Sassy #4: Dazzle Disaster Dinner Party

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Mrs.N

Sassy #4: Dazzle Disaster Dinner Party by Sharon Draper

I’ve always been a fan of Sharon Draper’s books for younger readers, because they offer some much needed diversity.  It is disappointing however that Sassy reads as completely color-blind; without the cover, you would never have a clue you were reading about a character of color.  Nonetheless, it’s a fun book that will appeal to younger readers.  Written on a third-grade reading level, The Dazzle Disaster Dinner Party is without any major conflict or difficulties.  It’s pure light entertainment.  But the real treat for young readers is that Sassy is forbidden to use the stove, meaning that all recipes can be made with almost no adult assistance.  There’s a collection of them at the back for budding young chefs.  (I offer no comment on the appeal of these recipes, but I do wager the excitement is more in the making than the consuming).

Great for: Infusing a little light diversity into your library.  There are a million fluffy books with white main characters, it’s a treat to have an offering for young girls of color where the title character at least looks like them.  This is also perfect for young cooks who want to get started without much adult supervision.  I can definitely see some of these recipes as a fun activity for sleepovers.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

Posted in Middle Grades, Primary Grades | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Mrs.N

Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders by Kevin Sylvester

Neil Flambe is 14 years old.  He’s also one of the best chefs in the world, and he knows it. He’s incredibly arrogant, egotistical and is only interested in himself.  He occasionally is called upon to put his incredible talents to use for something other than cooking, in this case, fighting crime.  Part of Neil’s ability comes from his highly developed sense of smell.  When local chefs keep turning up dead, Neil is recruited by the police department to sniff out the problem.  But the clock is ticking and as Neil gets closer to finding the killer, the danger is getting closer to him!

I felt this book had a lot of potential, blending mystery with gourmet cooking.  I was also thrilled to see another offering where it is totally acceptable for a boy to be in the kitchen.  Something about it just fell flat for me.  Neil wasn’t exactly a lovable character (although he does improve greatly throughout the book) and I just never got fully drawn in, except a little at the end.  In particular, the prologue is very dense with both set up and historical information.  It may be off-putting to some readers.

Because of vocabulary and complexity of plot, I would recommend this for teens or tweens.  Despite the number of murders and deaths, it’s not particularly scary so it shouldn’t bother readers to much in that respect.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A princess is sent to Persia for an arranged marriage.  Larry has a date and flirts with girls.  Kublai Khan had close to 1000 wives. Angel once had a girlfriend.  Neil likes a girl and has a date with her. A girl is “attracted to” a boy.
Profanity – “crap,” “Hell” in the context of naming the show Hell’s Kitchen, “tick me off”, “heck,” “what the fudge,” “jerk,” “shut up,” “idiot,” “stuff it,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Marco Polo is on his deathbed; he coughs up some blood.  Kublai Khan was nearing death.  Hundreds died on Marco’s voyage to Persia.  Someone grabs Antonio by the neck.  A trap is set that will release a spring-loaded knife.  A man is shot and killed.  Like any top chef, Neil Flambe owns a dazzling array of knives.  A man threatens to wallop Neil with a broom. Chefs are being murdered.  One is described as turning blue.  A lawyer reports that the complainants in her case keep threatening to kill each other. A lawyer defended a carjacker in court.  A prior murder case included a woman being stabbed to death.  Her murder threatened to kill the person who figured out the culprit.  Neil tells someone who is eating junk food that he’ll die of a heart attack.  He is threatened by a bully who also tried to hit and kick him.  The process of force-feeding geese to fatten them up for foie gras is described. A man makes a joke about what a human’s liver would taste like.  In trying to figure out what happened in Angel’s past to make him sad, Neil suggests that maybe he cut off someone’s finger, gave someone food poisoning, killed someone or robbed a bank.  Neil competes in a cooking competition held by a mafioso.  A gun is held to his head. Neil threatens to beat Larry over the head with a tuna.  A woman tries to stab Neil with a knife.  A librarian is shot. A man died in a deep-fryer accident. A murderer gets injured running into a door and is bleeding.  A murderer threatens someone with a gun.  Two more people are shot.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – A man is offered an aperitif.
Frightening or Intense Things – A mother briefly leaves her baby unattended.  Larry gambles.  A character is framed for murder and arrested.

