Pancakes to Parathas: Breakfast Around the World

by Alice B. McGinty, Tomoko Suzuki (Illustrator)

Overview

A Northern Lights Book Award Winner!

Sakura Medal 2021 Nominee!

Breakfast varies from country to country, but it's how all children begin their day. Explore the meals of twelve countries in this playful approach to the world!

From Australia to India to the USA, come travel around the world at dawn. Children everywhere are waking up to breakfast. In Japan, students eat soured soybeans called natto. In Brazil, even kids drink coffee—with lots of milk! With rhythm and rhymes and bold, graphic art, Pancakes to Parathas invites young readers to explore the world through the most important meal of the day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781499807127
Publisher:	little bee books
Publication date:	02/05/2019
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	259,752
Product dimensions:	11.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Alice B. McGinty loves breakfast. It's among her favorite meals. She also loves to travel and get to know people, places, and foods around the world. The breakfasts she's eaten include cornmeal porridge in Jamaica, parathas and chutney in India, olives in Israel, huevos in Mexico, and just about everything in America. Alice is the award-winning author of over forty children's books, fiction and nonfiction, including Rabbi Benjamin's Buttons, a 2015 Sydney Taylor Notable Book, and the picture book biographies Gandhi: A March to the Sea, a 2014 South Asia Book Award honor book, and Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters, a 2010 Orbis Pictus Honor Book and Booklist 2009 Top Ten Biographies for Youth.

Tomoko Suzuki has a cup of coffee with breakfast every morning. While being covered with the wonderful smell of coffee beans, she works on illustration for children's books, advertisements, and products, always seeking to provide images enjoyable to all. She lives in Tokyo, Japan. When traveling abroad, she always misses miso soup and natto, the Japanese soul food!

Editorial Reviews

2018-10-28

A roundup of traditional breakfast foods from around the world.

Brimming with foods—there's Australia's Vegemite on toast, Jamaica's cornmeal porridge, and hagleslag (chocolate sprinkles) in the Netherlands—this colorful tome is a fun tribute to global foods and cultures. Each of the 12 countries has a dedicated two-page spread. One page is written in rhyme while the second page offers descriptions and cultural details in prose. Unfortunately, McGinty's stunted rhymes break up the flow and detract from the book's true potential. "Breakfast in Australia / is a black and salty paste. / Thinly spread on toasted bread… / It's quite a shocking taste!" Most disappointing? McGinty loses a huge opportunity to encapsulate "breakfast around the world" by ignoring the plurality of America's multicultural population. Americans don't all eat bagels, cereal, or eggs and bacon for breakfast! Thank goodness for Suzuki's playful illustrations. Attentive readers will spot lovely details beyond just food; the cultures themselves are on show, particularly how children live and play in other countries. Larger-than-life pictures of congee and shakshuka are flanked by fruit, flora and fauna, famous landmarks and symbols, as well as diverse children in everyday settings. The book also highlights different eating habits. For example, families in India gather on the floor to eat off banana leaves with fingers instead of silverware.

The concept's basically sound, and despite flaws, the book could be useful when combined with other resources. (map) (Informational picture book. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews