Have A Li'l Scotts Valley Chef? Cooking Up a Great Book for Kids

By FREYA HOOPER (Star Patcher)

I picked this book up for my daughter’s birthday. She has always enjoyed cooking and it seemed like a promising start to a new series. To my delight, she started the book the next day and finished it in record time. Turns out it is a lovely story about cooking, culture and friendship and we are both looking forward to the next installment!

Don’t forget to visit One Great Book to find more stories that will get your kids excited about reading!

Title: The Saturday Cooking Club: Kitchen Chaos

Authors: Deborah Levine & JillEllyn Riley

Target: Grades 4-7

Series: This is the first book in a planned series

What this book is about:
Best friends Liza and Frankie have to do a project for school on immigration. They decide to look at how different foods came to America. When a new girl is invited into their group, she throws off the flow of these two friends. As they wrestle with this change, and the cooking class they are taking with their mothers, all sorts of family dynamics emerge!

Why I love this book:
First off I really enjoyed the plethora of cultures in this story. Frankie comes from a large Italian family, Liza from African American heritage and Lillian’s parents are from China. They all find that food ties their cultures together.

This is also a wonderful book if you have a foodie in your midst. The girls enjoy cooking and are exposed to a variety of different dishes and their origins. It is also a lovely look at mothers and daughters and the strains and benefits of these relationships. It isn’t always smooth sailing, but it is nice to have your mom in your corner!

I appreciated how the authors tackled the issue of a third friend because I think this is something that girls grapple with and it was nice to see that it isn’t always easy, but it can be done!

Who this book is for:
Girls who like to cook will enjoy this story as well as girls who enjoyed the Mother-Daughter Book Club Series.

Final thoughts:
I am looking forward to next book these authors are cooking up!

I am a mom of three with a passion for literature! No matter what book series our kids devour, as they come to an end, we as parents ask the inevitable question - what is next? I am ever on the job, trying to answer that question. I try to do it with a variety of books. Some are silly, some true to life, some pure fantasy, but in the end I hope they make my children love words, explore new ideas, and laugh!

Previous book columns From Freya Hooper:

Picture Book for Dog Lovers

For Your Readers: Book to Inspire Young People

Dear Parents: Books That Make Your Kids Smarter

Keep Your Little Ones Reading: Here’s Perfect Alphabet Book

Here Is A Super Science Fiction for Your Kids

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