Posted in Teen, Tween | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Boy Who Wanted to Cook

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Mrs.N

The Boy Who Wanted to Cook by Gloria Whelan

Pierre longs to be a chef.  His parents own a restaurant, but he lives and breathes food.  As he travels through the countryside, he notices how many foods come from local supplies.  One day a visitor asks directions to his parents restaurant.  Pierre has noticed that the man is an inspector, come to see if the restaurant is worthy of earning a coveted star, but he is too honorable to reveal this to his parents.  Instead he helps his family collect the ingredients for the dinner.  It is during this all-important meal that Pierre gets his chance.  While his father attends to the guests up front, there is no one but Pierre to watch the meal.  Will his innovations destroy his parents hopes or will they be the secret to success?

The Boy Who Wanted to Cook is peppered with French words and phrases. Most are easily deciphered from context, but there is a glossary and pronunciation guide at the back for those who might struggle with them. It really captures the feeling of a French country restaurant and the importance of fresh ingredients. I also appreciated the message of making the honorable choice and earning your accolades rather than just expecting them. Definitely a good choice for budding francophiles.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

Posted in Little Ones, Primary Grades | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Katie Woo: Katie in the Kitchen

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Mrs.N

Katie in the Kitchen (Katie Woo) by Fran Manushkin

I’ve never looked at any Katie Woo books before despite seeing them in the school library.  They are on a first grade reading level, which is terrific. It’s actually pretty hard to find things from the library that little readers can handle on their own.  While I’m usually in favor of any books depicting minority characters, I have a marked preference for those written by people who share the culture of their character.  Sadly, this is not the case with the Katie Woo series.

This particular book was about as dull for adults to read as you would expect.  Katie makes a big mess, gets frightened by a storm, hides in a closet and is extremely proud of herself.  I was a bit irritated that her parents didn’t particularly mind that she made a huge mess and wasted food, but I expect the students who are capable of reading this independently won’t notice or mind.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to find this but if you’ve got a little reader, this might not be the worst choice you could make.  Adults and teachers might enjoy the stove-free recipe in the back, the glossary of hard vocabulary words, the discussion questions and writing prompts.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – Katie slips and hurts her knees.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

Posted in Little Ones, Primary Grades | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Asian Food Double Bill – Dim Sum for Everyone and Bee-bim Bop!

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Mrs.N

Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park

With a great rhythm and rhyme Bee-Bim Bop takes a family from grocery store to table for a delicious Korean meal.  This books sends a positive message about kids being involved with the preparation of food and being enthusiastic about dinner. Its repetitive phrases will make it appealing to younger listeners, but it’s longer and more involved than Dim Sum for Everyone and will stretch to interest slightly older audiences too.

As a special bonus, it includes a recipe for bee-bim bop at the end which is kind of adorably addressed to kids.  It’s broken up into tasks for “you” to do and ones for “a grown-up” to do.  Super cute!  But now I’m hungry and there’s no good Korean food near me!
Religion – The family says grace before eating.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

 

Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin

My love of Grace Lin’s chapter books is well documented elsewhere on this blog.  And believe me, any of the Year of the Dog series is deserving of a place in this months food extravaganza.  The descriptions of food in those books are completely mouth-watering.

Dim Sum for Everyone is the most basic kind of picture book, introducing dim sum to little readers.  The pages are filled with brightly colored illustrations and very simple text.  Towards the end is a two-page informational spread on dim sum.  My favorite pages though are those that illustrate and label little dishes.  Oh my mouth waters!

This is definitely for your youngest reader-eaters and will slip by quickly for those in possession of a short attention span.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

 

Posted in Little Ones, Primary Grades | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Scones and Sensibility

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Mrs.N

Scones and Sensibility by Linsday Eland

Polly is enthralled with the romantic notions she finds in her favorite books, Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables.  She speaks in extremely flowery language (which grated on my nerves enormously and will also make the book more challenging for readers) and goes through life trying to arrange every detail to be more in line with her idea of what romance should be.  This consists mainly of meddling in the love lives of everyone she knows.

As much as Polly speaks in an irritating fashion, it’s her complete disregard for the desires of others that makes her a largely unlikeable character.  Not only disappointing for Polly’s sake, the bake shop was a minor part of the story, no recipes were offered and the girls were seen burning food more often than not.

