Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic

(Paperback)

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Description

Eleven-year-old Yasmina and her single dad lead a modest life in a cramped apartment in a bustling city. But even though money is tight, they eat like kings. Every day, Yasmina uses her cookbooks and fresh vegetables from the community garden to whip up gourmet meals. That is, until the day the garden is bulldozed and replaced by a field of scientifically enhanced potatoes that are, quite literally, addictive! The whole city-and even Yasmina's dad-is going mad for these potatoes. And what's more, they're slobbering, chasing cats, and howling at the moon! What's the secret ingredient in these potatoes that has everyone acting like a bunch of crazy canines Yasmina needs to find a cure, and fast!

Reviews

[Mannaert's] dynamic style, with thin linework accompanied by vibrant greens and lush salmon pinks, eschews traditional paneling in favor of floating, borderless glimpses into Yasmina's world. ...Yasmina's passionate advocacy for eating with care sustains a wholesome humor throughout.--Publishers Weekly

A delicious and nutritious concoction of fun, thrills, and consumer consciousness, this comic from the Belgian Mannaert cooks up heartfelt characters, an exciting sci-fi mystery, and a bunny gag worthy of old Bugs himself.--Booklist

Mannaert's graphic novel is a silly romp of a corporate takedown heist, with charmingly drawn characters and well-paced action sequences.--Kirkus

Yasmina's creations look absolutely scrumptious and it's clear that dad and daughter bond over her meals, making this ultimately a celebration of the art and heart of cooking; readers will just wish that Yasmina would share a...recipe or two.--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Wauter, whose art was so exemplary on the recent Weegee bio by Max de Radigues, is genius at focusing in on the physical humor of a single moment, elongating it into absurd proportions and making Yasmina's world burst with energy regardless of the vantage point the reader is offered. --The Beat

Author Bio

Wauter Mannaert, born in 1978, has a master's degree in film and animation from the Saint-Luc Arts Institute in Brussels, which he obtained in 2002. He currently works in the Belgian capital as a graphic novelist, illustrator, and cartoonist. Following his studies, and before turning toward comics, he specialized in media education and worked for years with youth in one of Brussels' most deprived neighborhoods. In 2015, his graphic novel El Mesas (written by Mark Bellido) was published in Dutch by Ballon, joining the Europe Comics catalog in English in 2017.