Tag Archive | cooking

Is this place the best SPACE FOR SAFFRON, her interests, and her moms? by Rie Neal (MG book review)

Jun24
A red-headed tween girl wearing hearing aids, jeans, and backpack holds a volcano model in doorway of a bakery on book cover of Space for Saffron, by Rie Neal.

Constantly in motion,
dreaming of science,
needing her own space in the world.

Saffron didn’t plan for her volcano experiment to make such a mess up, but the mean boss fires Mama and says the 10 year old has to pay to clean up the diner!

Not many jobs in their small Iowa town, so when Gran calls to ask her moms to run the family’s cafe in California while she travels, it’s worth a try. Mimi says she can get construction work there, if Saffron is willing to move before the school science fair.

So they pack up (volcano included) and drive to Oakvale where they’ll live above the cafe (Saffron on a couch-bed for now) – wow, so much work needed downstairs to bring customers back in.

Different schedule and classes, finding new friends, explaining her hearing aids and ADHD, but the science fair at Saffron’s new school is still ahead – another chance for her volcano!

Uncle Toby helps when he can, but the cafe needs something special to compete for customers here in Silicon Valley, where Granpy worked with NASA scientists.

Oh, her classmates have planned projects with robots and coding and computers – will her simple volcano be enough?
They help her brainstorm for STEM ideas that will make the cafe stand out – will the grownups agree?
If Gran wants to run the cafe again after her vacation – where will Saffron and her moms go?

Family and friends, volcanos and space – maybe Saffron can find a space that’s truly hers!

What was your favorite science fair experiment?
**kmm

Book info: Space for Saffron / Rie Neal. Aladdin, 2026. [author site https://www.rienealwrites.com/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Space-for-Saffron/Rie-Neal/9781665972529] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

ALICE ECLAIR, SPY EXTRAORDINAIRE: Recipe For Trouble! by Sarah Todd Taylor (MG book review)

Jun17
A young French teen girl in red hat runs alongside a steam train at night, followed by a white cat. Above them is series title Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire in a puff of pink smoke, below them is the book title A Recipe for Trouble, by Sarah Todd Taylor

Code-breaking,
puzzle solving,
spy training?

When she’s not making intricate creations of sugar and chocolate for Maman’s bakery, Alice follows mysterious messages through Paris – puzzles, secretive package exchanges. So much like the tasks set by her late Uncle Robert, gone for two years now.

The 13 year old goes undercover as a maid to retrieve microfilm from a spy and is most surprised at who she delivers it to!

Aha! The spy will be traveling on the luxurious Sapphire Express to the coast, carrying documents that will endanger brave French agents if they reach their destination – Alice must find a way to be on that train…

Her pastry-making skills get her on board, a chance encounter with a lively British teen girl gives her a potential ally, and she watches all the first-class passengers for clues – only a few days to figure it all out.

Twin dancing brothers are nervous when a fancy resort is mentioned, a glamorous woman insists that the pianist play only her sheet music, and a professor is taking mysterious notes.

Who is the spy?
Can Alice recover the papers?
Can she keep her job on the train while she tries?

As Europe watches Germany with great worry in the mid-1930s, a young spy-in-training must decide who to trust and what her true mission is. Followed by A Spoonful of Spying, A Sprinkling of Danger, and A Dash of Daring, as Alice’s amazing adventures continue.

Have you ever traveled on an overnight train?
**kmm

Book info: Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire: Recipe for Trouble / Sarah Todd Taylor. Nosy Crow, 2025. [author site https://sarahtoddtaylor.com/alice-eclair-spy-extraordinaire/] [publisher site https://nosycrow.us/product/alice-eclair-spy-extraordinaire-a-recipe-for-trouble/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

In the coffeeshop, there’s always STEAM & people (mostly human), by Shaenon K. Garrity & Emily Holden (Graphic Novel review)

Jun9

Townsfolk and students,
coffee and conversations,
pastry and personalities.

Ruby’s a great coffeeshop employee. She’s also an experimental young adult transhuman created in secret university lab nearby, but only the scientists she escaped from know that.

So many interesting people come to the coffeeshop – Annie the hat who speaks in cryptic sentences, Zev who says pants are a CIA plot, the cute girl always reading comics (co-worker Mira’s crush).

Ruby decides that love must be the “success condition” that makes someone happy, so she designs a data analyzer in the storage room and begins finding romantic matches among townspeople, including her harried boss Lynn, and nudging them together in the coffeeshop.

Meanwhile, the secret lab has mercenaries searching for RB-8, considered a top-level danger threat to humanity!

