Skip to main content
  • Tags: cooking
All-of-a-kind family hanukkah
Jenkins, Emily
Gertie, the youngest of five children, wants to help her mother cook for their family dinner on the first night of Hanukkah in New York City’s Lower East Side. After many attempts of trying to help in the busy kitchen, Gertie is sent to her room by her mother and is eventually called down for dinner by her dad. In order to get her to come downstairs, Gertie’s father asks for her helping to light the candles of the menorah for the first time and Gertie happily accepts the offer.

Over the shop
Lawson, Jon Arno
A little girl and her grandparent show the apartment over their store to a couple looking for a fixer-upper place to stay. Little by little the place and the neighborhood take on a fresh new life and love (A Wordless Book).

Easy as pie
Best, Carl
Chef Jacob is known for his happy peach pie. Read the ingredients of his pie recipe and the baking rules that he learns from Chef Monty on television. Lots of sounds comes out of Chef Jacob's kitchen. By the end, Chef Jacob says: "P is for Pie and P is for Peach, and, of course, P is for Parents! Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad". Have fun celebrating this event with the whole family.

Our Gracie aunt
Woodson, Jaqueline
A brother and sister are taken into foster care with their Aunt Gracie. Aunt Gracie welcomes the kids with delicious treats and teaches them how to cook. The kids go to visit their mother and then they return to their Aunt Gracie.

The ugly vegetables
Lin, Grace
A young Chinese girl helps her mom plant Chinese vegetables. She initially compares her mom's "ugly" garden to those of her neighbor's garden. The two use lots of gardening tools to plant the seeds for vegetables. Her mom then cooks the vegetables and invites the other neighbors in to share the nutritious meal.

Pastry school in Paris: An adventure in capacity
Neuschwander, Cindy
A family and their children travel to Paris and visit a pastry academy. The kids work with others to practice baking. When a situation arises, the kids are called to save the day by making brownies for the competition.

Saturday Sancocho
Torres, Leyla
Chicken Sancocho is a traditional family meal for Maria Lili and her grandmother. When there is a shortage of ingredients, Maria Lili is determined to complete the meal.

To market, to market
Miranda, Anne
A woman makes several efforts to go to the market to buy livestock. After complications arise from leaving the animals at home, the woman returns to the market to buy several vegetables in order to make herself and the livestock some vegetable soup for lunch. From home to market and back again, the woman uses delicious potatoes, celery, beets, cabbage and many more vegetables for their feast.

Still-life stew
Pittman, Helena Clare
Rosa picks vegetables from her garden. Rosa's garden has tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchini, leeks, carrots, and potatoes. Don't forget to notice her spinach, green beans, and garlic too! Rosa outlines descriptive qualities of each vegetable. After Rosa gathers enough ingredients, she paints a picture of the vegetables and makes a stew. Also savor the colors of Rosa's still-life painting of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, leeks, and much more.

Julia, child
Maclear, Kyo
Best friends, Julia and Simca, are little girls who love the art of French cooking. They wish to stay young with little worries and lots of marvelous times. They decide to share their recipes for growing young with grown-ups. These adults fear the youthful food will not last, so the girls must make a dessert and cookbook to remind the adults to enjoy life. Note: References to Julia Child are fictionalized even though she was a famous chef in France and the U.S.

Cora cooks pancit
Gilmore, Dorina, Lazo, K.
Cora finally gets the chance to help her mother cook her favorite dish, pancit. Her older siblings are out for the day and she gets to help with all the grown-up jobs. Her mother is careful to make sure Cora is using food and kitchen safety. Fruits, vegetables, and chicken are served with the pancit. Cora longs for her family's approval of her first dish at dinnertime.

Four famished foxes and fosdyke
Edwards, Pamela Duncan
A mother fox leaves her four children at home for five days. They must feed themselves. Three of the siblings plan different ways to catch meat. The fourth fox is a vegetarian and saves the day by cooking a feast for all of them.

The patchwork quilt
Flournoy, Valerie
Tanya loves spending time with her Grandma. Grandma teaches Tanya the importance of using old scraps of material to make unique and warm quilts. One day Grandma gets sick before the quilt is complete. Tanya must help Grandma finish the quilt.

Armadilly chili
Ketteman, Helen
Billie decides to make armadilly chili. She asks her friends to help her but they are all busy and do not want to help. After Billie makes the chili, all of her friends knock on her door. Billie will not let them eat because they wouldn't help. She soon realizes her chili is missing something: her friends!

