The Best New Children’s Food Books of 2023 Inspire Young Minds and Bellies

This year served up a cornucopia of kiddie food lit, perfect to whet young appetites for cooking and reading.

Cultivating a child’s curiosity for food and cooking can be as rewarding as encouraging a love of reading. A good book can help the two go together like PB&J, and the children’s culinary books that came out this year are perfect for young eaters-in-training.

This year gave us books that dive into regional cooking as they teach lessons on other cultures, and maybe even inspire little ones to try a bite of something new. Putting these beautiful stories in the hands of a young sous chef is a marvelous way to honor the spirit of the season. They can serve as powerful primers to encourage understanding and empathy for unfamiliar cultures and time periods as they share histories, recipes, folktales and far-out facts. Each book is equally at home in the playroom or the kitchen, wherever their readers happen to be.

Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods

We audibly gasped while opening this book by the award-winning children’s writer Grace Lin. Chapter after chapter revealed a meal decked out in lush reds, spectacular dragons, and white and cobalt platters of glorious food. This “story feast,” separated into the courses of a Chinese menu, recounts culinary history, legends, and cultural taboos, all in a literary banquet. Particularly interesting was the timeline that begins in 7000 BCE, placing the birth of our favorite Chinese dishes in historical context. Each the perfect bedtime-length, these highly intriguing folktales (along with the author’s mother’s scallion pancake recipe) teach that,  “Every mouthful you eat from a Chinese take out box was born of centuries of ingenuity, myths and legend.”

Recommended for ages 8 to 12

The Story of Pasta and How to Cook It!

Parsons School of Design professor emeritus Steven Guarnaccia has created a dazzling love letter to thirty-five different shapes of pasta in this book, while cookbook author Heather Thomas deftly pairs approachable recipes tailored to each individual shape. You’ll be eager to try all of them after reading these whimsically-told histories. We were fascinated to learn that our favorite little star pasta shape, stelline, was invented in the 16th century and is also known as fiori di sambuco, the Italian name for an elderflower blossom. And that cavatappi was an accident — it came about in the 1970s when a pasta company accidentally made a set of pasta dies with a curled shape instead of straight. With bright, modern design, silly illustrations, and vibrant food photography, this book is truly a gift for the entire family.

Recommended for ages 7 to 12

A Very Asian Guide Series

Women and Asian-owned Gloo Books, described as, “books for a more inclusive, just and compassionate future,” has added three beautiful titles to join last year’s A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food (written by Michelle Li and illustrated by Sunnu Rebecca Choi). Together, this ensemble is perfect for your favorite junior foodie. Inspired by 2022’s viral #veryasian movement started by journalist and author Michelle Li, these are empowering and energetic illustration-packed handbooks for learning about these regional Asian cuisines. A Very Asian Guide to Filipino Food was written and illustrated by Amira Humes. A Very Asian Guide to Indian Food was written by Julie Ajinkya and illustrated by Aditi Kakade Beaufrand. And A Very Asian Guide to Vietnamese Food was written by Cat Nguyen and illustrated by Kim Thai Nguyen. Filled with history, vocabulary, customs, and recipes, the books will help demystify the cuisines and add a rich background to your favorite foods.

Recommended for ages 3 to 8

I Want to Be Spaghetti! 

The debut book for both author Kiera Wright-Ruiz and illustrator Claudia Lam, this endearing, relatable tale features a darling package of ramen struggling to see its own beauty in a world focused on consuming spaghetti. Colorful anthropomorphic packages in the grocery store, reminiscent of kawaii art stickers, tell a charming story of the search for a sense of belonging while also celebrating individuality.  The other inhabitants of the instant noodle aisle remind our young ramen that, “Our noodles tell many stories of different, colorful places. Beauty can be found in diversity.”

Recommended for ages 4 to 8

Who Ate What? A Historical Guessing Game for Food Lovers

A fresh and clever look at ten different cultures across history, Who Ate What is a book we can’t put down. Author Rachel Levin explains that pirates, cave people, astronauts and Vikings ate surprising and familiar foods, which are explained with history lessons that celebrate diverse civilizations with illustrations by Natalia Rojas Castro. It was a hoot to read about a ninja’s thirst and hunger balls — not unlike a packed lunch. Levin helps parents bring the lessons to life with recipes including Aztec xocóatl (hot chocolate) and hardtack, a pirate’s favorite snack, to add a little hands-on fun. Entertaining tales of ancient mud-baked hedgehog and medieval whole-roasted feathered peacock (to “make an impressive centerpiece”), will delight the geography and history-loving elementary set, and provide opportunities to try something new.

Recommended for ages 5 to 8

The Only Way to Make Bread

Cristina Quintero’s warm and playful storybook is about the global common thread of making bread at home, whether those breads are braided, griddled, baked, or draped on a stick over an outdoor fire. This book delivers the encouraging message that the only way to make bread is your way! Included are a Colombian recipe for arepas inspired by the author’s parents and a recipe for pandesal, a soft roll from the Philippines inspired by illustrator Sarah Gonzalez’s aunt. Sweet, glowing drawings of communal activities and tables make us excited for time spent together dusted in flour.

Recommended for ages 3 to 7

José Feeds the World: How a Famous Chef Feeds Millions of People in Need Around the World

David Unger’s engaging picture book, which will be released January 30, 2024, is an inspirational biography of José Andrés that teaches children about his global humanitarian work. Peppered with Spanish culinary terms, and filled with lively illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns, the story takes us on a journey from his birth and childhood in Spain through his career as a chef who opened restaurants in the United States. Unger explains that Andrés was guided by the lessons of his parents, who were both nurses who told him that he could, “make life better for others in big and small ways.” We then follow Andrés as an emergency trip to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake was the genesis of what has become World Central Kitchen, his disaster-relief organization which provides fresh meals in times of crisis. This hopeful story of a passionate and compassionate chef, and the healing power of food, will spur young readers to help make the world a better place in their own way.

Recommended for ages 4 to 8

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