12.31.2008

Foodie Books for Kids: the Last-Day-of-2008 Edition!

It's time for another edition of Foodie Books for Kids! There are a few of these that I read ages ago and some that I've just discovered:

- Pizza for the Queen by Nancy Castaldo, illustrated by Mélisande Potter (Holiday House, 2005). I actually tripped upon this one while looking for Today is Monday by Eric Carle. It's pretty wordy but beautifully written - true food writing. The illustrations aren't my favorite style but it works.

- How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina Friedman, illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1984). I hadn't read this one in years, and I was delighted to re-discover it. The idea of food as a means of courtship and a basis for a relationship is priceless.

- Bee-Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Ho Baek Lee (Clarion, 2005). Quite frankly, I am not a fan of the cutesy rhyming text. However, the illustrations are full of fun and movement, and I particular enjoy the depiction of food as a family ritual, as well as the focus on food as culturally and generationally significant.

- Fast Food by Joost Elffers and Saxton Freymann (Levine, 2006). I don't know that this could be called a foodie book - I do expect some food descriptions and food writing, and the text here is all about different types of movement. However, the characters made out of food is undeniably fun and gives a whole new meaning to "playing with your food." And this has lots of appeal for toddlers (budding foodies...) as well as school-age kids.


Eat, drink, and use chopsticks as well as a knife and fork.
Other Foodie Books for Kids posts:

2 comments:

Tarie Sabido said...

I am definitely interested in reading Pizza for the Queen, How My Parents Learned to Eat, and Bee-Bim Bop. :D Your Foodie Books for Kids posts totally rock! Thank you!

Unknown said...

Thanks, Tarie! I'd be interested to hear your thoughts - those three books are very different from each other..."Pizza for the Queen" might be my favorite of them: on one hand, you actually learn some history about the origins of pizza Margherita...on the other hand, there's a real joy to the illustrations and text that would be just right for inspiring kids to make their own pizza. I think it's the only one of the list that really motivates you to get in the kitchen.

Have fun reading!