Skip to main content

Books to Read...When You Want to Share a Meal

By
This time of year inspires memories of gathering together with loved ones, eating delicious food, and finding ways to express gratitude to one another and our communities. One of the most enduring ways to show we care is by sharing a hot meal or favorite treat with someone. Let these stories of families, neighbors, and friends cooking together inspire you to create deeper bonds and new traditions. Enjoy!

Cooking for your neighbors:

What's Cooking at 10 Garden Street?
By Felicita Sala
New York, NY: Prestel Publishing, 2019. Picture Book.

In an old apartment building on Garden Street, each resident is cooking up something special to share with their neighbors in a communal meal. Representing a diverse array of cultures with charming illustrations, each neighbor's simple recipe is included for readers to try at home. 

Cooking with your family:

Soul Food Sunday
Written by Winsome Bingham
Illustrated by C. G. Esperanza
New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021. Picture Book.

A Coretta Scott King Honor book, Soul Food Sunday celebrates the lasting relationships that are created through the passing down of food traditions when a grandmother teaches her young grandson how to make family favorites. 
   
Cooking with your friends:

Written by Aisha Saeed
Illustrated by Anoosha Syed
New York: Salaam Reads, 2019. Picture Book.

Bilal wants to share his love of a family favorite dish, daal, with his friends. So, he includes them in the process from start to finish, including the great patience necessary to enjoy it at its most delicious!

Cooking for your community:

Our Little Kitchen
By Jillian Tamaki
New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2020. Picture Book.

Rife with boisterous energy from the lively illustrations, Our Little Kitchen, follows kitchen volunteers as they cook for their community. Resourcefulness in using a limited supply of available ingredients is emphasized, which provides realistic insight into this based-on-true-life tale. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

By
KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Library in the Woods

By
  The Library in the Woods Written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie Minneapolis, MN : Carolrhoda Books, 2025. Picture Book. I am always intrigued by picture books that tell stories from the past in beautiful and meaningful ways, leaving the reader educated, and also hopeful and inspired. This book definitely did that for me! The cover is a beautiful peek into the story waiting on the pages. Junior and his family have lived on a farm that is having a hard time producing what it needs to for the family to survive economically. The parents make the hard decision to move away from the farm and into the city. Junior misses a lot of things about his life in the country. However, when Junior's friends tell him about a library in the woods, things change for him in the best way! He is amazed by the seemingly endless collection of books, and is eager to check some out for his family. Junior excitedly borrows a few books, including one about a farmer for his dad ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Tumblebaby

By
Tumblebaby Written by Adam Rex Illustrated by Audrey Helen Weber New York : Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2024. Picture book. I love a funky picture book. Slumbering Tumblebaby rolls out the door and into a wonderfully meandering yarn, thwarting scoundrels and coyotes, scaling unclimbable mountains, and even building a community center in Colorado City. Adam Rex's text reads like a folksy tall tale, punctuated by funny lines and rhyming chants.  Weber's colorful, round illustrations feel a little Fauvist, a little cubist. It's a sort of "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"  but in reverse - we learn in the last few pages that, in fact, that baby was YOU! This revelation made my young son gasp, which made me choke up.  Tumblebaby is a surreal delight perfect for reading together. 
Post a Comment
Read more