Yasmina loves to cook and whips up a gourmet meal for her dad every night with the help of her community garden. However, when this garden is bulldozed into a potato factory, Yasmina steals food to make ends meet and people start to act strangely after eating the potato products. It is up to this young chef to figure out what is going on with the potatoes and figure out a way to keep her town safe.

This was a gorgeously illustrated graphic novel. The illustrations truly brought this story to life. However, the plot had a few glaring holes in it for me. The first hole that confused me was why Yasmina's father did not know that Yasmina has no money to spend on food. That seems a little strange and unrealistic that a dad would be clueless about the lack of food money. Second, Yasmina stole from her neighbors garden, but she was never punished or had any remorse for these actions. This was very disappointing for me because it is hard to recommend a book that does not address the problems with wrong actions, even if they are for the right reasons. However, at the same time, I loved the fantastical elements of the mind-altering potato plants and Yasmina's resolve to save everyone. To end this review, I am utterly confused about whether I would recommend this one or not. It is a great story, but the plot holes also pretty glaring.

This review is based on an ARC copy provided by NetGalley.

The artwork in this graphic novel is gorgeous. The artwork eloquently depicts the story of a young girl who sets out to save her town from something odd happening to the townspeople. She turns into an unlikely hero who uses her knowledge of plants and herbs to deduce what is happening. I was blown away by the beauty of the artwork. I definitely recommend this book for young audiences who love a good light hearted mystery. I mean who doesn't love French fries.

I received an electronic ARC from First Second Books through NetGalley.
Humorous with dark undertones that challenge readers to think about what they eat on one plane, and who/what they believe and follow on a deeper one. Yasmina loves to cook and work hard to cook healthy meals for her dad. Hints of past grief and current financial struggles are easy to pick up from the artwork. Sadly, to cook her vegetarian (by necessity) meals, she has to steal from a neighbor's rooftop garden to supplement what she gets from others she knows. When her friends' gardens are plowed under to build a huge factory farm, the real changes begin. They notice that people who eat the new chips have definite changes in personality. They follow blindly and move in packs. In fact, they appear to show dog-like characteristics. Together with her two friends and neighbor, they solve the mystery, defeat the owner, and develop a solution to change people back.
The underlying themes are woven throughout and tied in by both the text and illustrations. The artwork offers further hints and background so readers can flesh out the full story.
Looking forward to reading more in this series.

Plot: This was a really unique plot! I don't want to say too much about it, because I don't want to spoil it, but it was very unique!

Characters: The characters were well done! It was easy to tell the characters apart, and they had their own personalities.

The Art: I really liked it!

The Cover: It fits the book, and I love all the cooking elements on it!

Overall: If you're looking for a unique Graphic Novel, with good art, I would definitely recommend trying this one!

3.5 stars!

Fun and silly middle grade story with an entertaining bad guy, evil potatoes, and a heroine who cooks! It is a quick read and for kids who love cooking I think they will enjoy seeing Chef Yasmina's creations...and maybe even be inspired to upgrade their own lunches. I also think middle grade readers will like a few of the gross parts of the book!

Having spent time in Belgium I greatly appreciated the nod to french fries in a cone, but I do wonder if there will be some details that are tricky to my students here in America...the money is in Euros, they likely have never seen french fries in a cone so that drawing may be a bit confusing and in the recipes grams is used.

With thanks to NetGalley and First Second Books for an early copy in return for an honest review.

This book has been published in English before, but in two volumes. Together, as one volume, the story seems to drag a little in the middle, that I didn't notice when reading it separated by a few months.

This is the evil altered potatoes that people are eating, and starting to act funny, and Yasmina, who always prepares the food for her father, and doesn't eat fast food, doesn't notice until the community garden that she gets her veggies from is taken away from her.

A nice enough story. Really wonderful bad guys, but, as I said, it sags a bit in the middle. Good middle grade story, though. Strong heroine.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

E ARC from Edelweiss Plus

Yasmina and her father live in an unnamed European city. He's a cook at a french fry fast food restaurant, and she goes reluctantly to school while dreaming up her next cooking project. Since money is tight, she gets vegetables from two friends at the allotment, older men who constantly bicker back and forth, debating the virtues of growing things organically or with chemicals. She occasionally goes to the roof of her apartment building and steals vegetables from the woman who gardens there. When the allotment is cleared by a shady corporation who plants fast growing potatoes, Yasmina figures that something is up. The product is selling right and left, supplanting other products, and making the consumers act very strangely. Without the vegetables from her friends, her father goes hungry and starts to eat the products of his own restaurant, which have an ill effect on him. In one of her forays to the rooftop garden, Yasmina spies a logo in a news clipping that looks like the one the potato farm has, and finds out a secret about her neighbor. Will she and her friends be able to find an antidote, stop the evil corporate farm, and restore good food to Yasmina's world?
Strengths: The illustration style reminded me a bit of a picture book I had as a child, a hand me down from neighbors who had been stationed in Germany. (Katy and her Baby Buggy? The title escapes me.) The style is quite different from that of many middle grade graphic novels, with more delicate lines and more details in the background. Mannaert talks about his choice of color palettes at the back of the book, and I think he made a good call NOT using red and blue! Yasmina's interest in cooking and in locally grown produce (she also picks wild plants from the surrounding neighborhood, consulting a book) are admirable, especially since she is also helping her family economically. Her friendship with the two gentlemen on the allotment is nice to see. The evil corporation sends this book in a science fiction direction that was quite fun.
Weaknesses: This was a bit on the goofy side, and my students aren't terribly interested in gardening, based on the lack of success of titles involving those topics. Since this is a graphic novel, we don't get much of Yasmina's back story about why she cooks, why her family is struggling, etc.
What I really think: I thought this was more clever and enjoyable than many of the graphic novels I've read lately, but I'm not sure my students will feel the same way. I may see how they do with the Brina series first, before investing in this book. I would definitely purchase this for a public library.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.com

First scene: A female scientist seems to genetically blend a fly and a potato. ACK!

Summary: A company buys a plot of land and begins producing and selling a special brand of potato chips that are addicting and make the consumers act a little off. A young chef, Yasmina, teams up with a scientist and two gardeners to stop them.

My Thoughts: This graphic novel was very fun. It was a quick stand alone read, although I do see some potential for sequels with the same characters. Foodie kids and young teens would definitely enjoy this book.

FYI: Trigger warning: vomit depiction. Gross!

Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic was such a wonderfully delightful read. Yasmina is a chef who loves using veggies. The town starts acting odd after a new food is introduced, and she's determined to get to the bottom. I really loved this and hope we see more of Yasmina!

I don't quite know what to make of this book. There was a lot going on, and it took a while to get to the point. There were some pages with almost no text and some which were almost all text, which sometimes seemed jarring when going from one extreme to the other. Several plot points were fairly bizarre, and while obviously this isn't meant to be realistic, it just seemed too difficult to suspend disbelief. I also found it hard to get past the idea that Yasmina's father didn't realize they had no money for food and they were only able to eat because she was getting all of her ingredients for free. He was kind of out of it, but that's pretty extreme (and I think the target age will notice that, too).

I do think there are some fun parts of this book. There are some funny and gross parts which kids will probably appreciate. The art was well done and it's great that the author described his process at the end. Overall, this just kind of missed the mark for me.

The advertising blurb for this title describes it well: silly and action-packed. Yasmina is a fun, unique hero who leads her father and several neighbors in tracking down and bringing the villain to poetic justice. I do wish there were more young people involved in the chase; besides Yasmina, all of the other characters are adults. Still, the zany happenings will appeal to a middle grade audience.