An appetizing menu of culinary complements.
Budding cooks and history buffs alike will relish this introduction to some common flavor enhancements.
Beginning with those stalwarts, salt and pepper, this book dips into chili, mustard, and ginger, then samples sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and chocolate, finishing with tea and coffee. Putting spices on our foods is a way to encounter other lands and cultures—and the past. The text is concise, providing information on whatever history is known, the spice’s sources, a bit about its chemistry and uses (occasionally including uses outside of cooking), and describing different versions of each spice, such as black, green, oolong, white, and even herbal tea. Readers learn how mustard and sugar are produced or refined, meet the “young slave” who developed the process of hand pollination for vanilla plants, and encounter some of the ways to brew coffee. Pasquet retells the charming story of the Yemeni goats who are said to have stayed awake all night after eating coffee berries. He also attributes the discovery of tea to an accidental leaf-fall into the cup of the Chinese emperor Shennong in 2737 BCE. Sidebars serve up such related tidbits as the Pepper Imps in Harry Potter and the fairy Mustardseed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Attractive gouache vignettes offer appealing realistic detail in a stylized presentation.
An appetizing menu of culinary complements. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781459839984
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
An introduction to ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings. The authors begin with how archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut, then move back 3,000 years to the time of Thutmosis I, who built the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Finally they describe the building of the tomb of a later Pharaoh, Ramses II. The backward-forward narration is not always easy to follow, and the authors attribute emotions to the Pharaohs without citation. For example, “Thutmosis III was furious [with Hatshepsut]. He was especially annoyed that she planned to be buried in KV 20, the tomb of her father.” Since both these people lived 3,500 years ago, speculation on who was furious or annoyed should be used with extreme caution. And the tangled intrigue of Egyptian royalty is not easily sorted out in so brief a work. Throughout, though, there are spectacular photographs of ancient Egyptian artifacts, monuments, tomb paintings, jewels, and death masks that will appeal to young viewers. The photographs of the exposed mummies of Ramses II, King Tut, and Seti I are compelling. More useful for the hauntingly beautiful photos than the text. (brief bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-7223-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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