The New York Review of Books - USA (2021-11-21)

22 S UNDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2021

TOMATOES FOR NEELA

Written by Padma Lakshmi.
Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal.

A twinkly-eyed Indian American girl makes
tomato sauce with her ammaevery summer,
when the juicy, plump fruits are in season.
Lakshmi’s language infuses the ritual with
magic — a cookbook from the girl’s paati
looks “old and important,” as if it’s “full of
spells” — and Martinez-Neal’s acrylic and
colored-pencil illustrations on hand-textured
paper conjure the sweet flavors of chutney.
The text and art simmer and swirl in sync,
from Amma’s cooking dance (“faster beats”
when she shakes spices, her bracelets “click-
ing and clacking”) to the pungent aromas
wafting through the air.

40 pp. Viking. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 7)

From soul food on Sundays and tamales on Christmas

Eve to wu gok on Dumpling Day.

Children’s Books/Picture This/By Jennifer Krauss

Clockwise from top left: “Soul Food Sunday”; “A Feast for Joseph”; “Let Me Fix You a Plate.”

DUMPLING DAY

Written by Meera Sriram. Illustrated by Inés

de Antuñano. Recipes by Laurel P. Jackson.

A neighborhood dumpling party brings

together 10 families representing 10 cultures

(though many of the families are themselves

a mix of ethnicities) to share 10 recipes for

this savory treat — which are all basically,

though ingredients vary, dough wrapped

around a filling. Samosas, wu gok, fufu balls,

gyoza, bourekas, tamales, shish barak, pel-

meni, ravioli and apple dumplings are all

included in this, you guessed it, counting

book. While there isn’t much of a story and

the rhyme is a bit sing-songy, it provides a

solid pre-Thanksgiving introduction to what

people eat around the world.

40 pp. Barefoot Books. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 9)

SOUL FOOD SUNDAY

Written by Winsome Bingham.

Illustrated by C. G. Esperanza.

To capture this sprawling, high-energy ex-

tended family gathering, Esperanza’s vi-

brant, kinetic oil-paint illustrations stretch

edge to edge, sometimes tilted to reflect the

changing perspectives of people in motion. A

boy finally big enough to put on Grandpa’s

chef jacket and help Granny make mac ’n’

cheese narrates with awe, his excitement

palpable: “Cheeses stack high like a moun-

tain.” Next Granny fills the sink with water,

vinegar and lemon juice. “Greens got to be

clean, baby,” she says, the music of Bing-

ham’s conversational poetry rich and real.

48 pp. Abrams. $17.99.

(Ages 4 to 8)

LET ME FIX YOU A PLATE: A TALE

OF TWO KITCHENS

Written and illustrated by Elizabeth Lilly.

Based on the author’s and her sisters’ experi-

ence growing up in Maryland with an Ameri-

can father and a Colombian mother, this tale

of a family’s very, very long road trip once a

year to visit both sets of tchotchke-loving,

food-obsessed grandparents — one in West

Virginia; the other in Florida — is written

and drawn with a refreshingly droll realism,

like the best offbeat documentaries. People

fall asleep at the table and mostly don’t smile

(thank goodness!), but the love they share is

evident on every page.

40 pp. Neal Porter/Holiday House. $18.99.

(Ages 4 to 8)

MAY YOUR LIFE BE DELICIOSA

Written by Michael Genhart.

Illustrated by Loris Lora.

Each Christmas Eve, a Mexican American

girl and her mamá, tía, sister and cousins

make tamales in her abuela’skitchen. The

recipe is in Abuela’s heart, and the molding

and folding of corn husks into nourishing

treats is paired with her metaphoric bless-

ings (for flexibility, support, protection and

loving hugs). Inspired by midcentury illus-

tration and design, Lora’s cutout, paper-doll-

style art matches the 1960s and ’70s South-

ern California setting of Genhart’s childhood,

where members of his family worked in

produce fields and packing houses.

40 pp. Cameron Kids. $17.99. (Ages 5 to 7)

A SONG OF FRUTAS

Written by Margarita Engle.

Illustrated by Sara Palacios.

When a young girl visits her grandfather in

Cuba, she helps him sell frutasfrom his cart,

singing the names of each one as they walk,

while competing pregonerossing louder to be

heard. Happily, camaraderie prevails: “Our

voices are bridges that reach up to windows.”

The girl’s favorite day is New Year’s Eve,

when everyone buys 12 grapes — one wish

for each month, to be gobbled at midnight.

Her last wish is friendship between coun-

tries, so her abuelocan visit her.

40 pp. Atheneum. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8)

FAMILY REUNION

Written by Chad and Dad Richardson.

Illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin.

“No reunion. NOPE.” This boy won’t go. But

go he does, only to find a sea of people he

doesn’t know wearing red family-tree T-

shirts. “Dad shugs, Mom hugs. Not me. NO.

Force field activate.” (Corrin draws him

inside a bubble, scowling as a relative pokes

it with her finger.) Suddenly he notices these

“strangers” look like him. “Is that ME?” Soon

he’s having a blast. While the son-father

writing team’s debut is uneven, Corrin’s

spirited, quirky illustrations save the day.

24 pp. Barefoot Books. $16.99. (Ages 5 to 10)

A FEAST FOR JOSEPH

Written by Terry Farish and OD Bonny.

Illustrated by Ken Daley.

At the East African refugee camp, aunties

stirred kwon at night in the hot wind. Boys

played the awal. Now Joseph and Mama live

in an apartment and “there are not enough

people to eat with.” The girl upstairs says,

“I’m here,” but Joseph waits for others: his

abubaacross the ocean, his cousins across

town. Then one day the girl and her mami

pop in with cake. “Slowly a hum settles

around them. A rhythm, a beat of people

eating together,” even if it’s “only two more.”

32 pp. Groundwood. $18.99. (Ages 3 to 6)

JENNIFER KRAUSSis the children’s books editor of the Book Review.

From “Family Reunion.”

Clockwise from left: “Tomatoes for Neela”; “May Your Life Be Deliciosa”; “Dumpling Day.”

From “A Song of Frutas.”