The more people who become happily paired up, the grumpier Mira gets, especially when she finds Ruby’s machine and fusses at her about invasion of privacy.

Mira already knows that Comic Book Girl is perfect for her, so she and Ruby comb through hints from romantic comedies and concoct a double-date plan involving new regular customer Ward.

But Ruby’s machine shows troubling information about Ward, and the mercenary agents are closing in!

Will Ruby get taken back to the lab?
How can her coffeeshop family protect her?
What really makes someone human?

This graphic novel is drawn by a different artist in a different world than the author’s Dire Days of Willowweep Manor (recommended here https://booksyalove.com/?p=12249) and Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor (https://booksyalove.com/?p=15087 ), all three great fun.

Does your favorite coffeeshop know your order by heart?
**kmm

Book info: Steam / Shaenon K. Garrity; illustrated by Emily Holden; inks by Sam McInnis; colors by Monica Nguyen-Vo. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2026. [author site https://www.shaenon.com/] [illustrator site https://emily-holden.com/steam] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Steam/Shaenon-K-Garrity/9781534495852] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

X is for LEON THE EXTRAORDINARY, by Jamar Nicholas (MG Graphic Novel) #A2Z

Apr28
A sneaker-clad Black boy wearing green gloves, goggles, cape & utility belt is in mid-air in front of city skyscrapers with 2 different superheroes far behind him in the partly cloudy blue sky, below book title Leon the Extraordinary, by Jamar Nicholas

Superheroes – yay!
Supervillains – boo!
Ordinary people… yawn.

In a town filled with superheroes and supervillains, Leon is just…not-super. Best friend Carlos draws amazing comics, and Carlos’ mom is a super baker, but ordinary Leon can’t even convince his mom to get him a cellphone.

Wearing superhero garb to school can’t give the fifth grader superpowers, but he can feel his common sense tingling when there’s a problem situation.

Uh, oh. Clementine and her hall monitors are charging kids money to get to class safely? And she invites Leon to her superhero birthday party just to make fun of him! Grrr…she’s a problem that Leon can’t solve (yet).

Yikes! This new game Bholder has kids glued to their cellphones, making them act like zombies – real zombies who are ordered to get Leon!

Somehow Leon and Carlos must team up with Clementine to solve this problem before everyone in town with a cellphone is part of the mob.

Which of Leon’s inventions can help them free their classmates?
Who is behind this terrible game app?
Why are some people superheroes and others supervillains?

First in the series, followed by Leon: Worst Friends Forever (book 2) and Leon and the Big, Big Problem (book 3, releasing January 2027).

Who’s your favorite less-known superhero?
**kmm

Book info: Leon the Extraordinary / Jamar Nicholas; color by Bonaia Rosada. Graphix/Scholastic, 2022 [author/artist site https://jamarnicholas.weebly.com/jamar-nicholas.html] [publisher site https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/leon-the-extraordinary-1-9781338744156.html] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T is THE TRAVELING TACO & origins of our favorite foods! by Mia Wenjen & Kimberlie Clinthorne-Wong (kids nonfiction) #A2Z

Apr23
Clockwise around title of book The Traveling Taco: the Amazing & Surprising Journey of Many of Your Favorite Foods, by Mia Wenjen: a huge ice cream cone, shaped pasta, French fries, juice, onion, spaghetti twirled on a fork, fish, pomegranate half, taco, olives, ginger, and shrimp.

We love it!
Let’s eat it!
It came from where?

Did you know that French fries didn’t originate in France, and cheesecake began in ancient Greece?

Find out about the roots of a dozen favorite foods and how cooks adapted them to new places using the ingredients and methods available there.

Learn the fascinating histories of fish and chips, jerk chicken, pizza, pasta, and more.

Each favorite food’s double-page spread includes what it is, where it came from, a “did you know?” fact, a rhyme, and how it changed in its new place.

“Recipes are crafted to delight and to nourish.
When a recipe travels, new minds help it flourish.
Popular foods can evolve over time.
Cooks add small changes that make them sublime.” (preface)

Kids of all ages will learn something new about a popular food in this yummy book (I did)!

What’s your favorite food?
**kmm

Book info: The Traveling Taco: the Amazing & Surprising Journey of Many of Your Favorite Foods / Mia Wenjen; illustrated by Kimberlie Clinthorpe-Wong. Red Comet Press, 2025. [author site https://miawenjen.com/the-traveling-taco/] [illustrator site https://www.kimberliewong.com/] [publisher site https://www.redcometpress.com/nonfiction/taco] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

M is MAKER GIRL AND PROFESSOR SMARTS must save the city’s ice cream! by Jasmine Florentine (kids graphic novel) #A2Z

Apr15
A tween girl wearing goggles, superhero cape & satchel with logo raises a gadget skyward, next to a tween boy in ballcap and shades consulting a book, with science & math motifs in background, on book cover of Maker Girl and Professor Smarts, book 1, by Jasmine Florentine.

