Below are some recommended children’s books on food and good nutrition. Check one out at your local library today!
The Amazing Milk Book
by Paulette Bourgeois, Catherine Ross and Susan Wallace
This book describe milk’s chemistry, nutritional value, production and use as a component of cheese and other foods. It’s enriched with anecdotes and humor.
The Beastly Feast
by Bruce Goldstone
At the great animal feast, bears bring pears and mosquitoes bring burritos.
Belly Laughs
by Charles Keller
These 75 food jokes and illustrations are written especially for children.
Blue’s Snack Party
by Sarah Landy.
Blue’s friends bring healthy snacks to a party. Discover each snack by lifting flaps that reveal ingredients, recipes and finished dishes.
A Book of Fruit
by Barbara Hirsch Lember
While most children recognize fruit in a bowl or in a supermarket, some have never seen fruit growing on a tree or a bush. This well-photographed book makes the connection between the fruit and where and how it grows before it arrives at the supermarket. Photos of single servings of fruit appear on pages opposite photos of where the fruit grows.
Bread, Bread, Bread
by Ann Morris
With large photographs, this book depicts the wide variety of breads from around the world. From India to Mexico, from Peru to Indonesia, from Ghana to Greece, international breads are shown.
Bread is for Eating
by David and Phillis Gershator
Mamita explains how bread is created and sings, “El Pan es Para Comer” (“Bread is for Eating”). Music and lyrics in both Spanish and English are included.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
by Judy Barrett
The townspeople love it when food falls from the sky — until the food gets too big to swallow.
Cooking UP U.S. History: Recipes and Research to Share with Children
by Suzanne I. Barchers and Patricia C. Marden
This book supplies a word list, recipes and a bibliography for five historical periods of U.S. history and six regions of the U.S.
Dinner at the Panda Palace
by Stephanie Calmenson
Babies and toddlers see animals dining out at the Panda Palace.
Dinosaurs Alive and Well; A Guide to Good Health
by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown
Colorful and bright dinosaurs provide kids with a blueprint to good health. Nutrition, exercise and fitness are some of the topics that are encountered.
Dumpling Soup
by Jama Kim Rattigan
A young Hawaiian girl tries to make dumplings for her family’s New Year celebration. This story celebrates the joyful mix of food, customs and languages of many cultures.
D.W. the Picky Eater
by Marc Brown
Arthur the Aardvark’s sister, D.W., is a picky eater. The family leaves her at home when they go out to eat until D.W. decides she might be missing something good by being so picky.
The Edible Pyramid: Good Eating Every Day
by Loreen Leedy
At the Edible Pyramid Restaurant, guests learn about all the foods they can eat from USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid.
Everybody Cooks Rice
by Norah Dooley
Anthony is late for dinner. So his sister goes from house to house looking for him. In each home, she finds families preparing rice in a different way. This multicultural dinner tale ends with several recipes for rice — from Barbados, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, India, China, Haiti, and Italy.
Extra Cheese, Please!: Mozzarella’s Journey from Cow to Pizza
by Cris Peterson
This well-photographed book describes how cheese is made, from a Wisconsin dairy farm until a cheese factory ships the final product across America.
Family Pictures: Cuadros de Familia
by Carmen Lomas Garza
The author describes, in bilingual text and illustrations, her experiences growing up in a Hispanic community in Texas. Several of the stories focus on food-picking, cactus, making tamales, eating tacos, picking oranges and eating watermelon.
Foods: Feasts, Cooks, and Kitchens
by Richard Tames
This history of food discusses the types of foods and cooking method used by cultures from the hunters and gatherers of 18,000 B.C. to Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Middle Ages and all the way to futuristic farming. It’s filled with interesting illustrations and fascinating facts.
Grandpa’s Garden Lunch
by Judith Caseley
Take a trip down to the garden with Sarah and her Grandpa and learn the basics of gardening. Kids will learn about how various foods grow. They will also see why “patience is a virtue.”
Gregory, The Terrible Eater
by Mitchell Sharmat
Gregory the goat likes eggs, vegetables, fruit and fish. But his parents want him to eat garbage!
Group Soup
by Barbara Brenner
A selfish rabbit learns that sharing is the one ingredient needed to make the perfect Group Soup.
How My Family Lives In America
by Susan Kuklin
This book tells the story of three children, each with an immigrant parent. For each family, the foods they eat, the names of different dishes, and their eating customs are discussed. The book includes three recipes — one African, one Puerto Rican and one Taiwanese.
How to Make An Apple Pie and See the World
by Marjorie Priceman
Since the supermarket is closed, the reader is led around the world — to Italy, France, Sri Lanka, England, Jamaica and Vermont — to gather the ingredients for making an apple pie.
