Name: Monkey Food
ISBN: 9781560973621

Ellen Forney

Collection from Seattle cartoonist Ellen Forney.

The Complete "I Was Seven in '75" Collection

Monkey Food

Sarah Sammis

Monkey Food by Ellen Forney is the omnibus of her 1990s comic, "I Was Seven in '75." As a child of the 1970s I was drawn in both by the title and the cover art.

Ellen's strips are autobiographical snippets of her very liberal childhood. Most of what she covers is a mixture of what her parents did (smoke pot), what they did as a family (go to a nudist camp), and what she did alone (read Judy Blume). There are also fashion tips and other oddities about life in the 1970s.

Although Forney was a child and she's depicting her childhood memories, the language and situations are taken from an adult point of view. Nothing is glossed over, which can lead to embarrassing situations. In my case, I realized during the nudist camp section that my daughter was reading over my shoulder.

It was fun to compare her experiences with my own. Hers were a bit more extreme than mine, but I did have friends who had parents like hers.

Monkey Food The Complete "I Was Seven in '75" Collection

Reviews

Highlights