Publisher Spotlight Review: Julia, Child written by Kyo Maclear with illustrations by Julie Morstad

Hardcover, 32 pages
Published July 8th 2014 by Tundra Books
Source: Publisher

Julia, Child is a beautifully composed book focusing on two children with a passion for cooking and a desire to spread their happiness to the adults who go around their lives so glumly. Julia’s experience with French food as a child sets her off on the road to become a chef and she finds in Simca, her best friend, someone who shares her dreams and desires to attain culinary excellence. Together they learn to cook, failing sometimes and succeeding in others. But the world is full of sad grown-ups and so they decide to throw them a party with the most delicious food they have cooked to date. The delicious aroma of the food attracts plenty of adults and at first, things are going very well but then…

The picturebook is beautifully written and stands up to the test of being read out loud. The sentences have a pleasing cadence to them  and reading aloud is as much a pleasure to the reader  as the child listening. The pacing of the book is on point. I like how the story flows. And the art is scrumptious as you’ve seen from the excerpt above.

I think the simplicity of the art will help children relate to Julia and Simca’s adventures and anchor them more deeply into the story. The book can be used to explain to children about certain decisions adults may have to make that are perhaps incomprehensible to them using the child logic they have. Sometimes grown-ups and their actions don’t make sense and this book would be a handy tool to, if not explain, then perhaps illustrate and perhaps bridge that distance between children and adults. Even if you are not the intended audience, I believe this picturebook still has merit as it serves a delicious reminder to not grow up entirely; to retain a little bit of the child in your life. Recommended.