April foolishness
Bateman, Teresa
The grandkids are excited to visit grandma and grandpa's farm. Today is April Fool's and they want to trick grandpa. The grandkids can't understand why grandpa remains so calm when they tell him all the animals have escaped. Grandma lends a hand to help trick grandpa.

The greatest potatoes
Stowell, Penelope
Cornelius Vanderbilt sets out on a mission to find the best potato dish ever. He travels around and finds none that are good enough. Vanderbilt goes to Cary Moon's Restaurant, where George Crum is the head chef. Crum makes many dishes that Vanderbilt does not like. Crum decides to make the potatoes so crispy and salty, so he will not like them. Vanderbilt loves them and that is how the potato chip is invented.

My name was hussein
Kyuchukov, Hristo
Hussein is a young boy who lives in Bulgaria. He and his family are Muslim and are forced to give up their identities when soldiers come. Hussein is renamed Harry but he holds onto his real name and faith traditions. A pictorial view of this is depicted throughout the story as Hussein tries to understand what is happening around him.

Grandpa's soup
Kadono, Eiko
Grandpa is lonely after Grandma dies. He wants to make meatball soup just like his wife use to make. Each day after Grandpa makes the soup, friends come and eat it with him. Grandpa finds that eating the soup with friends helps to ease his loneliness.

Papa's latkes
Edwards, Michelle
A Jewish family deals with the recent death of their mother and wife, while trying to keep their Chanukan traditions alive. Each family member deals with their emotions. They work as a single parent family to move on, while embracing their traditions of the past.

Tallulah in the Kitchen
Wolff, Nancy
Tallulah the cat loves to make pancakes for her friends. She describes the process of cooking pancakes from buying the ingredients to eating them! And the step by step she goes through her recipe.

The unbeatable bread
Hoopes, Lyn Littlefield
Uncle Jon is determined to melt away the winter with his unbeatable bread. The wonderful aroma from his bread lures children and wild animals out of the cold winter morning into his kitchen.

Mama & papa have a store
Carling, Amelia Lau
Mama and Papa have a store. Day to day the routine is similar. The same people come in to buy the same things. This little girl likes these routines and she shares them with us. From what Mama is cooking to Papa counting on the abacus we spend the whole day with one little girl.

Up home
Grant, Shauntay
A young woman of African decent recalls her childhood in her native homeland of Preston, Canada. She remembers long hot days of summer playing with cousins, singing on Sunday mornings, climbing trees and picking blueberries. Gatherings with her family are special celebrations.

Ella sets the stage
Amico, Carmela
Ella wants so badly to be in the school talent show, but she has no talent. She decides instead to join the talent show committee and helps make the show the best it can be. During the show, something unexpected happens and Ella comes to the rescue, finding her true talent: helping others.

Waiting for Sipho
Herbert, Barbara
Two young brothers can hardly wait for the return of their beloved older brother, Sipho, from university. Everything seems in place until the goat to be prepared for dinner escapes! The boys find themselves on quite an adventure as they await Siphoメs return.

The magic rocks
Herbert, Barbara N.
An African woman struggles to find firewood so that she can cook for her family. While cooking porridge, an old weak man came along asking for food. Because she felt sorry for him, she gave him the porridge. In return, he gave her some magic rocks that would turn to gold. However, the woman couldnメt get them to change. When her family came home to realize they had nothing to eat, her husband was angry and threw the rocks in the fading fire. The family fell asleep hungry and cold. In the morning, they woke to a burning fire and porridge cooking. The family found more rocks and called them coal.

This is the matzah
Levine, Abby
A Jewish family shops, cooks, and prepares for Passover. The traditions and the meanings behind them are explained in a rhyme.

Going north
Harrington, Janice N
Goodbye, Alabama, hello, Lincoln, Nebraska! This family moves from the South to the North so that the papa can find a better job. During their trip up North the family endures a couple struggles, such as the children not wanting to leave their home, the baby crying, and getting restless, and lastly, almost running out of gas! They make it to Nebraska and realize they are together and need to be brave and pioneering.

Pizza
Romay, Saturnino
Learn how to make pizza, then find the recipe for making pizza at the end of the story.


The heart of the lion
Watson, Pete
An American boy comes to understand and admire the rich culture and traditions of West Africa.

A child story in a south african city
Wulfsohn, Gisele
Presents a day in the life of a child living in Johannesburg, discussing the social life, customs, religion, history, and language of South Africa.

Can you hear the sea?
Cumberbatch, Judy
Sarah's grandpa gives her a special shell and says if she listens carefully she can hear the sea, but all she hears are every day village noises.

