Tasty but doesn’t quite hit the spot.
It’s dumpling day, and Sylvia goes from apartment to apartment to help make dumplings from different cultures.
The first stop is Sylvia’s friend Prisha’s apartment, where they make Indian momos. From there, the two friends continue on to Moria’s home to make Jamaican johnnycakes. Then the three kids visit Aaron’s to make his Jewish grandmother’s kreplach. This pattern continues until nine children are squeezed into the final kitchen to make Polish pierogi with Sylvia’s busha. A total of nine dumplings from families of varying skin tones are described and pictured along the way, culminating in a rooftop party. Readers will enjoy learning about different cultures’ dumpling traditions, and this book certainly celebrates culinary diversity. Illustrations featuring muted colors that tend toward warm sepia tones and a classic drawing style give the feeling of a throwback to an earlier time, but the human figures come across stiffly, with static poses and fixed expressions. Small inconsistencies in the story may trip up readers, such as the description of eating hot Georgian khinkali right after filling them with meat and spices, with no mention of cooking. This straightforward tale showcases some great food but is not as complex or emotionally satisfying as Dumplings for Lili (2021) by Melissa Iwai, which covers very similar territory. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Tasty but doesn’t quite hit the spot. (information on other kinds of dumplings) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4998-1234-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
As delectable as a book can get. Try it. You’ll really like it!
Mangia! Can one ever tire of Italian food?
Introducing luscious homemade cuisine! The text is almost an aria, expressed in rollicking verse that not only extols the deliciousness of various types of pasta, but also outlines their construction (from scratch, of course). A pale-skinned child welcomes relatives who arrive one by one from wonderful places that rhyme with their names (“Nonno Tito from Tahiti only eats our spaghettini”). Then everyone creates delicacies such as ravioli, lasagna, and rotini. What a large family! What intricate preparations! What ingredients! Even the pets have their favorites. Finally, the family sits down to the bountiful feast, but Mamma accidentally drops the dishes on her way to serve them. “BASTA!” shouts a frustrated Mamma. But all’s not lost. A final ring of the doorbell brings another very welcome visitor, someone who’s fortunately carrying boxes containing a substitute Italian repast. Readers will eat this up. Who wouldn’t love a book about yummy foods, told in such a delightfully bouncy manner? One quibble: There’s no guide to help kids learn to pronounce the food names accurately. Still, the sumptuous foods—long strands of pasta, leaves of basil—pop in the digitally rendered collage illustrations, and Demirağ captures the busy culinary activities of this tightknit, racially diverse family.
As delectable as a book can get. Try it. You’ll really like it! (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781534473638
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Amusing but misleading on the nutritional and behavioral fronts.
With one taste of despised mustard, a child pivots from rejecting new foods to seeking them.
Dad takes Lil to a food truck festival. Lil, who narrates the story, is nervous; this child’s list of acceptable foods is short (pizza, rice, grilled cheese, french fries, and vanilla ice cream). Dad loves varied tastes and repeatedly reminds Lil of his rule: “Just try it!” With a “YECCCH!” or an “EWWWWWW!” Lil refuses a bagel loaded with toppings, linguini with clams, Peking duck, pizza with spinach and garlic, and a pretzel covered with Lil’s most hated of foods: mustard. Frustrated, Lil accidentally knocks the pretzel onto Dad’s shirt. Lil apologizes, takes a lick of mustard…and instantly learns to appreciate every rejected offering. Lil then uses the title mantra to pressure Dad onto a nausea-inducing roller-coaster ride. Bright, cartoon-style illustrations emphasize the pair's upbeat mood. Food neophobia, or an aversion to eating anything novel, has complex psychosocial roots. But in this blithe little fable, the child’s resistance is completely overcome with a single accidental exposure, and the formerly picky eater immediately becomes a novelty seeker. The turnaround here is implausible; if this book creates any expectations of a sudden dramatic change in a child’s behavior, that would be a disservice. Both Dad and Lil are light-skinned.
Amusing but misleading on the nutritional and behavioral fronts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781665942638
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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