Imagine the heavenly aroma of homemade bread baking in the oven as you anticipate biting into a soft, warm slice slathered with butter and honey. Nothing else says love and comfort in quite the same way.

In Still There Was Bread (HarperCollins, 2024), Lisl H. Detlefsen and David Soman celebrate intergenerational connections and the joy of sharing a treasured recipe that can sustain a family through good times and bad.

As this heartwarming story opens, Little Pickle excitedly greets his nana, who’s come to teach him how to make their special family bread. It’s the same recipe for “Nana rolls” his mother learned from her grandmother when she was his age.

As they move through each step, Nana compares their process to how her nana made the rolls a long time ago. First, Nana and Little Pickle gather all the ingredients (eggs, milk, flour, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, water). While theirs came from the grocery store, Nana’s nana “had to collect eggs from the chicken coop and milk a cow to get what she wanted.”

Next, Nana shows Little Pickle how to preheat the electric oven, explaining that her nana baked in a woodburning stove, using the “By guess and by gosh” method. While they can easily combine all their ingredients in a stand mixer, Nana’s nana mixed the dough with a wooden spoon. But there are a couple of things they do the same way: knead the dough by hand, then place it in a big bowl before covering it with a damp towel.

While waiting for the dough to rise, Little Pickle asks Nana to tell him more about their rolls. She says the rolls saw her family through hard times, like during the Great Depression, or when their house was quarantined because of the polio epidemic, or more recently, when people had to isolate because of COVID. No matter what, “still there was bread,” thanks to the chickens and cows on the farm, or having milk and eggs delivered. Sometimes, “warm, fresh-baked food feels like a hug when you really need one.”

While waiting for the dough to rise a second time, Nana and Little Pickle talk about the different kinds of bread others make (naan, baguettes, focaccia, challah). Most require the same simple ingredients, “for times they can be together, and times they can’t.”

Nana rolls are a pull-apart bread, so when the dough is ready, they pull, pinch and shape small handfuls, then line them up in loaf pans. While the rolls rise for the final time, Nana tells about making the rolls for loved ones when they “needed a taste of family.”

She’s made the rolls “to go with chicken soup for neighbors,” as “thank-you gifts, new-baby gifts, and I’m-thinking-of-you gifts.” All of them were “kneaded and needed.”

The toasty smell of the rolls baking brings the rest of the family to the kitchen. When the bread is finally done, they butter the tops and turn them out of their pans before eating them with butter, honey, jam and laughter.

It’s been a good day, with Little Pickle thinking that someday he will share the recipe and all the good stories that go with it with his children or grandchildren. From now on, he’ll also know just what to do whenever someone needs a “warm, fresh-baked hug.”

David Soman’s pen and ink and watercolor illustrations, primarily rendered in a rich palette of time-worn blues, greens and browns, lovingly capture the warmth and coziness of this touching story. He effectively depicts past vs. present by alternating dark and light backgrounds; the flashback scenes have a soft-edged, cinematic look to them, evoking history and nostalgia.

The loving bond between grandmother and grandchild is palpable whether we see them working together in the kitchen or relaxing in Nana’s green armchair. Scenes of children from other cultures learning to make bread speak to the universal rewards of baking something from scratch and the significance of this staple in the world’s larger family.

In her Author’s Note, Lisl shares interesting personal connections to the story. She grew up eating Nana Rolls, with the original recipe having originated with her great-grandmother Mae, who in turn taught Lisl’s mom Susan how to make them. An expert baker who inspired the character of Nana in the story, she still makes the pull-apart rolls for family celebrations and continues to gift them to mark occasions large and small.

Lisl also mentions her Grandma Dort, who experienced hardship during the Great Depression and had to quarantine for months when her husband and daughter contracted polio.

As for Little Pickle, his character was based on Lisl’s youngest son, who was most frequently in the kitchen when she first learned to make the rolls during the pandemic, certainly a time when breadmaking offered restorative, much needed comfort.

Still There Was Bread will resonate with readers of all ages who enjoy meaningful stories about close-knit families, the joy of cooking together, embracing tradition and honoring the legacy of beloved family recipes. Kids will learn the fundamentals of breadmaking, and how food nourishes both body and spirit, especially when it’s shared and the primary ingredient is love.

In these fast paced, unpredictable times, it is reassuring to know there are things one can count on, things that have stood the test of time. This constant is beautifully encapsulated in the phrase, “still there was bread.” Hopefully this book will encourage readers to step into the kitchen and learn more about where the foods they love originated.

Don’t miss this beautifully written hug of a picture book. By now you’re probably hungry and even more curious about Nana Rolls. Don’t worry, you can try making your own with the recipe in the back. 🙂

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STILL THERE WAS BREAD
written by Lisl H. Detlefsen
illustrated by David Soman
published by HarperCollins, October 2024
Picture Book for ages 4-8, 40 pp.
*Includes Author’s Note and Bread Recipe

♥️ Check out Lisl’s Instagram for an 8-part video series where Lisl and Susan demonstrate how to make Nana Rolls.

♥️ Check out the October edition of Lisl’s Newsletter for more backstory about the book, including photos of family members who inspired some of the characters.

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*Interior spreads text copyright © 2024 Lisl H. Detlefsen, illustrations © 2024 David Soman, published by HarperCollins. All rights reserved.

**Nana Rolls photo courtesy of Lisl Detlefsen, © 2024.

**Copyright © 2024 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.