Staff Picks
Yummy Cooking Novels for Children
- Jenny D.
- Monday, November 23, 2020
Collection
With the holidays fast approaching, cooking and food is on everyone's mind. Feed your reading hunger with these children's novels featuring characters whipping up culinary delights in the kitchen.
Recipe for Trouble
Published in 2012
To Lexi Poole, a new school year means baking with her BFFs in the Cupcake Club. But the club president, Kylie, is mixing things up by inviting new members. And Lexi is cast in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet, with her secret crush playing Romeo.
Just Add Magic
Published in 2010
Discovering a dusty cookbook of magical recipes, Kelly and her two best friends are surprised when their concoctions produce genuinely magical results and tempt them to consider stirring up trouble with their respective crushes.
Blaire Cooks Up a Plan
Published in 2018
"A goat that does tricks. A lamb in pajamas. A celebrity who offers Blaire the opportunity of a lifetime. Things are never boring at Pleasant View Farm! Things get interesting at school, too. Blaire's determined to find a BIG idea for the Community Service Challenge. Her project becomes personal when she befriends a young girl at the local food pantry. With a love of cooking and a farm full of fresh ingredients, Blaire soon has a plan for making a difference. But it's going to take help from her whole class--including a mysterious new kid, Eli--to keep Blaire's creativity from becoming a catastrophe..."--Page [4] of cover.
All Four Stars
Published in 2014
Eleven-year-old Gladys Gatsby loves food and cooking, so when she lands an assignment to write a restaurant review for a New York City newspaper, she will do anything to make it happen, even risk the wrath of her fast-food loving parents.
Stars So Sweet
Published in 2016
"Just as Gladys Gatsby prepares to enter the complicated world of middle school, her secret gig as the New York Standard's youngest restaurant critic won't be a secret much longer--and Gladys must enlist the help of her Parisian aunt to be true to herself, and honest with her friends and family"-- Provided by publisher.
Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster
Published in 2021
"Alice Fleck's father is a culinary historian, and for as long as she can remember, she's been helping him recreate meals from the past--a hobby she prefers to keep secret from kids her age. But when her father's new girlfriend enters them into a cooking competition at a Victorian festival, Alice finds herself and her hobby thrust into the spotlight. And that's just the first of many surprises awaiting her. On arriving at the festival, Alice learns that she and her father are actually contestants on Culinary Combat, a new reality TV show hosted by Tom Truffleman, the most famous and fierce judge on TV! And to make matters worse, she begins to suspect that someone is at work behind the scenes, sabotaging the competition. It's up to Alice, with the help of a few new friends, to find the saboteur before the entire competition is ruined, all the while tackling some of the hardest cooking challenges of her life--for the whole world to see"--Provided by publisher.
Phineas L. MacGuire...gets Cooking!
Published in 2014
"Phineas has a new chore of cooking dinner every night, but his kitchen experiments take a turn for the worse when the school bully takes a huge liking to Phineas's brownies"-- Provided by publisher.
Sassy
The Dazzle Disaster Dinner Party
Published in 2010
Sassy Simone Sanford plans a fabulous dinner party for her fourth grade class, but it turns into a recipe for disaster when her dog eats the food, her friends make a mess, and the new girl in school is missing.
A Place at the Table
Published in 2020
Sixth-graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a Jewish girl, connect in an after school cooking club and bond over food and their mothers' struggles to become United States citizens.
Yasmin the Chef
Published in 2019
Yasmin's family is hosting a big party, but Yasmin is worried that the traditional food her family is cooking is too spicy--so her family challenges Yasmin to come up with a dish of her own.
Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen
Published in 2017
Eager to do something her big sister has not done first, Jasmine Toguchi, eight, decides to pound mochi with the men and boys when her family gets together for New Year's.