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie
by Alison Jackson
In this take-off of the song “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” a woman rudely eats everything at a Thanksgiving feast!
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato
by Lauren Child
Lola’s sister Charlie convinces her to eat fruits and vegetables. For example, Charlie calls mashed potatoes “cloud fluff from the pointiest peak of Mount Fuji.”
It’s a Spoon, Not a Shovel
by Mark and Caralyn Buehner
When a crocodile is eating an armadillo, should she put her napkin (a) on her head, (b) in her ear or (c) on her lap? This is a humorous etiquette book for young children.
Macho Nacho and Other Rhyming Riddles
by Giulio Maestro
This book is filled with rhyming riddles, many of which are riddles about foods.
Make Me a Peanut Butter Sandwich and a Glass of Milk
by Ken Robbins
This book describes the production of three foods: peanut butter, bread, and milk…from the farm to the manufacturing plant to the store to the home.
A Medieval Feast
by Aliki
A manor prepares a feast fit for a king and queen.
Milk From Cow To Carton
by Aliki
Aliki takes readers on a guided tour that begins with grazing cows, proceeds through milking and a trip to the dairy and ends with some different foods made from milk
Multicultural Cookbook for Students
by Carole L. Allyn and Lois S. Webb
This cookbook includes 337 recipes from 122 countries. Also included are maps and background information about each country. The ingredients on the recipes are foods generally available in the U.S.
Munching: Poems about Eating
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
A collection of over 20 poems about food for children.
Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems about the Fun of Eating
Selected and illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
A collection of 50 poems and traditional rhymes about food and eating.
No Milk!
by Jennifer Ericsson
A city boy tries to coax, cajole, coerce, and command the milk out of a dairy cow — but no milk! As tempers flare, the pair finally arrives at a creamy compromise. Perfect for reading aloud.
Pass the Fritters, Critters
by Cheryl Chapman.
Should the bunny pass the honey? Should the parrot pass the carrots? Not without the magic word!
Peanut Butter, Apple Butter, Cinnamon Toast: Food Riddles for You to Guess
by Argentina Palacios
A book of food riddles for children.
Pizza!
by Teresa Martino
A brief history of pizza for beginning readers.
The Race Against Junk Food
by Anthony Buono
Tommy and the Snak Posse (which includes vegetable-people) win a footrace against junk food.
Roses Sing on New Snow
by Paul Yee
Set in turn of the century Chinatown, this is the story of a young girl who cooks in her father’s restaurant. Although her father never gives Maylin credit for her great cooking, she works hard because she loves food and loves preparing meals for Chinese immigrants away from their families. When her father presents her new dish to the governor of South China, the truth comes out and Maylin is finally recognized as a very special cook.
A Spoon for Every Bite
by Joe Hayes
A poor Southwestern couple buys a third spoon so they can invite their baby’s godfather to dinner. Their rich guest brags about his numerous spoons, so the couple tells a story about someone who uses a new spoon for every bite. What they’re really referring to is a tortilla, but the rich man is fooled and buys spoons until he’s broke.
The Tawny, Scrawny Lion
by Kathryn Jackson
A rabbit avoids being eaten by a lion by serving him delicious carrot stew
This Is The Way We Eat Our Lunch
by Edith Baer and Steve Björkman
Kids are taken around the world to learn about the various lunch preferences of children from different cultures. Colorful illustrations help make this adventure to various destinations extra special.
Too Many Tamales
by Gary Soto
While helping make tamales for Christmas dinner, Maria tries on her mother’s ring. When she realizes the ring is missing, her cousins come to the rescue.
The Vegetable Show
by Laura Krasny Brown
Watch vegetables do a little vaudeville in their attempt to dance and sing their way onto the plates and into the hearts of kids. Kids will truly be tempted by the delightful characters including the Tip-Top Tomato Twins and Bud the Spud.
The Victory Garden Vegetable Alphabet Book
by Jerry Pallotta and Bob Thomson
This book depicts a vegetable for each letter of the alphabet. The art and text help students to make important associations between vegetables and other familiar things in the environment.
What Am I? Looking Through Shapes at Apples and Grapes
by Diane and Leo Dillon
Invite children to guess each food described in a rhyme and shown through a hole on the right-hand page. Turn the page for the answer!
What Food is This?
by Rosmarie Hausherr
Fish, sausage, carrots and many more foods are detailed in this tale of food origins. Kids can tune up their food trivia skills as they are quizzed with questions and pictures. This book is educational as well as fun for the whole family.