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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS COOKBOOK

A YEAR-ROUND FUN FOOD ADVENTURE

Hands-on kids will find much to appreciate in this compendium of fun and food with an Earth-friendly focus.

A month-by-month guide to seasonal cooking, green craft projects and enjoyable challenges that has something to offer even the most environmentally conscious kids.

Recipes include everything from novice-friendly Ants on a Log to more challenging undertakings such as New England Pot Roast. Even reluctant cooks will not be able to refuse Ghoulish Guacamole, Witches’ Toenail Trail Mix, or Tilly’s Gingersnaps. Tips for creating distinctive sandwiches as well as customizing pasta salad for different tastes increase the range of each recipe. Monthly activities include everything from gardening and composting to crafting recycled greeting cards and throwing green holiday parties. Kids looking for even more fun with their food will appreciate monthly challenges like holding a cooking contest. Sidebars feature profiles of chefs and environmentalists as well as additional fun facts. Engaging photographs and brightly colored layouts will entice even reluctant readers. Resources for further research as well as separate indices for the activities and the recipes are included. Calling this a cookbook is a bit limiting; this resource is intended to engage young chefs both inside and outside of the kitchen, connecting the world of food with the larger world around them.

Hands-on kids will find much to appreciate in this compendium of fun and food with an Earth-friendly focus. (Nonfiction. 7-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4263-1717-0

Page Count: 160

Publisher: National Geographic Kids

Review Posted Online: July 29, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014

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THE GRAPES OF MATH

MIND-STRETCHING MATH RIDDLES

This genuinely clever math book uses rhyming couplets and riddles, as well as visual cues to help the reader find new ways to group numbers for quick counting. It’s a return to number sets, with none of those boring parentheses and <>signs. Here the rhyme gives a clue to the new ways of grouping numbers. For example: “Mama mia, pizza pie, / How many mushrooms do you spy? / Please don’t count them, it’s too slow, / This hot pie was made to go! / Let me give you some advice, / Just do half and count it twice.” A quick look at the pizza, and the reader can see each slice has the same number of mushrooms. Count by threes for half the pie, and double it. Each rhyme is given a double-page spread. The extra-large, brightly colored images leap off the page but never distract from the author’s intent. Some riddles are very challenging, but the author provides all the solutions in the back. Once the reader has seen the answers, the strategy is obvious and can be applied to other situations. Great fun for math enthusiasts and creative thinkers, this might also teach adults some new tricks. A winning addition. (Nonfiction. 7-10)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-439-21033-X

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000

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COYOTE TALES

Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...

Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.

One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.

Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4

Page Count: 56

Publisher: Groundwood

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

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