8 Great Cookbooks for Holiday Cooking with Kids

Cooking Class: 57 Fun Recipes Kids Will Love to Make (and Eat!), by Deanna F. Cook
If you’ve ever imagined mashed potato clouds and fruit flowers in your dreams, then you need to wake up and check out this cookbook, because they’re real! Every page features a recipe that’s simple, healthy, and adorable—and the whole thing is written in kid-ese, so there won’t be any muddling, braising, or butterflying lost in translation.

The Help Yourself Cookbook for Kids, by Ruby Roth
If, like so many parents, you have a hard time getting your kids to consume more than a cracker at mealtime, you might want to try this unorthodox method: empower them to prepare their own fresh meals! Roth has created an ultra-engaging, informative book that provides fun facts and mouthwatering recipes every step of the way. It might just inspire your kids (and you, too!) to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day!

The Everything Kids’ Cookbook, by Sandra K. Nissenberg
As the title suggests, this cookbook is stuffed with easy-to-follow recipes for delicious weeknight meals, holiday treats, and puzzles and games to keep even the most recalcitrant mini-chef entertained. Try the World’s Best Brownies for dessert tonight!

The Berenstain Bears’ Holiday Cookbook: Cub-Friendly Cooking with an Adult, by Mike Berenstain
When you have holiday cooking on the brain, chances are your cubs do too—so bring them into the kitchen to help! The Berenstain Bears have brought so many delicious recipes to the table in this brand-new cookbook, it’s difficult to keep track. But one thing’s for sure: Mama Bear’s Pumpkin Pie and Papa Bear’s Paw-Lickin’ Good Chicken Wings will be instant favorites at your next gathering.

The Forest Feast for Kids: Colorful Vegetarian Recipes that are Simple to Make, by Erin Gleeson
This kid-friendly follow-up to The Forest Feast is as much a meal for the eyes as the plant-based recipes will be for your tummies. Let’s be honest here—the cover alone will have you drooling! Kids will be encouraged to set off on a vegetarian adventure, and they’ll soon be scooping pomegranate seeds and rinsing quinoa like professionals. Step side and prepare to be wowed!

Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book with a Story, by P.L. Travers
There’s much more than a spoonful of sugar in this fantastic little volume. Mary the Wonder Nanny and the kids have taken over the kitchen for a week, and they’re reviewing all the essential cooking terms, from A to Z. All of your favorite Poppins characters are here, too, sharing their favorite recipes.

Science Experiments You Can Eat, by Vicki Cobb
We’ve always known it, but this book makes it plain—cooking is science. So lead your crazy hungry chemists into the kitchen and turn the place into your laboratory for the weekend; trade your aprons for lab coats and start hypothesizing! You can learn how coagulated protein constitutes custard, among many more strange and wonderful kitchen facts—and at the end of each experiment, you’ll have a delightful dish to consume with your favorite scientists.

Wookiee Cookies: A Star Wars Cookbook, by Robin Davis and Frank Frankeny
A Jedi warrior must be calm, and a Jedi warrior must not watch a pot while it boils. In addition to being full of delectable dishes intended for dining on earth as well as on space stations, this quirky cookbook is also a primer on Jedi culinary skills. If you have any Star Wars mega-fans in your house, get them to the kitchen to start cooking dinner with Boba Fett-Uccine and Princess Leia Danish Dos tonight!