THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE BREAD

Families make different kinds of bread that share a common ingredient: love.

In a bustling apartment building, various families of diverse races and ethnicities are making bread. Told in a voice that evokes the absolutist tone of a child, the story opens with the pronouncement, “The only way to make bread is like this.” What follows, however, is not a single recipe to follow but an exploration of what all bread has in common and what makes each kind of bread unique. For instance, you might use flour that’s “soft and white as fresh snow” or “pale yellow and powdery fine” or “coarse and heavy like a pile of teeny tiny rocks.” Different ingredients—“a handful of this,” “a dash of that”—and cooking techniques involving ovens, frying pans, and fires finish the job. In the end, the important thing is to find someone to share it with, “because bread must always be broken together.” It may look and taste different, but “all bread is delicious.” The warm tones and textures of Gonzales’ colored pencil illustrations evoke the feeling of being in a kitchen baking bread with loved ones. The backmatter includes descriptions of the 11 breads featured in the story and recipes for Colombian arepas and Filipino pandesal.

A celebration of differences and the commonalities that unite us.