Welcome to our table

If you thought you knew a lot about food, think again! Welcome to Our Table is packed with facts and fancies about humans and food. The organization of the book is unpredictable, which creates a kind of whimsy not often found in nonfiction. There are sections about categories of food (rice, maize, noodles, bread, vegetables, peppers), interspersed with sections about topics such as types of lunches, foods that come from pods, and the textures of foods. A favorite spread is likely to be the one on smelly food: French Vieux Boulogne, Japanese natto, and West Indian stinking toe fruit. Geography seems to be the organizing principle, with foods being identified with countries (as opposed to regions or cultures). There are factoids about different food production methods and occasions when certain foods are consumed, plus many words in languages from around the world, complete with pronunciation guides. The illustrations are reminiscent of Gyo Fujikawa's images of cherubic children, with almost identical faces made diverse through color, clothing, and other simple details. This engaging, informative book will be loved by early readers.

A wide-angled overview of the foods that sustain and entertain us. Taking a resolutely international approach, the authors--one a poet, the other a trained chef--offer terse but taste-tempting descriptions of hundreds of dishes prepared worldwide with dozens of fruits, vegetables, meats, herbs, spices, nuts, and sweets. After priming readers to think of food analytically in terms of taste, smell, and texture, they launch their survey with various savory examples made with "Remarkable Rice" or "Amazing Maize," from Italian risotto (which "you must, must, MUST keep stirring as you cook, because this helps it become really oozy") to noodles like Ukrainian lokshyna. Along with the multitude of entrees, side courses aplenty look at tableware, the dangers of overfishing, how to say delicious in 15 languages, and more on the way to pages of desserts and a closing map of all the countries featured (with, characteristically, "The End" in 18 languages). Lynas' brightly colored images of, mostly, children diverse in race and ethnicity who appear eager to chow down on yummy-looking provender make all of this even easier to digest. Though some widely consumed ingredients don't earn separate entries (neither barley nor honey makes the cut, for instance), the menu does extend to insects and even (if under the heading "Fake food") meat grown in labs or made from plants. Another way we are all linked by our differences; rewarding reading for everyone who eats. (Nonfiction. 7-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.