Kid Cookbooks

Some of the best kid cookbooks are not cookbooks at all, but picture books. Have you ever read a great picture book to your child and found a recipe for the item in the book list in the back? What’s the first thing your child wants to do when they are done reading that book with you? They want to make that recipe! At least that’s how it happens at my house.

Two of our favorite books with recipes are Cranberry Thanksgiving and Thunder Cake. We have made the recipes in both of these books and they were excellent and very fun to make together. You can read a post I wrote about at Thanksgiving time on Cranberry Thanksgiving here.

Thunder Cake is a wonderful book by one of my favorite children’s authors Patricia Polacco. Many of her books talk about her growing up years and the influence that her grandparents had on her life. This book is no exception. I don’t know if this is a true story or not, but it certainly could be.

The story is basically about a little girl that is terrified of thunderstorms. Her grandmother (Babushka) creates a masterful plan to help this child overcome her fear of thunderstorms. The story tells how they gather all the ingredients for their cake during the thunderstorm. The complete recipe is at the back of the book. It tastes really good too.

The first thing my son wants to do when this book is done is either go and make thunder cake right away or plan on when we are going to make it together. Stories can inspire all of us. If you want your child to learn how to cook or at least to start taking an interest in helping in the kitchen, using children’s picture books is a great place to start.

Kid cookbooks can be fun and informative, but I encourage you to broaden your horizon and look at children’s picture books that have recipes in them that can help inspire your child to cook as well.