Burro's tortillas
Fields, Terri
Burro finds it hard to get any help from his friends as he diligently works to turn corn into tortillas. Expect repetition, puns, and an accurate picture of the traditional way that tortillas are made.

The duchess of whimsy: An absolutely delicious fairytale
de Seve, Randall
The Duchess of Whimsy is very well known to be extravagant, through her celebrations, clothing, and conversation. The Earl of Norm is quite the opposite; in fact the Duchess thinks he is rather ordinary. However her father tells her, their two kingdoms have to be friends. The Earl of Norm loves the Duchess of Whimsy and goes to extraordinary lengths to try to impress her, but none of them impress her. One night at supper the cook becomes sick, so all the Duchess' guests try to impress her with their cooking. However the one food that impresses her is the one ordinary food. Cooked by whom?

Food and festivals: West Africa
Brownlie, Alison
Describes the West African culture of food, including the kinds of food grown and eaten, and various feast days like Ramadan, Easter, naming ceremonies, and yam festivals.

I lost my tooth in africa
Diakite, Penda
Amina and her parents take a trip to Mali to visit family. On the way, Amina realizes that her tooth is loose! While visiting her father's family, Amina loses the tooth and places it under a calabash tree. She receives a hen and a rooster from the African Tooth Fairy.

Our community garden
Pollak, Barbara
Neighborhood children plant a garden together and each contribute by helping to take care of the garden. They set goals, work hard, and build healthy friendship. After harvesting their crops, everyone from the community comes together for a special meal made from vegetables grown in the garden. What a nutritious, heart-warming treat!

Elephant dance: memories of India
Heine, Theresa
Ravi's grandfather comes from India so Ravi asks him questions aabout India. Grandfather uses a simile to describe different aspects of India. Ravi is interested in the elephants of India and dances an elephant dance.

Pie for piglets: Counting by twos
Dahl, Michael
Two pigs decide to make a pie. They put in many different ingredients two-by-two.

Eating
Swain, Gwenyth
Food is eaten in different ways around the world and is prepared by different families. Real life photos glimpse into multiple eating customs and habits around the globe.

Old granny and the bean thief
Defelice, Cynthia
Granny loves her beans any way she can get them. A mischievous thief steals Granny's beans three nights in a row. She embarks on a journey to tell the sheriff about the thief. Along the way she makes several friends. They help Granny stop the thief in a very unique fashion.

An apple pie for dinner
VanHecke, Susan
Wishing to bake an apple pie, Old Granny Smith sets out with a full basket, trading its contents for a series of objects until she get the apples she needs.

Garibaldi's biscuits
Steadman, Ralph
In nineteenth-century Italy, the wife of General Garibaldi bakes biscuits, as a peace offering for a defeated French army.

Tiny and Bigman
Gershater, Phillis
Challenging stereotypical gender roles, Tiny and Bigman illustrate the unique people skills people have to help the world go around and to make a happy family. Tiny learns to use her large size, strength, and booming voice to help people in her community. Tiny falls in love with a small man who is hard of hearing. She builds their house, and he cooks and cleans.

Namaste!
Cohn, Diana
Nima Sherpa lives next to Mount Everest, and her father guides people to the top of the mountains once a year. Before he leaves, he tells Nima that he will have a story for her when he returns and asks Nima if she will have a story for him. As Nima walks around the village thinking of what her story could be, she greets everyone with Namaste, just as her mom taught her. She struggles with her story until she realizes that she spreads sweetness everytime she says Namaste.

Welcome dede!: An African naming ceremony
Onyefulu, Ifeoma
Amarlai has a new baby cousin and he can't wait for her to be given a name. A tradtional African name will tell people where she comes from and which child she is in the family.

A child's day in a Ghanaian city
Provencal, Francis & McNamara, Catherine
Nii Kwei gets up with the sun, and at half past five, he's already hard at work chasing the chickens and sweeping the compound clean with his straw broom. As the city begins to wake up, he washes, changes into his school uniform, and sits down to chocolate milk and sandwiches for breakfast. Photographs capture the lively rhythms of West African daily life, and this delightful dawn-to-dusk journal will encourage young readers, wherever they live, to compare and contrast Nii Kwei's day with their own.

Before John was a jazz giant: A song of John Coltrane
Weatherford, Carole Boston
Before John became a jazz giant, he loved music, singing, instruments, and the radio. The bustling of the south and the foundation of his church and family allows John to listen and create his own music.

Creativity
Steptoe, John
Charles speaks English and Hector speaks Spanish. They learn that even though they speak different languages, they both come from African ancestors. Charles helps Hector adjust to life in the U.S. through fun activities.