Reviewed by Linda D. Labbo
Review Section Editor
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia, USA
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Writers in the Kitchen: Children's Book Authors Share Memories of Their Favorite Recipes. Compiled by Tricia Gardella. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 1999. ISBN 1-56397-713-3 (paperback). 248 pages. |
| Tricia Gardella's foreword to this book explains its premise by re-creating the invitation she extended when she was beginning to compile it. Each of the children's book authors and illustrators she contacted was asked to contribute a favorite recipe and share a related memory. Visits to the mailbox became an exciting venture for the compiler as the creativity and diversity of the memories and dishes accumulated. Additionally, Gardella and her husband reveled in preparing and sampling each and every dish. |  |
Teachers and adults who love children's books will enjoy helping children learn about the more than 150 writers and illustrators who contributed 250 delicious recipes and vignettes about the memories they stirred.
In typical cookbook fashion, this book is organized into sections for each of several types of foods. Recipes within each section include the contributing author or illustrator's name, a food-related memory, the recipe itself, and frequently a simple pen-and-ink illustration. There are also indexes of both recipes and contributors.
For the first section, 12 authors and illustrators contributed delicious bread recipes and related memories. For example, Martha Freeman (author of The Polyester Grandpa and other books) recalls how her grandmother, born in 1901, loved preparing a recipe for spoon bread: “It speaks of farm life, where the hands needed all the calories they could stomach, including both starch and bread, at that midday meal.” In Martha Freeman's mind, Nana's Spoon Bread is not just a mixture of yellow cornmeal, butter, eggs, and milk -- it is also a mixture of love and memories.
Section 2, Breakfast, includes recipes and memories from six authors and illustrators. Here Sara Jane Boyers (Life Doesn't Frighten Me and O Beautiful for Spacious Skies) relates how much she hated breakfast foods as a child and what a special treat it was for her to read “the funnies” while eating Breakfast Potatoes and Onions. Then, the potatoes were seasoned with margarine; today, as an adult, Boyers seasons her potatoes with garlic, mushrooms, peppers, and dried rosemary or fines herbes.
Betsy Byars (The Summer of the Swans and The Pinballs, among many others) is one of 24 authors and illustrators who contributed fascinating recipes and memories for the section devoted to Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches. Her updated recipe for Black-Eyed Pea Salad harkens back to the days when her family acted on the superstition that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day would bring good luck.
For Vegetables and Side Dishes, Jane Yolen (Owl Moon and other books) contributed a heartfelt poem about her grandmother, Miz Berlin, and a childhood memory of helping her make applesauce. Miz Berlin's Applesauce involves only four ingredients and has easy-to-follow directions.
In the extensive section 5, Main Dishes, Andrea and Brian Pinkney (Dear Benjamin Banneker and Seven Candles for Kwanzaa) explain that they contributed their recipe as a tribute to the creative spirit both of their mothers brought to cooking. Jumpin' Ratatouille combines primary colors of red tomatoes, yellow peppers, and green zucchini with spicy salsa and curry powder.
Eighteen authors and illustrators contributed ideas for sweet treats in Desserts. For example, Eve Bunting (The Wednesday Surprise and other books) remembers family holiday celebrations that brought her elderly aunt from Ireland to share meals at her table. At one Christmas meal, her Auntie T especially enjoyed Sissie's Plum Pudding.
Recipes for more sweet foods are offered in section 7, Cookies and Cakes. Here Patricia McKissack (Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman Now? and other books) recalls her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. During the summertime, all of the kids in the neighborhood would gather at her house to play and have a snack. After the first bite of Summer Cool Cookies, they would announce that the cookies were “kool.”
For section 8, ten authors and illustrators contributed a variety of pie recipes and memories. Patricia Wittmann (Go Ask Giorgio and other books) recalls how her grandmother, a young German widow, immigrated to the United States to meet a man she had gotten to know through letters. When they settled in Idaho on a wheat farm, one of the family's favorite recipes became Grammie's Lemon Pie.
David McPhail (Annie and Company and other books) is one of the authors and illustrators who contributed to the final section of Tasty Treats. His grandfather enjoyed fixing a recipe for Sunday-Night Supper Crackers and Milk which consisted of pilot crackers, stale bread, sugar, and milk or cream.
Elementary teachers of language arts and reading have several options for using the cookbook as a curriculum resource. First, it may be explored as a recipe book in and of itself. Children might discuss how the book is organized and how it compares with other recipe books. Second, the book may be referred to throughout a school year as works of a featured author are read and enjoyed. What better follow-up activity to a story than to read about, prepare, and taste a favorite dish of a favorite author? Third, children may select two or three favorite authors, read several of their books or poems, and then discuss how the recipes they contributed to the cookbook reflect each author's interests and writing style. However the book is used, it is sure to dish up fun and interest for teachers and students alike.
Click here to read more about this book and its compiler at the publisher's Web site.
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