Rebecca Woolfall and Suzi Tait-Bradley, Vicki Leopold (illus.). Piggy Pasta and More Food with Attitude Scholastic (NZ), August 2014, 64pp., $AU14.99/$NZ19.00 (pbk) ISBN 978-1-77543-216-6
Can you remember the days when girls went to sewing and cooking classes and boys went to woodwork and metal classes at high school? Those were the (politically incorrect) days! For boys can love cooking and girls can love woodwork as a lot of reality TV programmes show. This visually attractive book of recipes “with attitude” endeavours, and succeeds, in making cooking fun for both boys and girls as the photographs, titles and content show.
Each recipe has an engaging title, a verbal invitation, a detailed guide on what to do as well as an indication of when is a good time to eat the finished product. From Fang Soup where you invited to “sink your teeth into this!” to Incy Winck Spiders that you are invited to eat “before they get a chance to climb any waterspout”, each double-page spread show large pictures of “food with attitude” and all the possibilities of being creative.
Budget-wise, children would want a moderately well-stocked pantry and health-wise, issues of safety and hygiene are noted and there is a reasonable balance of good food types. Hopefully (as an insert asserts), this book might bring out the child in all of us, including some of us who are grandparents! Recommended.
reviewed by John McKenzie
