Sizzle

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.