Popcorn Bob
​by Maranke Rinck art by Martijn van der Linden translator Nancy Forest-Flier

Something as insignificant as a kernel of corn can be the genesis for a wild adventure. Rinck and van der Linden have created a fantasy series about a walking, talking, cowboy-hat-wearing oversized seed with a voracious appetite and an "explosive" personality. He goes by the name of Popcorn Bob. Nine-year-old Ellis, the family’s popcorn aficionado, discovers this salty oddity inside the microwave when she pops up an afternoon snack for her dads, who work from home developing new rubber duckies. Ellis’ life takes a disastrous turn when her teacher informs her parents that the school is emphasizing healthy eating. This means that there will be cauliflower in the cake and, most importantly, no more popcorn. Ellis resorts to sneaking out to the garage to secretly satisfy her popcorn cravings. An even larger problem is Bob, who is brash and demanding. He will not remain quietly in Ellis's pocket and resorts to earsplitting outbursts when hungry. He even devours a candy bar on the principal’s desk.

Popcorn Treats!

Listen to a sample

Like Ellis, I am a popcorn enthusiast. Unlike Ellis, I prefer popping the kernels with my old fashioned popcorn popper. With a bit of oil, the kernels expand and the glorious popping sound begins. The kitchen fills with the tantalizing aroma. Top it off with melted butter and salt and you have snacktime perfection. When I want to get fancy, I rely on the Caramel Corn Recipe from my friend's mother. It's a sure-fire hit. Everyone begs for more. Thank you Lynne. You can find her recipe here.

Dumplings for Lili by Melissa Iwai

It's going to be a special day. Nai Nai has invited Lili to help her make baos. This granddaughter not only loves to eat these steamed bundles of goodness, she loves to make them. With charming watercolor illustrations, Lili describes each step. She begins by making the dough, then creating the filling, and finally tucking the filling inside each little pastry pillow. She refers to helpful cooking tips "secrets."  When Nai Nai is missing cabbage leaves to line the bamboo basket and keep the bao from sticking, Lili ventures up to Babcia's apartment on the 5th floor for cabbage. She discovers that Babcia has cabbage to share but needs a potato for the pierogi she is making. This pattern continues. Lili traipses up and down the stairs, locating a missing ingredient for the resident grandmothers as each cooks her own version of savory filled pastries: ravioli, tamales, beef patties, fatayer, pierogis and of course, baos. A top floor view, looking down, reveals on all the flights of stairs Lili and her adorable dog must traverse. Note: a posted sign indicates that the elevator is out of service.

Apple of My Pie by Mika Song

Norma and Belly are back with another delectable adventure. Last year the squirrels discovered donuts. Now they venture into the world of pies. Apple pies. Gramps and Little Bee visit the local farmers' market and unfortunately Gramps falls asleep in a truckload of apples bound for the factory. This could be trouble! Little Bee enlists Norma and Belly to help rescue Gramps from what could be a dismal fate: A squirrel baked inside an apple pie. The rescuers travel to the Crunchy Acres apple orchard and processing plant. Their search for Gramps lands them in a vat of apples that are about to become pie filling. ​There is plenty of clever word play. The squirrels are dumped onto a conveyor with an incline.  They note that “things are looking up.” Norma escapes from the apple peeling apparatus and exclaims “that was a close shave.”

More Yummy Books from Mika Song

Just For Fun

Why not create your own tree populated with squirrels? Author Mika Song provides a tree template to download and print. She suggests filling the tree with fingerprints. Then add details to each tiny print to personalize the furry creatures.  ​Will Nora, Belly, Gramps, and Little Bee have a place on the branches?

Try making mini apples pies. Fill a small oven-safe jar with your favorite apple pie filling. I used an unusual recipe which features orange and apple juices cooked with apple slices. Details here. Top with a circle of pie crust pastry. Crimp the edges and pop in a hot oven (about 425) until the pastry is lightly browned. For an easy version, fill jars with precooked filling and top with a crumbled oatmeal cookie. Top with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream. It’s a sweet little mouthful of apple goodness.

Donut Feed the Squirrels (Norma and Belly) by Mika Song

In serious contention for Best Children’s Book Title of the Year is Donut Feed the Squirrels. The title's clever play on words and adorable characters featured on the cover are instant attention-getters. Song eschews drawing anatomically accurate squirrels. Instead her art perfectly captures the essence of Norma with her tiny heart-shaped nose and Belly's rosy cheeks and gumdrop-shaped body. ​These little charmers are in search of breakfast. When their pancakes are burned, the pair are intrigued by the tantalizing aroma from a nearby food truck. They discover a fantastic treat: donuts! The squirrels are determined to get donuts for everyone. Fortunately the proprietor of the mobile donutmobile briefly steps away from his truck. The enterprising duo have eight minutes to get in, get a sackful of donuts, and get out. There is a major complication. With a plot element that is an homage to the classic Homer Price doughnut machine fiasco, there is an equipment failure. Production is out of control. The shop rapidly becomes a doughy disaster.