Good for: Girls going through an insufferable phase of obsession with one of Polly’s favorite novels.  This can happen between ages 11-16.  Hand them this and hope they get the hint that everyone else is not nearly as charmed by them.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Polly’s sister has a boyfriend.  Polly daydreams of falling in love.  A friend’s mother met a man on the internet and ran off with him.  There’s a reference to a “lonely maiden in need of love’s kiss.”  Polly spends the majority of the book matchmaking with complete disregard for everyone else’s feelings.  A dalmatian and a bulldog have puppies.  A boy kissed her a few years ago (although later references make it sound like this happened in kindergarten).  A guy almost broke up her parents when they were first dating.  There is cheek kissing. Two people say I love you.
Profanity – “stupid,” “dumb”, “God knows what”, “heck”, “nincompoop”, “crap,” “shut it.” Sister uses cusswords and later lets off a string of profanity.  In both those instances, we are not privy to what she says.
Death, Violence and Gore – Polly’s sister only says what we’re all thinking and threatens to kill her.  Also, Polly imagines two boys having a sword fight to the death to win her hand.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – A huge gripe about this (and something else I’ve read lately which I can’t quite recall) – the divorce resulted in the mother leaving and the friend not having a mother anymore.  While this is certainly the case in some divorces, it is far more common for kids to have contact (from some to a LOT) with both parents.

Posted in Tween | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sizzle

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Mrs.N

Sizzle by Lee McLain

Linda was raised by her Aunt Elba in Arizona, working by her side at the family restaurant.  But when Elba becomes to ill to care for Linda, she must go live with distant relatives in Pittsburgh.  No longer an only child, Linda must find her place in a home that boasts 6 other children (mostly fostered or adopted).  But for a girl who loves to cook, the real difficulty is her Aunt Pat.  The queen of cooking with cans, she’s banned Linda (and fresh ingredients) from her kitchen.

I appreciate the diversity of characters and of family structures in this book.  I’ve read complaints that these characters are only nominally representative of their races and possibly only in a stereotypical way.  That may be a valid point.  The issues of race and family raised in this book are treated with the lightest possible hand which is to say, they aren’t handled with any depth.  The book had the potential to feel weighty and serious and instead it is a light cooking novel that happens to include characters and situations that could have been written more authentically, but likely at the expense of the light tone.

Although Linda is 14, the book skews a bit younger, with the most offensive part I could find being the use of “effing”.  I would say this would appeal more to tweens and younger teens than older high school students.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – When she waitresses, men ask her out or call her a hot tamale.  She’s asked out by a guy she thinks is nice, but she isn’t allowed to date yet. Aunt Elba warns the girls that it is not fun dealing with a baby as a teenager and that’s where “hootchy-kootch” can lead.  Linda has a crush.  There’s hand-holding. There’s talk of dating.  A boy is checking out a girl’s legs. A gossipy girl says she saw two people making out. A married woman finds out she’s pregnant.  Two girls like the same boy.
Profanity – “bastarda” – although she’s referring to the actual status of her birth – the child of unmarried parents. “heck,” “stupid,” Chloe says a swear word. “Callate” – Spanish for shut up. Angel calls Aunt Pat nasty names in Spanish (they are not printed). “WTH” which I assume stands for “what the heck” or “what the hell,”  “effing”, “suck,”
Death, Violence and Gore – One of the children is in foster care because his mother died and there’s no one left to care for him. Actually a few characters have mothers that died.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Men ask for beer at the restaurant even though it isn’t served.  Some come in drunk. A cathedral has been converted to a brew pub.  They serve beer where the altar used to be.  One girl’s mom was a drug addict.
Frightening or Intense Things – Her aunt takes ill and needs to be taken to the hospital.  She has had a ministroke. A girl had been abused and neglected as a child.

Posted in Teen, Tween | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Teashop Girls

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Mrs.N

The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer

Thirteen year old Annie gets a job in her grandmother’s tea shop (Does that violate some type of child labor law?)  Soon after she starts work there, she learns that the shop is in dire straits.  If something doesn’t change soon, her grandmother will lose her shop!  Annie seeks help wherever she can get it, trying to enlist her friends and the dreamy older boy who works at the shop.  But the dreamy older boy has plans in mind that will completely alter the entire feel of her grandmother’s store.  Will Annie go along to try to impress the boy or will she stand up to him and make a plan that will save the shop while keeping the same special feeling her grandmother worked so hard to create?

