Serious Eats Gift Guide: Books For Young Foodies
There's probably someone in your life who isn't old enough to benefit from new knives or an espresso machine. Make sure the little ones have delicious dreams after bedtime stories with these food-inspired childrens' books. They range from the classic (Stone Soup, Strega Nona, and The Carrot Seed) to the more recent (A Little Pea, Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, and The Donut Chef).
The Donut Chef by Bob Staake. On a small street, one baker's donuts inspire a huge line down the block—until competition arrives, in the form of crazy flavors. But sometimes you just want glazed, right? The donut chef wins over townspeople when he learns a lesson in simplicity.
Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Little Pea has many hobbies: rolling down hills, chilling with friends, and avoiding candy. Ew, candy. He'd much prefer leafy green spinach for dessert.
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff. From the famous "If You Give a..." series, this moose will clearly ask for jam when handed a muffin. And when he's finished, he'll want more, which means he'll need to go outside. Which means he'll need to borrow a sweater. Which means he might lose a button (and need needle and thread). Ah, it all started with a muffin.
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown. The classic Grimm Brothers tale is also known as button soup, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup in other traditions. Three hungry soldiers travel through a village with only an empty pot, but trick the inhabitants into providing them with a feast.
Bee-bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park. An adorable girl helps her mother shop and prepare a traditional Korean meal. One that involves lots of bee-bim bop. She has as much fun cooking the food as she does pronouncing the rhythmic word.
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola. In her medieval village, Strega Nona is like a grandmotherly Italian superhero. She can cure headaches, matchmake couples, and remove warts—even the priests and nuns go to her with problems. But when Strega Nona's magic pot of pasta overflows, she has her own crisis. (But luckily, Nona can fix anything.)
Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle. When Jack wakes up, there's only one thing on his mind: a big pancake. But that will require flour from the mill, an egg from the hen, milk from the spotted cow, and fresh cream churned into butter. Jack lives in a world without Bisquick.
Pickles to Pittsburgh by Judi and Ron Barrett. In this sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the town of Chewandswallow reappears. What used to be an "ordinary" town now has a field of giant broccoli stalks, orange juice rainstorms, and an airline runway of crisp bacon strips.
Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems. Can't a pigeon just eat his hot dog in peace? Not when an inquisitive duckling won't stop badgering him. "What do they taste like?...Would you say that it tastes like chicken?" It tastes like a hot dog, geez!
It Looked like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. Sure, the white silhouette of spilt milk could just resemble milk, but it could also qualify as a rabbit, a bird, or a squirrel. Good for the really imaginative ones.
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. The lesson here: carrot seeds need some TLC and lots of time before they can sprout. If you wait patiently enough, though, the orange guy may just win first prize at the state fair.
Yum Yum Dim Sum by Amy Wilson Sanger. Dim summing can be an overwhelming experience, whether you're four or forty. This is a great primer, complete with collage-like images of scallion pancakes, stuffed dau fu, and jing cha siu bao.
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32 Comments:
how could you forget 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs'?!! probably my absolute favorite book has a kid. i've given it to a couple of children i've babysat for as well :)
sarahlucy at 3:35PM on 12/09/08
my favorite food book when i was growing up was "The Elephant and the Bad Baby" about an elephant that picks up a (bad) baby and the baby asks the elephant to use his long trunk to steal him all sorts of goodies throughout the town. They help themselves to ice creams, pies, buns, crisps, biscuits, lollipops and apples, and the shopkeepers follow them down the road shouting and waving.
bbaconista at 3:40PM on 12/09/08
@sarahlucy: Erin mentioned CWACoM in her entry on Pickles to Pittsburgh, the sequel to CWACoM!
Adam Kuban at 3:41PM on 12/09/08
I loved The Hungry Thing when I was little -- another food-related book.
Fiksu at 3:48PM on 12/09/08
I love the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!" It's the best ever! I never got tired of that one as a kid.
gammypie at 4:01PM on 12/09/08
I loved Stone Soup, but I wish Yum Yum Dim Sum had been around when I was a little kid!
runnereater at 4:07PM on 12/09/08
Agreed w/ Cloudy with a chance of meatballs! CLASSIC
don't forget the author Lois Ehlert "Eating the Alphabet" & "Growing Vegetable Soup"
ceforrester at 4:25PM on 12/09/08
What about the Very Hungry Caterpillar??
