Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2021)

Author-illustrator Kantorovitz's (Zig and the Magic Umbrella, rev. 5/15) graphic memoir is an engaging and thoughtful story of an observant child who grows into a young adult eager to pursue teaching and art. Kantorovitz and her siblings lived at a teacher-training college in France where her father was the principal. They had the run of the campus, and Sylvie eventually moved into her own private room, a "kingdom" separate from her family's apartment. Her childhood was marked by her mother's moods and her high academic expectations for Sylvie -- "it doesn't count if the others also got As." With relatively few words, Kantorovitz describes her parents' difficult marriage and the support she received from her father; it was he who encouraged Sylvie's love of and talent for art. The book's design is open and friendly. Large cartoon-style illustrations, sometimes just one to a page, are uncluttered and attractive, making them inviting even while they explore difficult themes, including Sylvie's fear that her Jewish faith will set her apart from her friends and classmates. Even at a hefty 350-plus pages, the book looks so approachable that it will likely attract a wide range of readers who will discover a strong story about navigating family, school, and friendships while finding one's purpose. Maeve Visser Knoth

Kirkus Reviews

Scenes from a girl's everyday life.In charmingly illustrated panels, readers are invited into the small triumphs and sorrows of cartoonist Kantorovitz's youth. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, in the 1960s, when she was 5, her parents moved back to France, and her father took a job as a school principal. Sylvie and her three siblings grew up on the grounds of the all-boys school, and brief vignettes explore her relationships with her parents and siblings as well as her friendships, romances, and developing creativity. At first each story seems disconnected from the rest, but as Sylvie grows up, a central narrative around her desire to pursue art coalesces, especially after her family moves to a town near Paris. Kantorovitz uses a muted palette, mostly greens, browns, and yellows, with bold lines and pleasingly stolid figures. Similarly, her life is interesting but fairly straightforward-this is not a memoir of war, abuse, or extreme marginalization. Sylvie, a White Jewish girl, is the target of some prejudicial labels for those born in North Africa and experiences mild anti-Semitism, something her mother is always on guard against; her mother is similarly obsessed with Sylvie's being appropriately feminine. But the overall tone of this story is comforting, warm, calm, and deeply satisfying.Quietly appealing for young readers with a taste for realism. (Graphic memoir. 9-13)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This tightly composed illustrated memoir spans Kantorovitz-s childhood from the late 1960s through the 1970s, when her family emigrated from Morocco to France and lived at a teachers- college where her father was the director. As a girl, Sylvie sketches while paging through the encyclopedia, later refining her ink and watercolor techniques. These anecdotes reinforce Sylvie-s love of illustration, lending suspense to years of pressure to choose an education career. Like a photo album, chapters distill ordinary events, glossing over them without erasing troubles: Sylvie attempts to conceal her Jewish identity, questions her parents- strained marriage, cares for three younger siblings, sees her misbehaving brother depart for boarding school, and weathers rocky times with her judgmental mother. High school brings a chaste heterosexual relationship and baccalaureate anxieties. Throughout, airy layouts allow for reflection; a crayon map of the walled grounds early on implies the pleasures of childhood expeditions, and chestnuts from local trees become a nostalgic visual motif, reminding readers of Sylvie-s formative moments. Introspective, this chronicle traces a winding path, concluding with optimism and promise. Ages 9-12. (Feb.)