Summertime,
ice cream time!
Ewww… now it’s slime?!

Chuy and Yaya have been besties since preschool – he wants to know everything, and she can build anything.

Too bad the 12 year olds didn’t get superpowers when the recent comet struck Earth, like some people did…

When new supervillain Mr. Anti-Freeze starts turning everyone’s ice cream into slime, it’s time for them to act anyway!

Super-cape for Yaya, super-cool shades for Chuy – now Maker Girl and Professor Smarts!

Can their brainy/inventive powers outwit Mr. Anti-Freeze’s icky superpower?
Can they stop him from unleashing his slime bomb on the city?
Why does he hate ice cream so much?

This first graphic novel in new series includes instructions on making a grappling hook and yummy sorbet, a preview of book 2 (mayhem with younger siblings), and a resource list so you can make and learn stuff, too.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
**kmm

Book info: Maker Girl and Professor Smarts (Book 1) / Jasmine Florentine. MIT Kids Press, 2025. [author/illustrator site https://www.jasmineflorentine.com/books] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/786774/maker-girl-and-professor-smarts-by-jasmine-florentine-illustrated-by-jasmine-florentine/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

E = eat some treats! SWEET & SALTY: King Arthur Baking Company’s Cookbook for Young Bakers, by Battilana and Boytsova (nonfiction) #A2Z

Apr6
book title Sweet & Salty: King Arthur Baking Company's Cookbook for Young Bakers overlaid on half-circle of chocolate cake with a person's hand adding colored sprinkles and half-circle of small cheese crackers being picked up by another person.

Pink Lemonade Cake,
Banana Split French Toast,
English Muffin Bread!

Treats that are sweet and treats that are savory are the focus of this yummy beginner’s cookbook filled with photos, illustrations, and explanations of ingredients, tools, and baking techniques.

Start with lessons for baking success, like lining a pan with parchment paper and softening butter (without melting it!), then choose a recipe. Each recipe is marked Easy, Medium, or Project so you know how much skill and completion time it requires.

Bake up a Super-Simple Strawberry Cake, then move on to Brownie Cookie Cups or skip the oven to make a Creamsicle Dreamsicle Ice Cream Cake or Super-Size Peanut-Butter Cup Tart.

Feed a bunch of folks with a big, big Party Pancake or Sesame-Seedy Crackers or Crunchy Breadsticks.

When you learn to make One-Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes and Super-Fudge Brownies, you’ll never reach for a boxed mix again!

Whether you want to help a young person to enjoy the art of baking or are a novice baker yourself, this cookbook from the trusted bakers at King Arthur deserves a place on your kitchen bookshelf.

Loaded Baked Potato Waffles, anyone?
**kmm

Book info: Sweet & Salty: King Arthur Baking Company’s Cookbook for Young Bakers, by Jessica Battilana with Yekaterina Boytsova; photographs by Rick Holbrook; illustrations by Jordan Sondler. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. [author info https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/author/jessica-battilana] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sweet-Salty!/King-Arthur-Baking-Company/9781665930666] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Y is a year’s worth of funny poems: A WHALE OF A TIME, selected by Lou Peacock, art by Matt Hunt (Poetry picturebook) #AtoZ

Apr29
Book cover of A Whale of a Time: a Funny Poem For Each Day of the Year, selected by Lou Peacock, illustrated by Matt Hunt. Shows a large smiling blue whale swimming in sea with fish and submarine, spouting many objects up into the air: ghost, dinosaur, piano, robot, horse, rainbow, car, trophy, lion, kite, ladder and more.

Make every day more humorous as you spend a year with funny poems from around the world.

Some are very short:

even among the insects of this world,
some are good at singing,
some bad
by Kobayashi Issa, translated by R.H. Blyth (August 8)

Others are a bit longer, like Jack Prelutsky’s classic “The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven” on November 27th among a cluster of fall food feasting poems.

Every double-page spread features subject-related poems such as June 26-28’s poems “Spinach”, “I Eat My Peas With Honey”, and “Eat Your Veg”, with a vivid illustration connecting them.

