Books for Kids: Food

Books are a fun and exciting way to teach children about food, particularly when it’s a new topic. Are you thinking about introducing solids? Is your little one as picky eater? One thing’s for sure, food is a topic you deal with daily. Enjoy these reads and may they pave the way for a long life of food adventures.

I Like Vegetables: Petit Collage and I Like Fruit: Petit Collage

Written and illustrated by Lorena Siminovich

Short read, rounded edges, and colorful pages – what’s not to love? Illustrated with collages and textures, these board books will appeal to infants and toddlers for their play potential. Each page has a touch-and-feel section that relates to the featured produce. However the books are not only about healthy food. Cleverly blending concepts and produce, the vegetable book introduces kids to the concept of size (big, small..) and the fruit book focuses on color (red, yellow, green…).

To Market, to Market

Written and illustrated by Nikki McLure

Behind every farmers’ market item is a story waiting to be told. Exploring the diversity of what farmers markets have to offer, Nikki McLure tells us how each item came to the city. From the apple farmer who grafted his trees to the smoked salmon guy who builds an alder wood fire, the beekeeper who spins the honey out of wooden frames or the blueberry turnover guys who prepare flaky dough, your children will learn that food doesn’t suddenly appear out of the blue. For the farmers, it’s a work of love and it takes time to get quality produce. Based on the Olympia farmers market, this stylish book will make your children appreciate what they eat even more.

Tyler Makes Pancakes!

By Tyler Florence

Kids will easily identify with a little boy named Tyler who dreams of pancakes in outer space and prepares a grocery list to surprise his parents with pancakes for breakfast. Learning along the way about the ingredients for a pancake breakfast, kids will certainly want to try it out themselves. With a recipe for blueberry buttermilk pancakes by the celebrated chef Florence Tyler at the end of the book, this one is a keeper. Yes to kids in the kitchen!

Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters

Tales retold by Jane Yolen, recipes by Heidi E.Y. Stemple, Illustrations by Philippe Béha

What’s a good story without food for the heroes? Each recipe in this book comes with a short folk or fairy tale that includes the recipe at some point in the story. With whimsical illustrations, this book features recipes such as the runaway pancake, the little red riding hood’s deviled eggs or the actual stone soup made with a boiled rock. If you needed an excuse to introduce new foods at home, wait no longer!

Food For Thought

By Joost Elffers

A book about food play? Better than that. Food for Thought will introduce your kids to shapes, colors. Numbers, letters and opposite via outrageously funny produce sculptures. Have you ever seen the six eggplant penguins or the pumpkin, the leek queen and radishes jack in the box? For crazy fun food pictures and a great way to teach concepts, this book is a must. Who knows, you can even try this at home!

This review first appeared in the Golden Gate Mothers Group Magazine, March 2012, as the Books for Kids column. I’ve been writing this column since 2005.