What's Your Favorite Food? by Eric Carle and Friends

The picture book What's Your Favorite Food? features Eric Carle and selected children's book illustrators responding to a simple query. Each artist describes a favorite food with a brief paragraph accompanied by a two-page spread of eye-popping art. The book is a cornucopia of flavors from around the world. Strawberry daifuku, paella, and pitaya fruit are interspersed with universal favorites such as cheese, berries, and salad. Find kid-friendly fare: French Fries, ice cream, and pizza. It is fun to explore this potpourri of scrumptious food choices. The colorful mix of art styles are visually arresting with an appealing melánge of realistic images and bold graphic design. Food is celebrated with illustrations employing collage, printmaking, painting, and line drawing. A delicious introduction to a variety of artists.

Let Them Eat Cake

Cake. We wanted cake. Today a chocolate cake would be especially nice. However, due to the current world situation, ingredients are in very limited supply. What to do? Then I remembered collage days and my roommate Delena. She had a good recipe for chocolate cake made without eggs, butter, or milk.  Cake is on the menu, thanks to Delena.

Let's Get Baking

When butter and eggs are plentiful, this scrumptious cake is my go-to chocolate sheet cake. Gooey, chocolaty goodness. The batter fills an oversize sheet pan. At my house we consume a lot of this cake, so the size is just right. The chopped pecans on top are the crowning touch. ​Find the recipe here.

What's Your Favorite?

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story
​by Kevin Noble Maillard ill by Juana Martinez-Neal

This is a story of bread. But it's more than bread. Much more. This is a story of family. Of tradition. Of Native American pride. Kevin Noble Maillard, member of Seminole Nation, Mekusukey Band shares a long-standing Indigenous special food: fry bread. Recipes for fry bread are as diverse as the numerous Native nations. The sentence stem "Fry bread is..." introduces this delightful cultural staple. By turns it is food, shape, sound, color. flavor, time, history, place, nation, everything. Written in free verse, each concept fills the entire two-page spread. Replete with information and symbolism, each fry bread attribute is also a metaphor for Native Americans.

Making Fry Bread

Fry Bread brings back warm memories. When I was a college freshman, one of my roommates, Norma, was a Navajo from Arizona. She was very proud of her nationality and delighted in sharing Navajo culture with her roommates. She loved to sing, but not the hit songs playing on the radio. She sang traditional Navajo songs, with distinctive tonal patterns, and language. In my mind, I can still hear her singing. She was gentle and patient with us, helping us appreciate the Navajo Way.

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai

Jingwen, his younger brother Yanghao, and mother venture into the unknown, immigrating to Australia,  Mom works the night shift at a local bakery and Jingwen cares for his outgoing, impulsive younger sibling while she is away. ​It's hard. School is strange. He doesn’t understand what people are saying. Kids at school ignore him.  It’s like moving to Mars. Relocation is exponentially difficult because his father is not with the family. Dad was killed in a car accident fourteen days before Jingwen’s birthday. This ten-year-old carries a heavy pocketful of resentment, guilt, and loneliness.

Strange Territory

Sweet Revenge: Passive-Aggressive Desserts for Your Exes & Enemies
by Heather Kim

The holidays are upon us.  This may mean strained relationships. Stress with a capital S. Maybe it's time to throw  out the calorie count and indulge in decadent desserts. Sweet Revenge: Passive-Aggressive Desserts for Your Exes & Enemies has you covered. This tantalizing cookbook is fun to read. Text is replete with clever turn-of-phrase and precisely the right amount of snark.  It's a visual treat as well.  Book design has a slightly edgy feel with bold fonts, quirky graphic elements and eye-popping photographs.

Heather Kim states in her introduction that this volume is first and foremost a cookbook. So let’s talk food: not your standard chocolate chip and snickerdoodle fare. The recipes are inventive, and some are downright dangerous. Consider these: Pretzel-Peanut-Butter Cups, Cannoli Waffles with a candied Pistachio topping, Coconut Mochi Cake with Coconut Sesame-Pecan Icing, Carrot Cake Truffles with Cool Ranch Doritos Sugar.  Some venture into truly innovative: Elvis cupcakes (banana cake, peanut buttercream frosting and butterscotch candied bacon) or Flamin' Hot Cheetos Ice Cream Sandwiches. I tried the S'more Brownies.  It's basically a brownie topped with squares of homemade marshmallow and  graham cracker streusel.  There's a nice hint of cinnamon in the cracker/butter mixture.  Now the fun: toast the  fudgy little squares with a torch or under the broiler. Watch them lightly brown. Then devour.  Taste-tested by a panel of teens and adults, we all agreed that these are yummy!

The Joy of Cookies: Cookie Monster's Guide to Life by Cookie Monster

​"Me the only Cookie Thief in this here town. So no steal cookies! And no steal book about cookies! Or terrible cookie curse fall upon you: Cookie forever taste like dust in mouth. Fate worse than diet."

ABC Pasta: An Entertaining Alphabet by Juana Medina

Medina has done it again! ABC Pasta: An Entertaining Alphabet follows up on 1 Big Salad: A Delicious Counting Book with artfully designed pages that combine stunning photos with clever illustrations to create another picture book filled with WOW! ​ ​This alphabet book is a primer for budding pasta enthusiasts.  A shopping trip to the market's pasta aisle will open minds to exciting design, alphabet, and gastronomic possibilities. As a bonus Medina includes a recipe for Cacio e Pepe ​So long same-old alphabet soup. Goodbye boring blue box Mac & Cheese. This is the way pasta was meant to be enjoyed!

Companion Books

1 Big Salad: A Delicious Counting Book by Juana Medina

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

More Spaghetti, I Say by Rita Golden Gelman