THE UNOFFICIAL NARNIA COOKBOOK

Name: THE UNOFFICIAL NARNIA COOKBOOK
Author: Dinah Bucholz
ISBN: 978-1-4022-6641-6

by Dinah Bucholz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2012

If one wants to make Porridge and Cream like Shasta had or pack up some cold sliced chicken such as Prince Caspian carried,...

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Bucholz, author of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (2010), creates or re-creates Beautiful Breakfasts; Snacks, Teas, and Meals on the Run; Lunch and Dinner Menus; and Fabulous Feasts in four chapters.

Although she rates the recipes with stars by degree of difficulty, many of these are extremely complex. Each recipe is clearly tied to particular incidents and chapters in the books of Narnia. The font is rather small for a cookbook, and the instructions both exhaustive and full of warnings about alcohol and caffeine and techniques not for children. While she mostly uses real and fresh ingredients, periodically she recommends using premade cakes or instant puddings. There is also an amazing reliance on cooking spray. She very carefully defines and describes sauces and techniques but maintains an offhand, almost twee, tone in her introductions and commentary. While striving to stick to the actual meals in the stories (Eel Stew! Boar’s Head!), Bucholz periodically offer substitutions for hard-to-get ingredients; some of these may not be so hard-to-get, depending on location: goat meat, red currants and gooseberries, for example. Some of her culinary history is a little suspect, like a paragraph about medieval feasts that does not define “medieval” or specify country but merely states that rulers were indifferent toward the poor and ate magnificently while the poor starved.

If one wants to make Porridge and Cream like Shasta had or pack up some cold sliced chicken such as Prince Caspian carried, one can find that. Reading about it might be more fun. (sources, index [not seen]) (Cookbook. 10 & up)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-4022-6641-6

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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THE COWGIRL WAY

HATS OFF TO AMERICA’S WOMEN OF THE WEST

by Holly George-Warren ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2010

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There’s nothing like seeing a tenacious cowgirl wrangle a bronco to buck notions of a weaker sex—so it makes sense that suffrage came to the American West first, 51 years before the 19th Amendment would grant women the right to vote in the rest of the country. Hats off, indeed! Abundant photographs, rodeo programs and primary-source quotations from Wild West pioneers bring this invitingly designed cowgirl chronicle to life, from 19th-century trailblazers who came West in covered wagons to dime-novel outlaws Belle Starr and Calamity Jane to modern-day cowgirls such as 60-year-old Cowgirl Hall of Famer Jan Youren (who still rides bareback in rodeos) and Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who grew up on a Texas ranch. The straight-shooting if not rip-snorting reportage is at its best when contextualizing the cowgirl in America’s social history and less effective when it, as it often does, devolves into a dizzying litany of names and nicknames. Still, there’s plenty of rich fodder here for equestriennes and those interested in Western or women’s history. (bibliography, sources and photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)

Pub Date: July 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-617-73738-3

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
HONKY-TONK HEROES AND HILLBILLY ANGELS
by Holly George-Warren & illustrated by Laura Levine

- BOOK REVIEW
SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL
by Holly George-Warren & illustrated by Laura Levine

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ONCE UPON A MARIGOLD

From the Marigold Trilogy series , Vol. 1

by Jean Ferris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2002

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Cold indeed is the heart not made warm by this bubbly fairy-tale romance. Raised by a kindly forest troll, Christian knows little of the world beyond what he can see through his telescope, but gazing upon a nearby castle, he falls head over heels for Princess Marigold. What chance has he, though, as a (supposed) commoner? When at last he nerves himself to send her a message via carrier pigeon, she answers and the courtship is on—via “p-mail” at first, then, after he lands a job as a castle servant, face to face. Setting numerous fairy-tale conventions just a bit askew, Ferris (Of Sound Mind, 2001, etc.) surrounds her two smart, immensely likable teenagers, who are obviously made for each other, with rival suitors, hyperactive dogs, surprising allies, and strong adversaries. The most notable among the last is devious, domineering Queen Olympia, intent on forcing Marigold into marriage with a penniless, but noble, cipher. The author gets her commonsensical couple to “I Do” through brisk palace intrigue, life-threatening situations, riotous feasting, and general chaos; Queen Olympia gets suitable comeuppance, and the festivities are capped by the required revelation that Christian is actually heir to the throne of neighboring Zandelphia. Fans of Gail Carson Levine’s Princess Tales will be in familiar territory here, as well as seventh heaven. (Fiction. 11-13)