Tag: food fight

Posted in picture books

Kitchen Side Story: Food Fight, by Alex Latimer

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Food Fight, by Alex Latimer, (March 2023, Kane Miller), $15.99, ISBN: 9781684644957

Ages 4-7

Mushroom and Grape are best friends, but theirs is a forbidden friendship: vegetables and fruits just don’t like each other. Things get pretty heated between the two groups, so Mushroom and Grape sneak off to figure out how to bring their two groups together, and Mushroom has a suggestion: seek out the Wise Old Cheese, long rumored to be at the top of the fridge where no one goes. The friends go on an epic journey to seek his wisdom and bring it back to heal the long-simmering feud. Filled with food puns, this story is all about friendship and conflict resolution, with a colorful cast of expressive fruits and vegetables. Googly white eyes and stick arms and legs make the cartoony foods as fun as they are recognizable. Front endpapers show the two food groups at odds with one another: Carrot and Banana face off with boxing gloves, Banana sporting a black eye; Cucumber threatens Orange with a grater, and Mushroom and Grape stand sadly in the middle of the fray. On the back endpapers, all is well: bathing suit-clad Pineapple and ONion frolic through a sprinkler; Pear paints a portrait of Potato, Orange presents Cucumber with a birthday cake, and Mushroom and Grape happily wave to the reader, arms wrapped around each other. A cute additional purchase where friendship and kindness stories (like the Summer Reading Theme, All Together Now!) do well.

 

Posted in Middle Grade, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

Don’t read on an empty stomach: NatGeo Kids Food Fight

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Food Fight! A Mouthwatering History of WHO Ate WHAT and WHY Through the Ages, by Tanya Steel, (Sept. 2018, National Geographic Kids), $19.99, ISBN: 9781426331626

Ages 10-14

Did you know that the Visigoths demanded 3,000 pounds of pepper as a gift when they conquered the Western Roman Empire in the 5th Century AD? Or that some medieval bakers whitened their flour with ground bones or chalk? Those are just a few of the wild food facts readers will pick up when they pick up Food Fight! by former Bon Appétit and Food & Wine editor Tanya Steel. Food Fight! is a history of food, combined with some fantastic (and frightful) facts, and recipes. The book covers food fads and eating habits from 14 different moments in history, from the prehistoric era through the 1960s, and there’s a special chapter imagining a future life (and food) on Mars! There are fun Popcorn Quizzes (you can’t have a plain pop quiz in a book about food) throughout, and amazing and hilarious photos, plus quotes from kid chefs who’ve made and enjoyed the 30 recipes you’ll find here. The book kicks off with safety tips, and a food timeline, recipe index, bibliography, and further reading and resources rounds everything out.

Kids in my library are big nonfiction fans, and Food Fight! offers history, fun, and kid-friendly recipes all in one volume. It’s a fun add to collections, and a good gift for budding chefs and food historians. (Psst… introduce older tweens and teens to Alton Brown’s excellent Food Network show, Good Eats, for more food history and cooking tips.) It’s a big plus that author Tanya Steel is a major name in the food journalism, so she knows how to write about food and food history, and she makes it accessible to younger readers. Plus, she originated the White House’s Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids’ State Dinner, hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, which brought recipes created by young chefs from each state to the White House. Kids are invited to make and upload photos of their Food Fight dishes – check out the Instagram tag #natgeofoodfight, and check out the Food Fight webpage for more info.

Posted in Preschool Reads

Book Review: Food Fight, by Carol Diggory Shields/Illus. by Doreen Gay-Kassel (Handprint Books, 2002)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

food fightRecommended for ages 3-8

Late at night, when we are fast asleep, who knows what goes on in our refrigerators? In Food Fight, it’s the cat who bears witness to this story about what happens when the food in a kitchen decides to throw a late-night party. The story, told in rhyme, escalates when tuna fish tells the garlic, “You stink”, angering the chili pepper, and the rumble is on. The artwork, done in modeling clay, brings life to the food, creating a wide variety of facial expressions and movements. The multicolored text, in different sized, exaggerated font, swirls and flows around the artwork and stands out against the brightly colored backgrounds, adding more fun to the book and for the reader. The endpapers offer a cursory look into the refrigerator, showing assorted groceries on shelves.

This would be part of a fun, food-related read-aloud for preschoolers and kindergarteners. It could fit in with other fun food books, like Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, and can also lead to a discussion about healthy eating. Putting out plastic food for children to play with will provide a fun playtime, as will singing songs like “On Top of Spaghetti”.

Food Fight has received numerous awards and accolades, including designation as an ALA Notable Children’s Book (2012), Colorado: Children’s Book Award Nominees (2013), Horn Book Fanfare (2011), Indies Choice Book Award for Picture Book (2012), Irma S. & James H. Black Picture Book Honor (2012), NY Times Best Illustrated Books (2011), NY Times Notable Children’s Books (2011), Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Books (2011), Texas: 2×2 Reading List (2012), Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor (2012), Virginia: Readers’ Choice Award Nominees (2013).