Budding gardeners who love to cook will find a treasure trove of information here.
Hengel encourages middle-grade readers to grow and cook their own food.
A compilation of Hengel’s six books about growing and cooking with basil, carrots, green beans, leaf lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes, the formatted sections make it easy for readers to find the information they need to succeed in both growing and cooking with these foods—though it does also make for some repetition of information. Each section includes spreads about the focus plant and its variations, the conditions it needs and how to sow the seeds, its stages of growth, harvesting the plant and a Q-and-A page. These informational pages are followed by five to six recipes (minus nutritional information and sometimes the colored circles that outline the numbered steps), including Creamy Carrot Soup, Tasty Thai Noodles & Basil, Sassy Citrus Zest Beans, Sort-of Sushi Rolls, Cheddar Potato Cakes and Tomato Pie in the Sky. Three safety symbols used on the recipe pages alert chefs to sharp tools, hot materials and nuts. Extensive frontmatter includes a three-spread pictorial guide to cooking terms, three more spreads featuring an alphabetized pictorial list of ingredients (fish sauce, blue cheese and horseradish among them!), and two spreads of labeled kitchen tools. A URL directs readers to Abdo Publishing’s website for more informational websites (eHow among them) and Burpee’s online seed catalog.
Budding gardeners who love to cook will find a treasure trove of information here. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-13)Pub Date: March 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-938063-42-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scarletta Press
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Starting with a lonely slice of pizza pictured on the cover and the first page, Thornhill launches into a wide-ranging study of the history and culture of food—where it comes from, how to eat it and what our food industries are doing to the planet. It’s a lot to hang on that slice of pizza, but there are plenty of interesting tidbits here, from Clarence Birdseye’s experiments with frozen food to how mad cow disease causes the brain to turn spongy to industrial food production and global warming. Unfortunately, the volume is designed like a bad high-school yearbook. Most pages are laid out in text boxes, each containing a paragraph on a discrete topic, but with little in the way of an organizing theme to tie together the content of the page or spread. Too many colors, too much jumbled-together information and total reliance on snippets of information make this a book for young readers more interested in browsing than reading. Kids at the upper edge of the book's range would be better served by Richie Chevat's adaptation of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2009). (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897349-96-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Maple Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Similar to the vignettes found in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, this book’s sentimental collection can’t help but...
Intended for ages 9-12, this collection of 10 true vignettes elucidate the bucket-filling philosophy of being a helpful and caring person.
There is a simple philosophy behind bucket filling. As Lundgren writes in her introduction, “We each have an invisible bucket. When it is full, we feel good—happy, peaceful, grateful, or loving. When it is empty, we feel bad—sad, lonely, angry, and frightened.” Ultimately, we must decide whether to be selfless “bucketfillers” or selfish “bucketdippers,” and through a series of short and sweet anecdotes, the book pushes the idea that it is far better to fill than to dip. The stories focus on regular folks who choose to be a positive force for others in small ways. There is the mom who picks up a gallon of gas for the new family at church and relates her story to the police officer who stops her for speeding. Hearing her story, the officer lets the woman go with only a warning—filling the woman’s bucket rather than dipping into it by issuing a ticket on Christmas Eve. Another vignette tells of a ballet dancer reminiscing about the high school teacher who not only allowed her to find solace in dance during the darkest days of her parents’ divorce, but was there with an extra hug when needed. While the stories are often overtly sentimental (seemingly cut from the same cloth as a Hallmark card commercial), each effectively demonstrates that it is just as easy to do good in this world as it is to do ill or nothing. All of the tales culminate with a set of discussion questions that allow the reader to bring her own insight into what she has just read; perfect for a classroom setting. This trains the reader to get into the proper mind-set to use the bucket-filling philosophy in her own life. Despite the book’s slight feel (10 stories in just over 100 pages), the reader will be left hard pressed not to fill more buckets in her life.
Similar to the vignettes found in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, this book’s sentimental collection can’t help but warm your heart.Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0984336609
Page Count: 110
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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