Reading Level: Grades 2-3 Interest Level: Grades K – 3
It’s no secret that crispy golden french fries are a perfect side for a burger or a hot dog. But their beginning is a bit more mysterious. This title examines the uncertain origins of this favorite food, charting their history up to the myriad types of fries available today. Features such as recipes, a timeline, and a chart of favorite fry types make this a title young readers will gobble up!
Readers will be ready to cook, eat, and learn after exploring these six titles, which describe their subjects in an appealing way. The books present a history of the food, the assembly process, the current trends, and two recipes. Each title contains a time line of the food’s history, a graphic depicting different shapes or styles of the food, a further reading section, a glossary, and an index. Photographs and illustrations, rendered in color or black and white, are included on each spread and are appropriately captioned. The authors’ efforts to expand world perspectives are evident with their inclusion of cultural variations of the featured food. Recipes contain instructions about adult supervision and standard and metric temperatures, but volume measurements are in standard. One recipe lists bacon as an ingredient for a grilled macaroni and cheese sandwich, but there are no instructions for cooking the bacon prior to adding it to the sandwich. VERDICT Budding foodies will likely devour these titles, which support social studies curriculums.
