food picture books

[ravenous review] Attack of the Hangries by Katherine Pryor and Thiago Buzzy

~ jama ~ 7 Comments

It happens to the best of us. Keeping busy, moving through an ordinary day, things seem to be going quite well, when suddenly — out of nowhere — ATTACK!

Instead of our cheery, cooperative (and might I add) cute and cuddly selves, we’re cranky, cantankerous, even a bit CRAZY. Help! What’s going on?!

We’re HANGRY, of course. Hungry + Angry = Hangry. Simple as that. Good thing there’s a brand new picture book all about it. In Attack of the Hangries by Katherine Pryor and Thiago Buzzy (WorthyKids, 2025), we learn what the hangries are, what causes them and how to effectively keep them at bay.

Entertaining, informative, and all too relatable, this belly rumbling tome is powered by Pryor’s lively, engaging prose and Buzzy’s hilarious, high octane cartoons, providing readers with lots to chew on as they consider the science behind hunger and mood.

First off, we’re told the hangries are sneaky. No matter where you are or what you’re doing (home, school, “spelunking in the caves of Quintana Roo”), or whether you’re having a terrible or fantastic day, the hangries can take over.

Your brain scrambles. Your limbs flail. All you want to do is SCREAM! AT EVERYONE! FOR ANYTHING!

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[briny review] A Spoonful of the Sea by Hyewon Yum

~ jama ~ 9 Comments

There’s nothing more nourishing or restorative than a bowl of homemade soup, especially when your mother makes it. 🙂

If we had a cool rainy day, if someone was feeling under the weather, or whenever she just felt like it, my mom made Korean miyeok-guk (seaweed soup). Though she cooked many delicious dishes, this soup was easily the most comforting and I always loved devouring my fair share.

But for all those years of eating miyeok-guk while growing up, I only recently learned about its cultural significance thanks to Hyewon Yum’s touching new picture book, A Spoonful of the Sea (Norton Young Readers, 2025).

I didn’t know that in Korea, miyeok-guk is a traditional birthday soup honoring and celebrating mothers, and that this custom dates back more than a thousand years! Referencing Jeju Island’s revered haenyeo (female free divers), Yum has lovingly created an inspiring tale of family history and heritage told through a matriarchal lens.

As the story opens, a girl is given a bowl of her mother’s seaweed soup on her birthday. Disappointed it’s not the strawberry cake or chocolate cupcakes she actually wanted, she pouts over the briny-smelling soup that “looks like sea water.” But while she’s stirring it, her mom explains why the soup is so special.

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[yummy review] Fridays are for Churros by Jenny Alvarado

~ jama ~ 6 Comments

Hungry? Can you smell the heavenly aroma of fried sweet dough dipped in cinnamon sugar? Now that you’re here, please help yourself to some warm apple-filled churros — dip yours in chocolate if you wish, and enjoy!

These crisp-on-the-outside, airy-light-on-the-inside snacks are featured in the delectable new picture book, Fridays are for Churros by Jenny Alvarado (Holiday House, 2025). Celebrating food, family, and community, this fun story warms the heart, showing how good neighbors can help renew cherished traditions and strangers can become friends.

We first learn that Emi and her Papi make churros for their entire family every Friday. Emi gathers ingredients while Papi pours oil into the pot. Together, they make the dough and fill the pastry bag. Then with a Plop, Fizz, and Sprinkle, the churros are ready, its sweet scent swirling throughout the house as the familia arrive. How they chatter and laugh! Emi loves this feeling of ‘home.’

But then Emi and Papi must move to a big city for Papi’s new job. Such a busy place full of people, but no familiar faces, and on Fridays, no churros. Papi is usually too busy working.

One day as they arrive at their apartment, Emi and Papi see and then greet their new neighbor Señora Luisa. A sweet scent swoops out from her open door, reminding Emi of the caramel she and Papi used to dip their churros in. This gives Emi an idea. She would make the churros herself!

After checking the recipe, Emi realizes she doesn’t have enough flour and sugar, and can’t find the piping tip. Could she borrow these things from Señora Luisa? Her neighbor is happy to help; she has farina but no sugar or piping tip. She suggests Emi ask Tomas in 212.

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[mouthwatering review] The Traveling Taco by Mia Wenjen and Kimberlie Clinthorne-Wong

~ jama ~ 9 Comments

What’s on the menu today?

Hmmm . . . let’s see. I’ll start with a plate of refreshing ceviche, followed by spicy jerk chicken — and then for dessert, rice pudding. Sound good?

In Mia Wenjen’s delectable picture book The Traveling Taco: The Amazing & Surprising Journey of Many of Your Favorite Foods (Red Comet Press, 2025), hungry readers are invited to nibble from a scrumptious smorgasbord of twelve different dishes, everything from pizza and pasta to cheesecake and churros.

Whimsically illustrated by Kimberlie Clinthorne-Wong, the history of each of these popular foods is served up in a double page spread with an introductory rhyme + appetizing info bites answering four basic questions:

  • What is it?
  • Where does it come from?
  • How did it change?
  • Did you know?

Learning about food origin and evolution is fascinating as we travel across the globe and back through time. Do French Fries come from France or Belgium? Did you know people all over the world eat more than 5 billion pizzas every year, or that cheesecake can be traced back to Ancient Greece and the first Olympic Games?

The feast begins with the tastebud tempting Al Pastor Taco; we learn that it actually traveled to Puebla, Mexico in the 1930s via Lebanese immigrants who “introduced shawarma, a cone of grilled meat, usually made with lamb.”

Heaped in a tortilla, meat flavored with spice, an al pastor taco is sure to entice!

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[lickable review] Ice Cream Everywhere by Judy Campbell-Smith and Lucy Semple

~ jama ~ 10 Comments

Many of my fondest food memories revolve around ice cream:

Lining up for a Milk-Nickel in the school cafeteria. Frequenting Dairy Queen for Dilly Bars and chocolate sundaes. Savoring Frosty Malts while watching Elvis Presley movies at the neighborhood theatre. Visiting my first Baskin-Robbins (butter pecan!). Raiding our home freezer for Creamsicles, Fudgsicles and Drumsticks. Jumping up and scrounging for coins when hearing the ice cream truck on our street.

Ice cream has got to be the happiest of treats because it brings out the kid in everyone. No matter the form or flavor, where or when you eat it, ice cream is pure joy.

Joy is the unifying theme in Judy Campbell-Smith’s scrumptious new picture book, Ice Cream Everywhere: Sweet Stories from Around the World, illustrated by Lucy Semple (Sleeping Bear Press, 2024).

On Judy’s menu: twelve different kinds of ice cream — most of which were new to me — from faraway places like Cuba, Argentina, India, Japan and New Zealand. Did you know that in Germany, ice cream can look like noodles, or that there’s a Turkish ice cream with a chewy, stretchy texture that allows sellers to do tricks with it? Or how about the unique Libyan treat, baklava gelato, a product of Italian colonialism? Fascinating stuff!

Tasty ice cream facts go down easy thanks to Campbell-Smith’s appetizing blend of fiction and nonfiction. Each double page spread features an appealing vignette of a child eating the highlighted ice cream + a few sidebar tidbits (history, tradition, context). Each is introduced as a different kind of joy.

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