Tastefully learn about other cultures? Yes please!
A look at intriguing foods around the world.
Guided by Anna, a dark-haired, light-skinned foodie, readers are whisked around the globe to nearly every continent. Perhaps they’d like to try the Incan frog shake from South America or the North American delicacies escamoles and Rocky Mountain oysters—better known as ant larvae and fried testicles. Maybe something fermented is more their speed, in which case they’ll need to hoof it to Greenland for kiviak, fermented birds prepared inside a hollowed-out seal skin, or to Iceland for hákari, a pungent dish of cured shark. The book may put off animal lovers—indeed, the description of the force-feeding that results in duck liver pâté and the section on sannakji, wriggling octopus eaten live, aren’t for the squeamish. But many readers will find the entries fascinating, especially as Romero Mariño explores the cultural relevance of many dishes, from the low cost of the abundant Thames-dwelling eels, consumed by the English working class during the Industrial Revolution, to the ceremonial aspect of the Maasai tribal blood and milk shake. Though the author urges readers to be open-minded when it comes to new foods, the use of words like disgusting and weird might discourage that. Still, she makes clear throughout that attitudes toward different cuisines are inherently subjective. Cartoonish illustrations look refreshingly bright, in bold colors.
Tastefully learn about other cultures? Yes please! (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781914519703
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orange Mosquito
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
A well-intentioned description of life before birth. The illustrations make use of photographs (including ultrasound) and artist’s drawings, often in the same image, and these are well used to clarify the text. How babies grow and develop inside the womb is both described and illustrated, and while the tone is one of forced cheer, the information is sound. Also offered are quite silly exercises for children to experience what life in the womb might be like, such as listening to a dishwasher to experience the sounds a baby hears inside its mother’s body, or being held under a towel or blanket by an adult and wiggling about. The getting-together of sperm and egg is lightly passed over, as is the actual process of birth. But children may be mesmerized by the drawings of the growing child inside the mother, and what activities predate their birth dates. Not an essential purchase, but adequate as an addition to the collection. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-894379-01-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
This carefully thought-out explanation may surprise but should be widely appreciated.
Moving up in target audience from their explanation of reproduction, What Makes a Baby (2013), Silverberg and Smyth explore various meanings for the word “sex.”
In their own ways, Zai, Cooper, Mimi, and Omar respond to information in chapters about bodies, “Boys, Girls, All of Us,” touch, language, and “Crushes, Love, and Relationships.” With skin tones in unlikely shades (blue! purple! green!) and wildly diverse crowd scenes, chances are good that any reader can identify with someone in these pages. Refreshingly, these crowds are diverse in a way that does not appear assembled by checklist. Lively design, bright, clashing colors, cartoon-style illustrations, comic strips, and plenty of humor support the informal, inclusive approach. Each chapter ends with questions to think and talk about. The author’s respect for different approaches to the subject comes through. No actual sexual activities are described except for masturbation, in the chapter that also deals with “secret touches.” The gender chapter tells how gender is assigned but notes “there are more than two kinds of bodies.” The character Zai doesn’t identify as either boy or girl. Illustrations show body parts of kids and grown-ups (nipples, breasts, bottoms, and parts biologically specific to boys or girls) demonstrating wide variety. Puberty will be addressed in a third title.
This carefully thought-out explanation may surprise but should be widely appreciated. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60980-606-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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