Seasonal Reads: Bloom

Boys. Baking. Love. Spring has sprung, my friends, so naturally this month’s seasonal read is Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau’s graphic novel Bloom. 

Bloom is the latest of Macmillan’s buzzy graphic novels, and while it was released in January of this year, the book begins with a spring wedding. When Ari Kyrkos, one of the novel’s protagonists, is tasked with helping his parents run their struggling bakery after his sister gets married, he’s less than happy. He wants to play in a band with his friends, who we meet when we learn that Ari’s just graduated from high school. For this goal to be a real possibility, Ari must leave the beach town he’s called home for the big city. When his parents insist that they need an extra set of hands at the store, Ari bargains with them—if he finds someone to replace him, he leaves the nest. Enter Hector, a dimpled baker-in-training who moves to Ari’s town during his break from culinary school. When Hector starts to work at the bakery, Ari starts to realize that his responsibilities at home aren’t so bad after all. In fact, he remembers what he used to love about baking, helping out around the store, and the town he comes home. To use the words of the book’s blurb: “As [Ari and Hector] become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom 

. . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.”

While Kevin Panetta’s words give authentic voice to the ups and downs of coming-of-age, Savanna Ganucheau’s sweeping illustrations make the novel a sensory experience. Bloom is a blue-toned book, which you’d think would make the characters seem more melancholy, but actually heightens the book’s summer setting. Ganucheau sets the stage for romance with (and I don’t know how she does this so well) bright fireworks and negative space as Ari and Hector spend the Fourth of July together, makes their emotions vivid, and blocks out baking scenes unlike any other graphic novel I’ve read. And I’m taking a graphic novel class, so I’ve been reading a ton lately. Despite Ganucheau’s beautiful depictions of facial expressions and landscapes, the star of Bloom is food. I think I let out audible gasps when I flipped to pages that illustrated fresh loaves of bread, carrot cake, blueberry muffins, red velvet cupcakes, ravani, and so many more goodies. It’s almost as if readers discover the beauty and fun of baking as Ari rediscovers his love for it.  

Bloom gives readers a summer romance that echoes the warmth of NYC’s change of season. There’s a good bit of pop culture references (a scene that I can only describe as an almost Gilmore Girls and chill situation), a good bit of drama, and a lot of heart to this book. I read it quickly, and pushed it at my roomates to read as soon as I put it down. I finished satisfied and, thanks to the authors, with tons of baking ideas and half a mind to try the recipe included at the end of the book. We’ve got some time until finals, so take a couple hours and invite some cuteness into your spring with Bloom.