And the poem titles themselves invite us to enjoy reading them – “Banananananananana” (August 2) and “Hippopotamouse” (Sept. 30) and “Jamaican Summers” (June 12) and “The Fork Tree” (Oct.7) and “Lunchbox Love Note” (on Feb. 14, of course)

Happy to reread some of my favorites, like “Eletelephony”, by Laura E. Richards (for Feb. 25) which begins
Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant –
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone…

This vibrantly illustrated oversize volume includes an index of poets, an index of poems, and the ever-helpful index of first lines. Find related learning resources on the publisher’s page: https://nosycrow.us/product/a-whale-of-a-time/.

What’s your favorite funny poem?
**kmm

Book info: A Whale of a Time: a Funny Poem For Each Day of the Year / selected by Lou Peacock, illustrated by Matt Hunt. Nosy Crow, 2023. [editor site https://nosycrow.us/contributor/lou-peacock/] [illustrator site https://matthuntillustration.com/] [publisher site https://nosycrow.us/product/a-whale-of-a-time/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

B is BUILD A GIRLFRIEND from exes’ critiques? by Elba Luz (YA fiction) #AtoZ

Apr2
book cover of Build A Girlfriend, by Elba Luz; shows a Puerto Rican teen with 3 different outfits & hair styles. The image is divided into 4 horizontal slices that have been shifted sideways so the faces, torsos, legs, and shoes don't match.

Her family is cursed!
No “happily ever after” ever.
Maybe she can create a way to keep love!

Yet again, Amelia is single, just like her mother and her three aunts – no romantic relationship ever lasts for the Hernandez women.

Much as she loves them and her sisters, the high school senior doesn’t love the idea of running their family Puerto Rican bakery someday. She itches to get out of the big house they all share, so she secretly applied for a gap year program abroad and has almost enough saved up to go!

After Amelia’s most recent breakup, her sister sets up a “Romance Boot Camp” to help Amelia harness her best qualities. Why not try out her improved outlook on some of her ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends?

One leaves her hanging on a climbing wall (that video goes viral), another embarrasses her at karaoke.

And Leon is back, two years after he broke up with her – by text! She can’t avoid him as they both work toward the bakery’s grand opening… and perhaps she doesn’t want to.

How will her family react to her post-graduation escape plan?
Why can’t she master any job at the big fair?
Is there any possibility at all to reunite with Leon?

Supported by aura readings, makeup hints, empanadas, and unconditional family love, Amelia has to stop selling herself short and go for the future she longs for.

What kind of second-chance date with an ex would you choose?
**kmm

Book info: Build a Girlfriend / Elba Luz. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

W is WELCOME TO OUR TABLE: A Celebration of What Children Eat All Around the World, by Laura Mucha, Ed Smith, Harriet Lynas (Picturebook review) @A2Z

Apr26
Many children from various countries sharing a multicultural meal around a large white tablecloth, book cover of Welcome to Our Table: A Celebration of What Children Eat All Around the World, by Laura Mucha & Ed Smith, illustrated by Harriet Lynas.

Noodles, potatoes, rice,
veggies fresh or pickled,
herbs and spices and yum!

Welcome, welcome! Our table is set with the tools we need (chopsticks, a flat-bottomed spoon, or our hands), and our senses are ready – let’s eat together!

Rice or corn or bread or noodles or potatoes could be the foundation of our meal – so many shapes and textures and flavors to enjoy.

Our food is more interesting because we add spices, herbs, peppers, tomatoes – each place in the world has its favorites.

Perhaps you’ve tried kimchi or other pickled vegetables. Molokhia and choy sum are green vegetables that might be new to you.

Beans, nuts, and soybeans are proteins that help our bodies stay strong, as are meats and seafood – look at all the wonderful ways they are cooked!

Oh, the lovely sweet ways to finish our meals – ice cream, fruit, pastries! Bananas are the most-eaten fruit in the world – can you guess the second most popular? *

Readers can learn to say “happy eating” and words about texture and “delicious” and “goodbye” in several languages, with phonetic pronunciations included for every non-English food word in the entire book.

Foods from 103 countries are featured in this attractive introduction to what we share around the table at mealtimes, fascinating for kids who want to know what their age-mates in other lands are eating and interesting for adults who want to expand their culinary horizons. Picture books are Everybody books!

Where did your favorite lunch food originate?
**kmm

Book info: Welcome to Our Table: A Celebration of What Children Eat All Around the World / Laura Mucha & Ed Smith; illustrated by Harriet Lynas. Nosy Crow, 2023. [Laura’s site] [Ed’s site] [Harriet’s site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

(* It’s watermelon!!)