Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta
Lee, Laura G. Soy Sauce!
July 2, 2024 by Beach Lane Books
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
A little girl and her mother are cooking a meal for their famiglia, and as they are cooking, more and more relatives show up with their favorite dishes to prepare. Nonna wants lasagna, Zio Tony wants ravioli, and Zia Trini even brings her cat, Houdini and her parrot, Pokey, who want rotini and gnocchi! The kitchen becomes more and more chaotic, especially when Zio Renz and his five children show up, wanting a variety of different pasta! When all the cooking is done, the mother tries to take all of the plates to the table at once... and drops them. Nothing is salvageable, so the family ends up ordering pizza!
I imagine that young readers who don't have a lot of family around will love seeing all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins gathering around in the way that earlier generations loved to watch the big family in The Brady Bunch. It's a little chaotic, but everyone pitches in and helps out.
My favorite part of the whole book was the endpaper illustrations, which show different types of pasta, and I think the lasagna might be made out of a brown paper grocery bag! I would definitely have a couple of different types of pasta on hand before reading this one, because it just begs to be accompanied by a meal of macaroni and cheese made with fusilli or gemelli! (A little fancier than elbows, but not impossible to find!)
The pages are filled to the brim with characters, food, and background details like the pets and ingredients, so young readers will love to pick out objects from the pages, making this a perfect book for learning new words. Where are the zucchini? Where's the olive oil? What color is the cat?
The text is fast paced and exuberant, and rendered in half rhymes. The scansion is good, but I'm very picky about rhyme schemes so struggled with some of the pairings.
Add this book to the pantry with other titles that celebrate cooking with family and showcase a lot of diverse cultures, such as Gilmore and Valiant's Cora Cooks Pancit, Russell's Seoul Food, Kramer's Empanadas for Everyone, Reynoso-Morris Plátanos Are Love, Saaed and Syad's Bilal Cooks Daal, Tanumihardj's Ramen For Everyone, and Tamaki's Our Little Kitchen.
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
A little girl and her mother are cooking a meal for their famiglia, and as they are cooking, more and more relatives show up with their favorite dishes to prepare. Nonna wants lasagna, Zio Tony wants ravioli, and Zia Trini even brings her cat, Houdini and her parrot, Pokey, who want rotini and gnocchi! The kitchen becomes more and more chaotic, especially when Zio Renz and his five children show up, wanting a variety of different pasta! When all the cooking is done, the mother tries to take all of the plates to the table at once... and drops them. Nothing is salvageable, so the family ends up ordering pizza!
I imagine that young readers who don't have a lot of family around will love seeing all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins gathering around in the way that earlier generations loved to watch the big family in The Brady Bunch. It's a little chaotic, but everyone pitches in and helps out.
My favorite part of the whole book was the endpaper illustrations, which show different types of pasta, and I think the lasagna might be made out of a brown paper grocery bag! I would definitely have a couple of different types of pasta on hand before reading this one, because it just begs to be accompanied by a meal of macaroni and cheese made with fusilli or gemelli! (A little fancier than elbows, but not impossible to find!)
The pages are filled to the brim with characters, food, and background details like the pets and ingredients, so young readers will love to pick out objects from the pages, making this a perfect book for learning new words. Where are the zucchini? Where's the olive oil? What color is the cat?
The text is fast paced and exuberant, and rendered in half rhymes. The scansion is good, but I'm very picky about rhyme schemes so struggled with some of the pairings.
Add this book to the pantry with other titles that celebrate cooking with family and showcase a lot of diverse cultures, such as Gilmore and Valiant's Cora Cooks Pancit, Russell's Seoul Food, Kramer's Empanadas for Everyone, Reynoso-Morris Plátanos Are Love, Saaed and Syad's Bilal Cooks Daal, Tanumihardj's Ramen For Everyone, and Tamaki's Our Little Kitchen.
January 7, 2025 by Algonquin Young Readers
E ARC provided by Netgalley
In this rhyming picture book, young readers learn a lot about that savory condiment, soy sauce. I did, too, since I had no idea that you could make it at home! There are many different recipes, but the essential steps include boiling soy beans, adding ingredients to help the mixture ferment, and letting the mixture age. There's even a tradition in some cultures of brewing soy sauce when children are born to give as a present for their weddings! There are regional differences in soy sauce ingredients and tastes; Japanese soy sauce often includes toasted wheat, while the Korean version has Chiles and fruits called jujubes. Indonesian soy sauce is thicker and flavored with star anise; I'll have to search for that when I'm at the international grocery store some day! Of course, there are also exuberant tableus of children cooking with soy sauce and enjoying the resultant dishes with relish.