LiveToEat at 4:56PM on 12/09/08
Third on the recommendation on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
b0tn0t at 5:03PM on 12/09/08
A couple more that my sister and I loved as kids are "The Man Who Cooked for Himself" by Phyllis Krasilovsky and Mamoru Funai - about a man (and his cat) who learns how to, well, cook for himself (and garden and fish, etc), and "The Funny Little Woman" by Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent - about a little Japanese woman who gets kidnapped by ogres so that she can make rice dumplings for them. "The Funny Little Woman" is still in print, but I don't know about "The Man Who Cooked for Himself".
shale at 5:06PM on 12/09/08
"Fanny at Chez Panisse" had me hooked on cooking when I was a wee one. I still adore (and make) some of the recipes included.
selizara at 5:13PM on 12/09/08
whoops, missed that 'cloudy' was mentioned on there, but it's totally better than it's successor, haha. glad to see all the cwacom love on here.
sarahlucy at 5:55PM on 12/09/08
I loved "More Spaghetti I say!"
nalega at 6:10PM on 12/09/08
I remember being very curious each time I got to the end of "Where the Wild Things Are", when Max finally returns home to find his supper waiting for him. The illustrations simply didn't provide enough information. I wanted to know exactly what he was eating, damnit.
Stone Soup is a great one! Although all the versions I've read involve only one traveling con artist.
Michele Humes at 6:16PM on 12/09/08
grade one teacher here. gotta see if i can get some of these from the library for read alouds. my students know i'm obsessed with food.
lexophile at 6:42PM on 12/09/08
I remember liking Strega Nona as a kid. However, thinking back on it, It is pretty sexist. The you man wants to learn from Strega Nona and if I recall correctly he is turned away because he is a boy.
OneEyedMan at 6:50PM on 12/09/08
I love Strega Nona and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! What about In the Night Kitchen and Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak?
Vegetarianka at 8:54PM on 12/09/08
Strega Nona is one of my son's favorites. "But luckily, Nona can fix anything." isn't entirely true. It's Big Anthony that fixes the mess he made by eating all of the pasta from Strega Nona's pot. The Strega just forces him to do it. "In the Night Kitchen" and "Brundibar" are two other favorites with heavy food-centric themes that get lots of play at our house as well.
BrianPrestonCampbell at 9:35PM on 12/09/08
Wow. I had completely forgotten about "Strega Nona"! I loved that book as a child. I also love "Today is Monday" by Eric Carle as a foodie kids book.
francie at 11:26PM on 12/09/08
I can't believe people are hating on Strega Nona! =( Okay, maybe "hate" is a strong word. Still! Strega Nona was one of the absolute first books that I ever took out of my elementary school library, because I knew more of the Italian words in it than I did the English words, haha. I'm pretty sure I've read all of the Strega Nona books, and most of Tomie dePaola in general, heh. It makes me miss my grandpa and his seemingly never-ending pasta pot. Ho solamente amore per la Strega ed Antonio! ♥
kfarrel3 at 1:58AM on 12/10/08
Strega Nona and Stone Soup are both good classics.
For the picky little eater, I also recommend "Bread and Jam for Francis." It's about a little girl named Francis who only wants to eat bread and jam...and how she decides to try other foods too.
Marlala at 8:30AM on 12/10/08
I was recently shopping for my soon-to-be-born nephew and came across Little Pea. I scooped it right up and added it to the pile (which already included the If You Give A Mouse A Cookie treasury). It's all about a little pea who doesn't like to eat candy and gets vegetables, which he loves, for dessert. The illustrations and story are adorable!
Megs915 at 10:47AM on 12/10/08
these are great suggestions.
my nephew has every toy in the world, so i'm the aunt that provides the books. lately he's been helping my brother in the kitchen, so i think an apron and a couple of these are in order this xmas!
gastronomeg at 11:30AM on 12/10/08
My kids love Strega Nona (I'm Italian, so they could relate!) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a favorite as well.
Of course, my kids are also just as excited to sit down with any one of my hudreds of cookbooks and "plan parties"...I LOVE MY KIDS! ;o)
juliebugsmama at 1:40PM on 12/10/08
Where is "The Little Red Hen"?
buffy at 12:37AM on 12/11/08
I almost forgot about 'The Little Red Hen'!
Marlala at 8:59AM on 12/11/08
Where is my copy of Stone Soup...it had to be one of my favorites. Here's a new classic to add to the lists, Foodie Babies wear Bibs by Michelle Sinclair Colman
foodieheather at 11:03AM on 12/11/08
I love "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" so much that I decided to make the page where he takes a bite of everything the mural for my first baby's nursery.
liwinegirl at 1:36PM on 12/11/08
don't forget "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" There's cheeseburgers blowing in from the west and a marvelous Jello sunset.
loulou at 7:32PM on 12/11/08
Um... hel-LO??? What about the most favorite, most famous, most important young foodies' book ever written, in the entire history of the human race???
Green Eggs and Ham
Tsk!
LoCo at 9:57PM on 12/11/08
Did anybody else read Thunder Cake? My mom used to make the cake (the recipe was at the back of the book) all the time.
beamsoflight3 at 5:24PM on 12/15/08
I think "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" is much funnier than the Moos e book. But I would highly suggest the entire collection. Each book is absolute delight!
SaltyDonuts at 1:03AM on 12/23/08