Penguin Australia

July 2020

ISBN: 9781760897000

Imprint: Puffin

RRP: $12.99

Exciting times as the one and only Puffin imprint celebrates its 80th year – so many beautiful books coming out including some which will of course be featured on this blog – but also lots of fun celebrations. Starting this week Waterstones in the UK are launching a week of online activities that many children will thoroughly enjoy.

This sweet book is one of a new range called Puffin Little which will introduce younger readers to simple but engaging non-fiction texts. While The Kid is well beyond the reading scope – and indeed the recipe scope – of this little treasure but I have a feeling it will stay on my cookbook shelf because some of the snack ideas sound so tasty!

The book begins with some important information pages including Kitchen Rules, Little Tools and nutritional info like the food pyramid all accompanied by illustrations – especially useful for the tools section so there can be no mistaking a spoon for a rolling pin – expanding vocabulary and setting the tiny chefs up for their culinary introduction.

There are four sections of recipes: breakfast, lunch, dinner and sweets. Each recipe carries over four pages with its introduction, list of ingredients and then method. Little Cooks are clearly advised when to enlist the help of Big Cooks, for example, pre-heating the oven, heating oil or peeling and grating vegetables.

Throughout the whole isolation experience many families have re-discovered the joys of cooking together and we all know the truth of if the kiddos help with the cooking or indeed feel they have achieved it themselves they are far more inclined to eat it and also experiment with new tastes.

All in all this just a super little book for the budding cooks in your household or readership and one well worth the investment. The design is really cute and very appealing and the layout simple enough for even the newly independent readers to follow with ease.

I for one can’t wait to see what else is planned for this new series. I would highly recommend it for your youngest readers from around Year 1 up or for a little person of your acquaintance who loves to feel grown up and learn new skills.