The artwork has lots of detail, and I was most impressed with how some of the exclamatory words on the pages looked like they were painted in soy sauce! I'm imagining there was some kind of computer software involved, but it added a little bit of umami to the page design! There are some pages where the words are placed on top of the pictures in a way that makes them hard to read, but perhaps this will be shifted a bit in the final copy.
The one thought that kept occurring to me as I read this was that if my mother had been Asian, she would definitely have made her own soy sauce. I had my own apartment before I realized that in order to have pickle relish, you didn't have to grow cucumbers, pickle them, and then process them in the aluminum sausage grinder that clamped onto the counter! It's great to see books that teach the history of food and the process of making it. Soy Sauce! is a great addition to a buffet of picture books that includes Wu's Tofu Takes Time, Zhuang's Rainbow Shopping, Lam's Dim Sum, Here We Come, and the very complete Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods by Grace Lin.
May 14, 2024 by Orca Book Publishers
Copy checked out through Hoopla Digital
Noor goes to visit her grandparents for the summer, and she and her grandfather bond over making pies. The grandfather has a condition that causes his arm to shake, so he does have a few "blue" days, but making pies and hanging out with Noor makes him happy. When she goes back home, she chats on the computer with her grandfather, and they enjoy their weekly "pie report", and make seasonal pies to eat while they chat. One week, the grandfather doesn't show up, and Noor's mother explains that he has been having a lot more blue days. When school is out, Noor is able to go back and visit, and she and her grandfather make pies when they can, and just sit and visit when he is having bad days.
I liked that the issue of a grandparent in fragile health was approached in a realistic, frank, and upbeat way. The grandfather lives, which was also good; there are plenty of books about grandparents dying, but I'm not sure how many there are with grandparents who are just slowing down and having issues. It's also nice to see the two connect on the computer over distances.
Oh, this hit hard! My mother died of Parkinsons, and was the BEST pie maker. Her last cogent words to me were "This crust isn't very good"! (It was a perfectly good cherry pie, I thought!) Not only that, but the illustrations showed a variety of plates and pie dishes, including both the Butterfly Gold and Crazy Daisy patterns, which my mother used.
I may have to purchase this, but since I have no tiny people to read it to, I will try to restrain myself!
I liked that the issue of a grandparent in fragile health was approached in a realistic, frank, and upbeat way. The grandfather lives, which was also good; there are plenty of books about grandparents dying, but I'm not sure how many there are with grandparents who are just slowing down and having issues. It's also nice to see the two connect on the computer over distances.
Oh, this hit hard! My mother died of Parkinsons, and was the BEST pie maker. Her last cogent words to me were "This crust isn't very good"! (It was a perfectly good cherry pie, I thought!) Not only that, but the illustrations showed a variety of plates and pie dishes, including both the Butterfly Gold and Crazy Daisy patterns, which my mother used.
I may have to purchase this, but since I have no tiny people to read it to, I will try to restrain myself!
May 14, 2024 by Candlewick Press
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
A child and mother start the long and interesting process of making challah in their sun filled kitchen. The bring out their favorite bowl, mix the ingredients, wait for the dough to rise, braid it, and smell the delicious aromas as it bakes. After the bread has cooled, they make their preparations for the Shabbat summer, and welcome friends. The group say their prayers and have a meal together. The child is carried to bed, and is reassured that Jewish people celebrate this way all over the world, and that the same preparations will be carried out in the future, even with a brand new sibling to join in. There is a challah recipe at the end of the book, along with the author's note about Shabbat.
From the end papers, showing chalk like outlines of kitchen equipment on a dark blue surface, to the floral details of the family's dishware and decor, this is a lovely book, with soft colors of teal, blue, and a peachy beige. There are lots of details in the pictures that are fun to look at, and astute young readers will notice that the mother is heavily pregnant as she works closely with her child.
There are a lot of good details about the Shabbat celebration that will be informative to Gentile readers, and affirming to Jewish ones. Family rituals and everyday celebrations vary from family to family, and it's always good to have a window into the lives of others or a mirror reflecting a child's own experiences.
In the ten years since the We Need Diverse Books movement, we've seen such a great selection of books that show young readers so many different experiences of joy and celebration. This is a great addition to a list of books specifically about Shabbat like Lights Out Shabbat by Shulimson or Koala Challah by Gehl or Jewish celebrations in general like Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays by Newman. Elementary school libraries will want to make sure to include books about a wide range of culturally connected events!
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