Rutabaga the Adventure Chef

January 19, 2015
Once readers get used to the idea of a nearly bald roving chef who saves the day by cooking delicious food for the warriors in his medievalesque fantasy world, they’ll read through his exploits voraciously. Accompanied by dragon-fighting friends Winn, Manny, and Beef, and his walking cauldron, Pot, Rutabaga wanders the land, “searching for strange and magical ingredients,” inventing dishes like Roasted Mud Leech and Ghost Mushroom Salad. In episodic escapades. He tracks the monster Korkanis by identifying the Pyka’s Palm seeds in its droppings and challenges a crabby one-eyed cook to a cook-off. (“You’re going down, old man,” Rutabaga snaps, although his bowling-ball head takes the sting out of his tough-guy talk.) Newcomer Colossal’s stories bubble with inspiration, laughs, and even a few poignant moments. Readers will rejoice to know that more books are on the way, although it will be a while before they’re willing to try Rutabaga’s recipes: “1) First off, Korkanis meat is tough! Get out your meat mallet... 2) and just go to town on it!” Ages 8–12. Agent: Charlie Olsen, InkWell Management.

January 1, 2015

Gr 2-4-Rutabaga is on the prowl for adventure, but not the kind that most knights and warriors yearn for. As an adventure chef, Rutabaga, along with his magical walking kettle, Pot, explores magical lands and looks for rare ingredients and exotic monsters to cook in order to make the most amazing meals possible. He first follows a group of knights on the hunt for a giant and possibly tasty dragon and soon ends up cooking for everyone, from kings and royal pets to barbarians and ghosts. Things hardly ever go as planned, however, and Rutabaga often has to concoct an exquisite dish to solve his problems and help his friends. As the story continues, Rutabaga doesn't really transition between adventures and more or less just wanders off until he happens on his next quest, making this selection feel more like a collection of short comics than an actual book. Still, author Colossal perfectly mixes action and humor, similar in style to "Adventure Time" comics writer Ryan North, only with simple enough language to please the chapter book-reading crowd. And his simple, manga-influenced illustrations will be just as easily accessible. A promising first course in a series that could really take off.-Peter Blenski, Greenfield Public Library, WI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
In a land with dragons and other monsters, a happy-go-lucky chef can also be a hero. Rutabaga is a chef on a journey to find the rarest, tastiest ingredients to use in his cooking. He's a foodie Indiana Jones for the junior set: When he finds a legendary sword, he wants only the mushrooms growing on it, happily surrendering the sword itself to the next person who arrives. Though Rutabaga isn't a warrior or wizard, his culinary expertise often comes in handy; for example, he's able to deduce what food might nourish an ailing royal pet. Colossal's full-color, cartoonish illustrations, with their heavy linework and simple figures, match the light, goofy tone of the stories. When Rutabaga gets cooking, Colossal exploits the graphic form to break down the action into numbered steps reminiscent of real cookbooks. The slapstick humor entertains but leaves little space for genuine character development, and the characters' determinedly colloquial speech highlights the flimsiness of the faux medieval setting. Recipes scattered throughout allow kids to test their own cooking skills, at least on the ones with real-world ingredients. (Taste testers should be warned that one recipe features crushed cinnamon breath mints as an ingredient.) Colossal's debut outing is a cheerful if unexceptional popcorn read. (Graphic adventure. 8-11)

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January 1, 2015
Grades 2-5 Rutabaga loves food so much that he has set out on an adventure to find the rarest, most exotic ingredients to add to his cookbook. When he is plucking mushrooms from a sword, he is interrupted by a troupe of adventurers who are on their way to defeat a dragon, and Rutabaga, eager to try his very first dragon steak, begs to come along. He is clumsy and a bit of a goof, but his food is delicious, so they invite him to join their team. In small panels with blocky figures shaded by benday dots, Colossal playfully tells the story, originally a web comic, of Rutabaga's madcap adventures, which include a creature who eats only dream food, a cook-off with a crotchety old chef, and some fierce, grizzled warriors. And at every turn, following an enthusiastic Let's get cooking! Rutabaga whips up something tasty. A couple of recipes end the volume, but even Rutabaga's culinary feats in the comicbare-bones instructions are included in the panelscould easily inspire young adventure chefs to make some gourmet grub of their own.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)