Gingersnap
Published in 2013
When her brother Rob, a Navy cook, goes missing in action during World War II, Jayna, desperate for family, leaves upstate New York and their cranky landlady, accompanied by a turtle and a ghost, to seek their grandmother, who Rob believes may live in Brooklyn. Includes soup recipes.
Lights, Camera, Cook!
Published in 2017
Follows Tate, Rae, Caroline, and Oliver, ages nine to eleven, both on and off-camera as they compete in a televised cooking competition. Includes cooking tips.
The Doughnut Fix
Published in 2018
When his family moves to tiny Petersville, eleven-year-old Tris stops focusing on his perfect sister, Jeanine, by using his cooking expertise to revive a town tradition of chocolate cream doughnuts.
The Doughnut King
Published in 2019
Tris tries to save his doughnut business and town of Petersville, New York, by competing on a cooking show.-- Provided by Publisher.
Pie in the Sky
Published in 2019
Knowing very little English, eleven-year-old Jingwen feels like an alien when his family immigrates to Australia, but copes with loneliness and the loss of his father by baking elaborate cakes.
Measuring Up
Published in 2020
Having just moved to Seattle from Taiwan, twelve-year-old Cici enters a cooking competition to win the chance to see her grandmother again, but she only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.
A Dash of Dragon
Published in 2017
A thirteen-year-old master chef has a lot to prove as she tries to run a five-star restaurant, cook the perfect dragon cuisine, repay a greedy loan shark, and outsmart the Elven mafia in this entertaining novel that combines all of the best ingredients--fantasy, humor, adventure, action, cute boys, and a feisty heroine!--Publisher's description.
The Icing on the Cake
Published in 2015
"Liza's thirteenth birthday has been hijacked by her Nana Silver who wants to throw her granddaughter a party more suited for a society page then the low-key celebration Liza wants. Can Liza's friends from the Saturday cooking club find the right recipe and ingredients to save the day?"-- Provided by publisher.
Honestly Elliott
Published in 2022
Struggling with ADHD, loneliness, and connecting with his divorced father who would rather see him embrace sports instead of cooking, sixth-grader Elliott finds an unlikely friend in popular, perfect Maribel when the two are paired in a school-wide contest.
Nixie Ness, Cooking Star
Published in 2019
Nixie and Grace have been best and only friends since preschool, but now Nixie must attend an after-school cooking camp while Grace spends her afternoons with classmate Elyse.
One Hundred Spaghetti Strings
Published in 2017
Since Steffy was little, she and her older sister, Nina, have lived with beloved Auntie Gina. But when Steffy and Nina's dad comes home to live with them, everything changes. So Steffy does what she does best: she cooks her way through the hardest year of her life. But sometimes her life feels like a kitchen-sink meal--too many ingredients that don't quite work. All Steffy wants is for her family to be whole again. Can her recipes help bring them back together?--Provided by Publisher.
The Thing About Leftovers
Published in 2016
"Fizzy struggles to find her place in her blended family after her parents' divorce, hoping her entry in the Southern Living Cook-Off will show them she is more than just a leftover kid"-- Provided by publisher.
Strudel Stories
Published in 1999
Seven generations of a Jewish family hear stories of their family history, all told while making apple strudel.
Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet
Published in 2008
Disaster strikes when Ana Shen is about to deliver the salutatorian speech at her junior high school graduation, but an even greater crisis looms when her best friend invites a crowd to Ana's house for dinner, and Ana's multicultural grandparents must find a way to share a kitchen.
Piper Cooks Up a Plan
Published in 2019
Part-chef, part-scientist, Piper dreams of competing on her favorite cooking show and with the help of the rest of the Daring Dreamers Club, Milla, Zahra, Mariana, and Ruby, she is prepared to win.
The Truth About Twinkie Pie
Published in 2015
"When twelve-year-old GiGi and her big sister DiDi move to Long Island from South Carolina for GiGi to attend a fancy new private school, GiGi has a new recipe for success and makes new friends, but then discovers a family secret that turns her life upside-down"-- Provided by publisher.