Making Minestrone [Hardcover]

Stella Blackstone (Author), Nan Brooks (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

This jaunty cookbook with a difference features a simple rhyming text & a delicious step-by-step recipe. What do you do when you re feeling lonely? You ask all your friends around to make a minestrone! Join a lively group of children as they explore the garden & learn about the tasty vegetables that grow there, & join them for a fantastic feast once the marvelous minestrone is ready! With its catchy rhyming text, bold, bright artwork, & delicious recipe, this delightful book shows children & adults just how much fun home cooking can be. Reinforced binding for library use & lively kids! Full-color illustrations.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A boy ponders, "What do you do when you're feeling lonely?/ You ask all your friends around to make a minestrone!" One ingredient at a time, he and a handful of ethnically diverse friends harvest tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini and more, until the children have concocted a communal "homegrown, home cooked, magic minestrone." Brooks (My Little Promise Bible) simmers together an array of ingredientsAchildren populate tableaux of vegetables, animals, flowers and trees framed by colorful borders of legumes or root veggies; more often than not, a creature peers over a dog-eared page. The artist also offers a subtle message about vegetarianism: pigs contribute to the cheerful chaos of rooting out potatoes, chickens look on while children pick the zucchini. Though some couplets are a stretch ("Bubble, bubble, bubble! Quickly lay the table!"), Blackstone's (You and Me, reviewed above) text, together with the artwork, makes a gently appealing homily on food and friends (including the four-legged variety)Aand the value of eating one but not the other. Readers tempted to make their own minestrone can follow the recipe in the back. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-A simple, rhyming text recounts how five children gather ingredients from a garden to make soup. "Over there are onions-they will make you cry!/And here are peas and green beans,/climbing to the sky." The full-spread illustrations, rendered in watercolors, inks, and colored pencils, include plenty of whimsical details. After all of the veggies have been collected, the youngsters head back to the kitchen to make their "Homegrown, home cooked, magic minestrone!" The idyllic garden contains no weeds or damaged plants, even though there are bunnies, pigs, squirrels, mice, sheep, goats, and chickens wandering among the plants. There is not an adult in sight, but the children handle everything beautifully. A recipe is appended.
Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Barefoot Books (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841482110
• ISBN-13: 978-1841482118
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,116,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stella Blackstone has written many bestselling titles for Barefoot Books, including the popular Bear and Cleo series, An Island in the Sun, Secret Seahorse and Who Are You, Baby Kangaroo? Stella lives with her family in Somerset.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun book! Great for vegetarian kids., October 26, 2002

By 

Melanie Wilson "mongoliamel" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Making Minestrone (Hardcover)

Making Minestrone is a fun book for children which features a rhyming text about making minestrone soup. Not only will kids enjoy reading the simple text and looking at the colorful illustrations, but they will also look forward to making this vegan soup. The beginning of the story lets the reader know what ingredients are required - green beans, carrots, onions, peas, potatoes, zucchini, pasta, cooking oil, salt and pepper, and water. The story features several children gathering vegetables they need for their soup from a vegetable garden. The end of the book contains the actual recipe for the soup. Making Minestrone is an entertaining book for young children, but it will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys a tasty, ethical meal. --Reviewed by N. Glenn Perrett

5.0 out of 5 stars Soup Magic, December 26, 2000

By 

Christopher Brooks (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Minestrone (Hardcover)

A jaunty rhyme runs through a garden and kitchen with a group of multi-ethnic children who collect the ingredients to make a soup and encountering a range of animals along the way. delightful!