Welcome to my latest blog post. The Bookish and More posts aim to follow a theme including reviews of books that follow that theme and gifts, toys and more that relate to the theme also.
This post is all about food! With two keen mini cooks on my hand this post could not be more relatable to my little munchkins. My eldest enjoys absorbing all the pictures and recipes of cook books that I have collected over the years and my youngest loves helping us in creating something yummy. Books can be a wonderful way of introducing new foods to little ones, opening their eyes to different cuisines from different countries and developing the awareness and vocabulary of foods.
Bake a rainbow cake by Amirah Kassem
Starting this collection of reads with a board book. Amirah Kassem, as well as creating a recipe book, see below, has also completed this read with younger readers in mind.
Readers can follow instructions and pull tabs and flaps to see their cake gradually transforming into a wonderful, rather yummy looking rainbow cake. The text used is short and succinct and the sturdy board book format and thick pages makes it easy for ickle hands to access.
This would be a great book to incorporate into role play set ups, when learning about colours and just an all round fun read.
What’s on Your Plate?: Exploring the World of Food
This is an absolutely fantastic book celebrating many foods and dishes that everyone around the world eats. Young readers have the opportunity to visit 14 destinations. These include, Mexico, India, Japan and Brazil. The book shares information about each country, including what popular foods are eaten there, where the country is located on a world map and it shares a recipe of a popular dish from that country. How wonderful!
I love how this book encourages readers to be curious, to explore and hopefully inspire to cook with their parent or carer. Christiane Engle’s illustrations throughout are colourful, fun and very engaging. There are also photos used to show what certain dishes look like which of course is very helpful when you’re trying to make them. A super book!
TouchWords: Food
TouchWords books is an extension to the popular TouchThinkLearn series which you may well be familiar with. Food does not disappoint and is a wonderful tactile read that will have young and older appreciating this fantastic book.
Eight different foods are shared in this colourful read including peas, eggs, soup, pie and apple. On each double page readers can see the name of the food which is presented with raised letters. Words associated with that food are shared and a brilliant image which is tactile is shown on the opposite page. This book encourages connections being made between foods and the way it is written as a word. The book is a super sensory experience and is presented brilliantly. The book will be published on April 16th in the UK.
Hungry Babies
My little ladies are big fans of Fearne Cotton and Sheena Dempsey’s first book Yoga Babies. Hungry Babies is the second book that this fabulous team have created and it is a lovely read. Fearne Cotton has written a fun rhyming read. The book is a lovely insight into what foods and tastes young children like. It introduces children to different foods which perhaps may tempt them to try and is a great exploration of new vocabulary.
Sheena Dempsey’s illustrations are undeniably adorable and everytime I share a book of hers my youngest is completely mesmerised. She just finds them adorable and knows all the names of each character. The endpapers are also brilliant and share the contents of each of the characters lunchboxes which my daughters love exploring. This is a colourful, foody, diverse read brilliant for babies and up.
Nadiya’s Bake Me a Celebration Story: Thirty recipes and activities plus original stories for children
Nadiya Hussain was the winner of the popular programme Great British Bake Off. My family and I think Nadiya is a natural presenter, she is a real foody and also a book writer too. A woman of many talents. This book is one of three books in the series of Bake Me A Story.
The Power of Sprinkles: A Cake Book by the Founder of Flour Shop
New York based Amirah Kassem has created a wonderful cake book that is full of innovative ideas and sprinkles a plenty. There are 35 different cakes to try baking and they are all so original. From pretty cakes covered in sprinkles to cakes that look like an actual food, think cake sized doughnuts and sushi! The book is sure to excite many. The book would make a wonderful gift and we are so pleased its part of our collection of recipe books.
Yummy Yoga: Playful Poses and Tasty Treats
This playfully presented book will have many readers copying yoga poses and perhaps even dabble with different foods.
Each fold out double page has a young child demonstrating a different yoga pose which is then photographed alongside a food creation doing that same pose. Once the gatefold flap is opened readers can find a receipe incorporating some of the ingredients they’ve seen in the food pose.
In total there are ten poses and ten recipes and at the back of the book you can find detailed explainations about the pose and why it is beneficial for your body.
Receipes included are health, nutritious and simple and they include, mini eggplant pizzas, fruit smoothies and broccomole dip.
A brilliantly informative book encouraging healthy eating and exercise.
Ice Cream Scoop Puzzle: Countless Sweet Creations with 32 Flavors
This fun, colourful puzzle I’m sure will be happily received by many. This jigsaw provides lots of play potential and learning opportunities and who could resist an ice cream or two anyway?
The jigsaw includes 32 pieces of different flavours as well cones, cups and sundae dishes. The puzzle is presented brilliantly in a sturdy box which is a delight to look at, touching on cool U.S diners of the past. When opened it becomes a little like a mobile shop sharing specials and flavours on the inside of the box. This puzzle would be great for a learning setting as well as for a home game. It could be used when role playing different games such as cafes, ice cream vans, shops and more. It encourages counting, colour recognition and so much more. A brilliant puzzle indeed which is recommended for 2 years old.
And that brings us to the end of my Bookish and More post. A collection of great food connected fun. I’m sure you’ll agree this was a rather tasty post.
Disclaimer: All books and games mentioned in this post were received from publishers. All words and opinions are entirely my own. This post contains affiliate links.
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