Comments on: Great Reads for Culinary Kids (and Hungry Adults)

By: AC

AC — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:55:55 +0000

I also loved (and finally located a copy of) Ginnie and the Cooking Contest. A few corrections to the earlier post – Ginnie won a special prize for her bread not because her chicken loaf was disqualified, but because she had to submit (and therefore make) bread as her contest recipe since her chicken loaf recipe got ruined by a last-minute milk spill minutes before the contest deadline. The friend who ended up winning the contest was not Lucy, but Lily Schwartz, who baked a chocolate fudge cake to win.

Two other great old-fashioned food books are Adopted Jane by Helen Fern Daringer and A Sundae With Judy by Frieda Friedman.

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:06:51 +0000

Didn’t Robert McCloskey, of ‘Blueberries’ fame also write the delightful ‘One Morning in Maine’ about the young girl who goes clam hunting with her father and loses her tooth? I seem to think it’s the same whimsical and engaging author. As I read this list, I realized that these all represented many of my favorites too, a past redolent of food books, memories and fully embraceable stories. Great post.

By: Ita

Ita — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:31:32 +0000

Susan Coolidge wrote a series of stories, known as the “What Katy Did” stories, back in the mid-19th century. They were for preteen and young teen readers. There are such mouthwatering descriptions of picnic lunches, treats sent to boarding school at Christmastime, wedding menus, meals on trans-American train trips and in European cities, and the best of cooking on the wild frontier. I could not read while hungry!

By: Laura Lutz

Laura Lutz — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:44:51 +0000

You know how I love food and books!

I can’t say enough about “Kitchen Dance” by Maurie Manning (I reviewed it over at P&P) – it captures not just the joy of food but the kitchen as well.

“Adventurous Chef” by Ann Arnold also gives kids some culinary history info – I found out a lot that I didn’t know. Also on culinary history, “Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Bake You a Pie” by Robbin Gourley is particularly well-written.

For older readers, I loved “Dear Julia” by Amy Bronwen Zemser – this is appropriate for tweens even though the characters are older. I also ADORED “Madame Pamplemousse and her Incredible Edibles.” It’s super short but holds so much magic in such a tiny package.

For teenagers, “The Sweet Life of Stella Madison” is really wonderful. Great characters, fantastic food descriptions.

I could go all day…

By: Merrill

Merrill — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:15:11 +0000

Just saw that people have been mentioning All-Of-A-Kind Family, which I always loved for its wonderful food descriptions. Anyone remember the Boxcar Children, where they had to forage for their food? Nothing feeds the imagination quite like a picnic cobbled together by a bunch of hungry runaway children and eaten in a boxcar in the middle of the woods.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:16:38 +0000

I loved all the Bobbsey ones – remember Candy Castle? and of course “Pancakes for Breakfast” by Tomie DePaola (http://www.amazon.com/Pancakes-Breakfast-Tomie-dePaola/dp/0156707683)

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:05:31 +0000

What a brilliant post! You’re brilliant! But I already knew that. I think you included all my faves (Blueberries for Sal and In the Night Kitchen).

By: TexasDeb

TexasDeb — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:41:11 +0000

I’ll second (third and fourth if need be) everything on this list and add the Boxcar Children books
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boxcar_Children_novels for all their amazing descriptions of the kids leaving butter in a cold stream, etc. as they cared for each other. Along the same lines, A Dutch Fork Farm Boy by James Eleazar (sadly out of print now) was an amazing trip back in time. The descriptions of food fresh from the farm fields and gardens were especially tantalizing for a girl who grew up without a vegetable garden.

By: kate

kate — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:48:23 +0000

I have retained an interest in New York egg cream since reading “It’s Like This, Cat,”way back when. Even better than reading for yourself is reading to your children, saving those books and reading to the grands.

By: Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:33:32 +0000

I’ve already begun to stock up on some of these for my grandkids — at eight years old, they both like to help in the kitchen. And now that they are reading, it’s so much fun to give them books. I let them choose recipes for us to make together.