Riad Sattouf

Riad Sattouf is following the life of a real French girl as part of a newspaper comic strip, giving the reader a weekly check-in with her energetic and opinionated personality. This large and slightly awkward omnibus brings together the first three collections, taking Esther A. from 9-years-old to 12-years-old, from a private primary school to a public secondary school.

It's a little slow-going at times, heavy on text and too often letting Esther go off on boring monologues about playground soap opera, her favorite celebrities, detailed dreams, or other flights of fancy. But despite an initial expectation of girlish sappiness, I found a mean streak threaded through that occasionally slapped me in the face as Esther displays childish callousness and cruelty as well as racism, homophobia, and Islamophobia. I like her relationship with her parents, especially her doting father, but her brother's behavior is irritating and even disturbing.

It's hard to read this at a shot, but by doling it out over a week I found myself looking forward to my next glimpse into Esther's life and am now looking forward to seeing the next collection. I see that Sattouf has books in French for Esther's life up through age 15 already.

Side note: Due to the large size of the book and the small size of the text-heavy panels with their tiny asides in a cursive-like font, I'd recommend reading this book electronically instead of physically, especially if you've aging eyes like mine.… (more)