Paula Deen's My First Cookbook
Grade 3–6—While this cookbook is less chatty than one might expect from the well-known television personality, it opens with a host of tips. It includes safety information, followed by an illustrated glossary of cooking terms, directions on how to measure ingredients, instructions on how to set a table, and a page devoted to good table manners. Nine chapters cover breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, birthdays, adult-oriented dishes, holidays, and drinks, with the last one devoted to nonedible food-craft recipes. The illustrated items list can assist those with limited reading skills who find negotiating the step-by-step instructions challenging. Adult assistance is often called for. The dishes use numerous premade or prepackaged ingredients (refrigerator biscuits, peanut butter, diced tomatoes, M&Ms, etc.). Nutritional information is not provided. Watercolor illustrations of ingredients, finished dishes, and children at work are numerous and each page is framed with a colorful pattern. While the spiral format may shorten this book's shelf life, it will facilitate use for the youngest chefs.—Sara Rofofsky Marcus, Yeshiva Har Torah, Little Neck, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.