend Simca take some classes and do a lot of experimentation and decide to pursue a future of cooking together. Because life "was filled with far too many grown-ups who did not know how to have a marvelous time," they are determined to follow their passion and to maintain their childlike joie de vivre. To do so, they create recipes for "growing young," which require no hurrying, and delicate spices "so that worries would disappear and wonders would rise to the surface." Despite some setbacks and needed modifications for clueless adults, Julia and Simca perfect a cookbook called Mastering the Art of Childhood. Morstad's lovely gouache and ink artwork has just the right proportions of sophistication and whimsy to suit the subject matter and to offer epicurious picture-book consumers something to sink their teeth in to. Bon Appétit!.—Luann Toth, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

2014-05-04
A mere hint of Julia Child's collaboration with Simone "Simca" Beck informs this look at how following one's passion can require the fearless enthusiasm of childhood.Though in reality Julia and Simca met as adults, here Julia is very young when she has a taste of sole meunière and falls in love with French cooking. She and friend Simca are just two young girls who meet on weekends to "shop at the market and gather new ideas and recipes." They form a sisterly bond and imagine cooking together always. Morstad's lively art uses Photoshop, ink and gouache, telegraphing a suggestion of the ink-and-watercolor work of mid-20th-century artists like Sasek and Bemelmans. Maclear manages—just—to avoid being directly didactic when, concerned about the sober and dreary adults around them, Julia and Simca prepare "recipes for growing young." Still, there's a rich dollop of sentimentality in the way that the two young cooks bring "all sorts of big, busy people" to a remembrance of childhood pleasures. The result is a lighthearted, if slightly obscure allegory about inspiration and its gifts.Intriguing for an adult familiar with the real Julia and perhaps for the perceptive child who will understand that it's not about how old you are, or about what you cook, but about what you bring to the table. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews

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