There are A TON of picture books about food. So today was really hard. But life is about hard choices, and so I had to narrow it down. I figured I could probably get away with featuring a bunch of books, though, if I found some sort of cohesive theme. And so here are five picture books about families and food and tradition:
Applesauce Season is narrated by a boy who really, really loves applesauce (I mean, so say we all). All fall, he and his family go apple picking and turn those apples into sauce… and all fall, the applesauce changes as different types of apples come into season. It will make you want to boil up some November applesauce (and conveniently there’s a recipe in the back that will help you do just that).
Or you can grow some vegetable soup in (you guessed it) Growing Vegetable Soup. This is serious farm-to-table fare: a girl and her dad plant a vegetable garden, raise their crops, harvest them, and turn them into dinner.
You could join Maria’s family for a (accidentally gigantic) home-cooked meal in Too Many Tamales, a family holiday food story about a beautiful ring, a gaggle of cousins, and a very forgiving mother.
Or go to a dim sum restaurant in Dim Sum for Everyone. Each person gets to choose their own favorite kind of dim sum from the carts that go by, and they all share the buns and dumplings with the rest of the family.
Or, just throw all caution and propriety to the wind and turn your son into a pizza, like Pete’s dad in Pete’s A Pizza. No matter what, dinner will be served.
Read Five 