Drinking rich and creamy milk, seeing the sights, licking your lips after a scrumptious pastry…who wouldn’t want to go to Paris? Lucy Knisley takes readers on her journey with her mother to Paris, France where they stayed in a little apartment for six weeks. Lucy shares pictures taken while she was in France, as well as hand-drawn pictures; both of these help illustrate this graphic novel in an educating and unique way.

Although this story might not be as interesting without the pictures, French Milk is made complete by the Lucy’s drawings of her surroundings while she was vacationing in Paris. The story that goes along with them is just an added bonus. Lucy and her mother both have a love of food and cooking, so much of this story revolves around making and consuming food, but there are other tidbits of this story that don’t have anything to do with food, but are delicious just the same.

This book is a wonderful depiction of the relationship between mother and daughter, and how even though children grow up and move away from home, they can still take time out of their lives to go on an overseas trip with a parent and have a wonderful time free of work, typical stress, and the distraction of other relationships.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 2 religious exclamations; 3 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity; 1 scatological word; 2 F-Word derivatives

Violence/Gore: A pet dies; mythological tales are mentioned, involving cutting off heads and gouging out eyes.

Sex/Nudity:  Adults are shown to be kissing in a picture; a woman thinks about the “Really good sex” she has with her boyfriend; a condom wrapper is shown in a picture; a “cute lesbian couple” is referred to; art depicting nudity is shown in hand drawn pictures; a woman thinks about sex with her boyfriend.

Mature Subject Matter:

Divorce.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink wine.