The Delicious Life of Julia Child
This post is part of Nonfiction Monday
hosted today by Practically Paradise
and joins It's Monday! What are you Reading? at Teacher Mentor Texts
(pub. 5.22.2012) 48 pages
A True Tale with A Cherry On Top
A uthor and illustrator: Jessie Hartland
C haracter: Julia Child
O verview from the jacket flap:
"She changed the way all of us - kids and grown-ups - eat in America.
She starred in a pioneering TV cooking show.
Growing up, she was a tomboy and a prankster.
She had size 12 feet!
She worked as a spy during World War !!.
She wrote one of the greatest cookbooks of all time.
Here's the delicious, true story - from soup to nuts - of the one and only Julia Child."
T antalizing taste:
"... Boston public TV station WGBH offers Julia her own cooking show.
'I'd like to call it THE FRENCH CHEF. It's short and to-the-point.'
Even people who don't like to cook watch the show and love it!
[On The Chicken Show] Julia Child presents the chicken sisters. 'Miss Broiler! Miss Fryer! Miss Roaster! Miss Caponette! Miss Stewer! and old Madame Hen!'
And Julia's advice should something fall on the floor? 'You can always pick it up. If you are alone in the kitchen, whoooooo is going to see?'
The shows are not live, but - to save money - they are all shot in 'one take' (no editing) which is tricky.
There are some very funny moments.
Once Julia pulls a used bundle of herbs from a stockpot and says, 'It looks like a dead mouse.'
Another time she simply TOSSES an inferior loaf of bread over her shoulder. 'No good! That bread!'
... On the suckling pig show she carefully cleans the pig's ears and teeth before cooking. But when it comes out of the oven, she can't cut it into chops. 'You try to carve it - I certainly can't.'
... 'Oh, nuts! I burned the sauce.'
'Don't apologize for your cooking mistakes. It is what it is.'
'I'm Julia Child. Bon appetit!' *
* She ends each show saying this."
and something more: My sons attended the same high school as Julia Child, but in her day it was an all-girls boarding school. In Bon Appetit!, author Jessie Hartland writes "[Julia] really doesn't take school all that seriously. High school French class is a disaster. 'Je ne comprends pas.' "Tres mal!' (She will make up for this later) ... Julia spends the first months [in Paris] studying French. She loves to talk and believes that nothing is more important than being able to communicate. She works hard. It will take her two years to speak well enough to get by; four years to be fluent."
Author-illustrator Jessie Hartland writes in her dedication, "... And lastly, thanks to my mom ... for fabricating for Xmas 1965 the brilliant French cafe dollhouse (complete with tiny food and menus in French!), which got me started on France, cooking, and Julia Child." Jessie's wonderful illustration of Julia cooking in her kitchen in Provence reminds me of a French dollhouse, with all the food, books and utensils labeled in French. How sweet is that?! Tres bien!
8 comments:
That sounds interesting. I've been rereading Julia Child's autiobiography/memoirs over and over, and there's something about her writing that is captivating. This sounds like it may have captured some of her spirit.
Yes, I know what you mean. I think it's her voice -- her way of writing SOUNDS like her voice and her way of looking at the world and food, of course. I like that this book includes lots of quotes from Julia.
Julia Child! What a great idea to create a picture book about her - and including her quotes is brilliant.
Yes, and it's funny because there is actually another picture book about her that was published this May -- Minette's Feast - The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. I'll be posting about that book soon, too.
What a creative picture book. I love the quotes in it.
Happy reading this week! :)
Yes! Some of them are quite funny -- she's so candid.
This looks good, but not one for summer diet time!
Yes, especially as Julia LOVED butter!
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