Every week, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf has a chat with his friend's 10-year old daughter, Esther. She tells him about her life, her family, her school, her friends, her hopes, her dreams and her fears. And then he creates a one-page comic strip based on what she says. This book is a collection of 156 of those strips, comprising the first three volumes as they appeared in Europe, spanning Esther's life from age 10 to 12.
Don’t be misled by what at first seems like naivety, even cuteness. These funny, well-observed comics are fantastically daring ... Sattouf has drawn a portrait of a generation: their hopes, dreams and cultural references; the way that their personalities, backgrounds – many of the children portrayed have parents who are immigrants – and preconceived ideas about sexuality begin to play out even before they’ve begun secondary school.
The cartoon seems loose and light-hearted at first glance, but the ugly underbelly of growing up in the French political landscape appears beneath the ink ... Readers seeking to experience a strange, yet at its core, familiar slice of life in a country steeped in multiple cultures will enjoy the perspective provided in this collection.
Sattouf... captures the unsentimental, wickedly funny realities of childhood in this collection of his inspired weekly comic ... The comic is, above all, ruthlessly honest about childhood ... Readers will laugh through tears as they follow her eye-opening exploits.