Middle Grade/YA - Non-Fiction - Cookbooks

AGE GUIDES: these are approximate recommendations:

• Cookbooks -- 7-18 Years Old

REVIEWERS: Alida Allison, Marie Soriano

* denotes San Diego writer and/or illustrator
** Age levels, when provided by the publishers, are included in the bibliographical information. Otherwise, category placements are our best approximations.

• Deen, Paula. My First Cookbook. With Martha Nesbit. Illus. Susan Mitchell. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. $21.99. ISBN 1-4169-5033-8. 176 pp.
• Harrison, Supenn and Judy Monroe. Cooking the Thai Way. Revised and expanded ed. Minneapolis: First Avenue, 2003. ISBN 0-8225-0608-4. $7.95 U.S./ $11.95 CAN. Ages 13 +. www.lernerbooks.com
• Villios, Lynne W. Cooking the Greek Way. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2002. ISBN 0-8225-4131-9. Ages 10 and up.

 

Deen, Paula. My First Cookbook. With Martha Nesbit. Illus. Susan Mitchell.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. $21.99. ISBN 1-4169-5033-8. 176 pp.

Well conceived, well written and well presented, this is the ideal first cookbook for young children. Deen’s recipes anticipate and cater to a youngster’s need for clear instruction and are accompanied by Mitchell’s cheerful and useful illustrations of everything the recipes require. Each recipe’s left page illustrates “What you’ll need”; the right side is the recipe, or “What you’ll do,” a really good arrangement of information and object art. Wire-bound, the book is easy to handle and quite sturdy, worth its cost.
Safety, adult participation, terminology, measurement, and even manners make up the book’s introductory section. Deen’s comfort food selection of recipes is comprehensive, from cinnamon rolls to pasta, chicken pot pie, and S’mores. Especially imaginative features include recipes for holidays and for making Play Clay, Salt Dough, and Giant Bubbles.

Alida Allison

Harrison, Supenn and Judy Monroe. Cooking the Thai Way. Revised and expanded ed. Minneapolis: First Avenue, 2003. ISBN 0-8225-0608-4. $7.95 U.S./ $11.95 CAN. Ages 13 +. www.lernerbooks.com

Lerner has published another fun cookbook in their Easy Menu Ethnic Cookbooks series. It’s a great introduction to both Thai food and to cooking dishes that are more complicated than grilled cheese. Harrison and Monroe give readers a history and cultural lesson about Thailand, Thai people and Thai food. The book features a map of Thailand and the surrounding countries and pictures of the people in their native land. The cookbook also has color pictures of some of the dishes, which I like.

There are nine chapters, plus an index: Introduction, Before You Begin, A Thai Table, Rice and More, Noodle Dishes, Easy Main Dishes, Accompaniments, Snacks and Sweets, and Holiday and Festival Food. The authors also include a list of special ingredients, things found in Thai cooking you might have to look for in the ethnic section of your local supermarket or find at an Asian market.

As in most adult cookbooks, the list of ingredients for each recipe appears on the left, then the directions to the right, with the preparation and cooking times as well as serving size below. I love that the directions are numbered and clearly written. In addition, the authors include substitutes for meat in case readers want a vegetarian meal.

These are recipes that a young adult could make on their own, as long as they know how to chop ingredients and use stoves safely, or that families with middle grade readers and teens could make together. Needless to say, childless adults wanting to broaden their culinary horizons without feeling totally overwhelmed would enjoy this book as well.

Marie Soriano

Villios, Lynne W. Cooking the Greek Way. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2002. ISBN 0-8225-4131-9. Ages 10 and up.

Villios has written a cookbook that kids and parents can enjoy using together. There are six chapters: “Before You Begin,” “A Greek Table,” “Lunch,” “Appetizers,” “Dinner,” “Dessert,” and “Holiday and Festival Food.” She has a section on Greek culture as well, so readers can learn a bit about the place the recipes come from. In addition, each chapter is preempted by a paragraph about meals and eating customs in Greek culture.

For each recipe, the instructions are numbered and easy to follow. For those adults who consider making toast or microwaving frozen food the total of your repertoire, you might want to broaden your horizons with this cookbook. It might be neat to make dinner a family activity using Cooking the Greek Way.

While the recipes are relatively easy for Greek food, these are recipes that younger kids would need help with and supervision for, like when they work with phyllo. Just so you don’t panic, Villios includes instructions on how to work with phyllo. Some of the recipes call for specifically Greek food items like grape leaves, so a trip to the ethnic food aisle in the grocery store or world market is necessary. It may be a tiny bit of a hassle; however, I applaud Villios for presenting authentic Greek cuisine and not watered-down American versions in an attempt to make cooking easier for readers.

Marie Soriano