The Silver Spoon for Children: Favorite Italian Recipes
The Silver Spoon is a 50-plus-year-old, thousand-page international best-seller that has been called the Italian Joy of Cooking. In this beautifully produced children’s version, food writer Grant has greatly reduced the original into an attractive, informative delight. Refreshingly free from overly cutesy language and images (no cloying puns; no meals shaped into animals), this is a title aimed at kids with a serious interest in food, and in this age of Food Network popularity, when grade-schoolers have won James Beard awards, that’s a growing audience. The recipes, drawn straight from the original, have been broken out into clearly explained steps, each illustrated with Russell’s whimsical drawings on uncluttered pages that include color photos of the finished dishes, which are divided into basic categories, from lunches and snacks to desserts. The focus is on Italian food, of course, but the helpful tips on basic safety and techniques, such as chopping an onion, make this a universal introduction to the kitchen that may also attract grown-ups seeking a less muscle-straining edition of the adult tome. Grades 4-8. --Gillian Engberg