Mannaert, Wauter,; Illustrated by Wauter Mannaert; Translated By Montana Kane. Chef Yasmina And The Potato Panic. Jan. 26, 2021, 160pp. First Second, $14.99. (9781250622044). Grades 3-6 
Chef Yasmina And The Potato Panic, a graphic novel by Belgian artist Wauter Mannart and translated by Montana Kane, follows 11-year-old aspiring chef Yasmina. Yasmina and her father Omran live in an apartment in Brussels, Yasmina preparing their vegetarian meals to eat at home and for Omar to take to his work at a frites shop. A photograph of a woman wearing hijab implies that Yasmina’s mother has passed away and that the family is Muslim, but there are no indicators of specific racial, ethnic, or cultural identity of the family. Yasmina’s cooking is delicious, their limited budget supplemented by Yasmina’s resourceful foraging and friends running community gardens. Still times are tight, and despite her initial reservations, Yasmina finds herself occasionally sneaking onto the lush rooftop garden of her mysterious upstairs neighbor to pilfer ingredients.
When a big potato corporation buys up farms in the city and its outskirts things change for Yasmina. The company wants to monopolize the potato market with genetically modified crops, engineered to be irresistibly addictive, so much so that the populace start displaying bizarrely gluttonous, aggressive zombie-ish behavior. Yasmina no longer has access to as much fresh produce and her visits to the rooftop garden increase. While Yasmina is discovered she also find out that her elusive neighbor has a surprising link to this disturbing corporate potato scheme. Rallying her friends, Yasmina embarks on a daring (and silly) mission to expose the truth, take down the corporation, and restore balance to her community.
Mannaert’s narrative is fun and charming, but also visually engaging, employing sequential vignettes along with traditional panels to propel the story forward with dynamic action sequences, and find balance between words and illustrations. Older readers or those reading with children can approach the narrative with surface level fun or ask deeper questions around healthy eating, access to fresh produce, and even genetically modified foods. Still, it is up to the readers to engage in nuanced conversation about food access as well as the costs and benefits of GMOs, corporate interests, and food insecurity and shaming of food choices in the context of access and the privilege in food waste, particularly for readers in the United States. Still, this graphic novel raises awareness of access to food in a way that is fun, celebrates joy in cooking, and community.
