THE BAKERY FACTORY

by Aylette Jenness ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1978

Jenness, whose previous books have taken readers farther afield, exhibits here the same personal interest in a bakery which she and daughter Evan decide to tour after wondering about where all their different foods come from. The sheer scale of the bread-baking process astounds them, from the delivery depot, where a tank-truck driver pumps 40,000 pounds of aerated flour into a storage silo, to the mixing room where 700-to-800-loaf batches are turned out 45 times a day. Though Jenness and Evan seem indifferent to questions of taste and nutrition, they take time everywhere to listen to the workers. One, an icer, takes pride and creative satisfaction in her work, and the truck driver ""wouldn't do anything else. . . . The repetition [in a factory] would kill me."" Many others started out with grander ambitions; but a wrapper who had hoped to be an airline stewardess is happy just to work: ""If you don't, married or not, you can't turn around and call a curtain your own!"" In her closing questions and suggested activities, Jenness doesn't quite avoid condescending to her young readers, but on the visit itself she succeeds admirably in breaking through the conventional tour-guide buzz and establishing contact all round.

Pub Date: March 1, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: T. Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1978

Categories: NONFICTION