The tea shop itself is adorable.  There is a memory album created by the girls with facts about tea and recipes that appears throughout the book and it is also, adorable.  But the bulk of the story is incredibly unpleasant to read.  In books that are trying to be light and fluffy, it is not entertaining to watch girls throw themselves at highly unlikeable boys just because they are cute.  And it is not fun to read about teenage girls being in the type of high drama fights that girls that age tend to be in.  I’m not saying that these aren’t real parts of growing up, but it wasn’t a book aimed at hard-hitting reality.  It’s a fluff bit about saving your grandmother’s tea shop.  And it was not particularly fun.

The story is way too juvenile to entice all but the most immature of high school girls.  Save it for middle school students.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – The girls are definitely interested in boys.  Annie has sort of kissed someone and has slow danced with someone.  One girl has a boyfriend.  There’s a love interest early on who’s really not a good guy. A boy once mooned the teachers’ room.
Profanity – “darn,” “stupid,” “jerk,”
Death, Violence and Gore – There’s a reference to Rosemary’s Baby which the main character doesn’t understand.  A girl intentionally hits a boy with a tennis serve.  Some people plan to cover another person’s house in toilet paper. In a story about ancient tea ceremonies, a soldier challenges a man to a sword fight.  Another random story in the book includes a friend that eventually dies.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

Posted in Tween | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Stir It Up: A Novel

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Mrs.N

Stir It Up: A Novel by Ramesh Ganeshram

Anjali works in her family’s roti shop, turning out island dishes from Trinidad. But for her, cooking is not a job, it’s a passion.  She takes the traditions and flavors of her Indo-Caribbean heritage and uses them to create new delicious dishes.  Everyone knows she has talent, especially her grandmother Deema, who takes her to weekly cooking classes. But Anjali wants the world to know she’s a star.  She dreams of her own show on The Food Network.  When she’s given a once in a lifetime opportunity to audition for a children’s cooking show on the network, she know that she wants to give it everything she’s got.  But there’s a serious obstacle in her way. Anjali is in eighth grade at a private school in Queens.  She’s on scholarship since her parents can’t afford the expensive full tuition.  For high school, they need her to qualify for an exam school, Stuyvesant, so that she can go to an elite public school free of charge.  But when the high school exam date and the audition fall on the same day, how can Anjali choose?

Stir it Up‘s strength is in presenting a culture that we don’t get to read about very often!  I was thrilled to see an offering where white characters are in the minority.  Anjali lives in a neighborhood consisting of mainly Trinidadians and Guyanans.  Her best friend Linc is also from the islands, but he’s of African descent, not Indian like Anjali.

The book also contains recipes (which I always love) and a note at the beginning with important food safety information for young chefs.  The food mentioned in the book are positively mouth-watering.  If her family’s roti shop really did exist, I would love to try some of the exotic dishes. I’m particularly interested in trying pholouries (here’s a food network recipe) or using Trinidad mixed essence in a recipe.

Great for: As I mentioned before, I loved learning about Anjali’s culture here. There are many readers who need books about characters of color with diverse backgrounds. Also, although this is on a third or fourth grade reading level, I think it has interest all the way through about ninth grade, since Anjali herself is about to enter high school. This is great for middle school students who may not be reading on grade level.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A reference to her mother being pregnant.
Profanity – “pissy,” “crap,”
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – We learn that Spanish tapas are meant to be served with wine.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

Posted in Middle Grades, Tween | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Pie

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Mrs.N

Pie by Sarah Weeks

Alice is heartbroken when her favorite aunt passes away.  Her mother is enraged. Polly had been an award-winning baker but had been generous to the end.  And generosity does not rake in the big bucks.  Alice’s mother had hoped to capitalize on Polly’s death by selling Polly’s famous pie crust recipe.  There’s just one major problem with the whole scheme.  It appears that the pie dough recipe has been left to…a cat?  With the help of her new friend Charlie, Alice tries to solve the mysteries that seem to be brewing in town and try to come to terms with her grief.

Each chapter is introduced with a different pie recipe and I absolutely adore it when delicious looking books give me something to work with.  The book also has a really strong message about what really matters in life.  It’s charming!  I would say it could work as a read aloud for younger students or for strong third grade readers and up.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Alice is friends with a boy.  The boy asks a girl out.  A flash forward at the end of the book reveals a marriage.  A character is seen in a bathing suit.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – Aunt Polly dies. There is some concern over a possible burglar or catnapper. Charlie nearly hits Alice with a baseball bat before he realizes she is not a burglar.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – The cat is given a sleeping potion.  Mother takes a prescription to make her sleep.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

Posted in Middle Grades | Tagged , | Leave a comment