Graphic Novel Review - 'Botticelli's Apprentice' by Ursula Murray Husted

'Botticelli's Apprentice' - what a colourful, cute, poignant, meaningful, heartwarming feminist history lesson and art lesson this turned out to be.

I might not be that interested in Italian history, the Italian Renaissance arts, or how paints, powders, paintbrushes, panels, canvasses and portraits are made, but wow did 'Botticelli's Apprentice' manage to hold my attention and keep me invested for 257 pages in under two hours. In fact, I am now fascinated by how paints and brushes are made, at least originally. (All those eggs and crystals! And goose feathers!)

Humans are such fascinating, amazing, innovative, inventive, creative, and invigorative beings. Seeing how art is created - how classic works of art, like from the Renaissance period, were made - is an enlightening, soulful experience. I feel honoured and privileged.

And this is coming from a graphic novel that wouldn't look out of place in something like 'Hark! A Vagrant', or the works of Pénélope Bagieu. Don't let the cartoony and childlike art style fool you - it is a work of art in of itself. Beneath the surface, the cover, it's a smart, subtle, unpretentious, well-rounded, all-encompassing beauty.

'Botticelli's Apprentice' is a funny, touching and charming children's historical fiction graphic novel, full of heart, brains, and passion.

For all its educational content, at its heart it is about a chicken farm girl, Mella, who wants to be an artist - she is an artist - and her scraggly dog who chews and eats everything. A boy apprentice/reluctant partner is there too, I guess.

There are older female characters who inspire Mella; not solely and simply Sandro Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, the older women, including her mother and aunt, are Mella's muses, in more ways than one.

I love Mella. Such a strong, determined, intrepid, brave, wise, funny, temperamental, and sensitive young girl. And brown-haired girls FTW! I love too how loving and supportive her mother and her aunt are. I wish they could have received extra page time.

Oh, 'Botticelli's Apprentice', what a lovely masterpiece you are. It's funny how I read Ursula Murray Husted's previous comic, 'A Cat Story', first, and it wasn't until I got my hands on this that I realised it's by the same author. In my humble opinion, 'Botticelli's Apprentice' is a better work of all-ages art and fiction, and Italian art history lesson.

This year, I am going to Rome, and very soon, so it seems fitting that I read the 2025 graphic novel 'Botticelli's Apprentice' when I did, and really liked it.

It's brilliant, and a reminder of just how important art is.

Final Score: 4/5