Review by Booklist Review
You'll want to make bread after reading this warmhearted book, but what kind? And with whom will you share it? Our narrator guides us through bread baking, allowing for an array of variations, with a welcoming second-person point of view as comforting as a trusted friend or elder instructing you in your kitchen. You'll gather your ingredients, do some mixing, and maybe leave the dough to sit for a while. "Sometimes the dough is soft, loose and shaggy like an old T-shirt. Sometimes it's bouncy and firm like fresh playdough." Peeking into several families' kitchens, we see hands young and old happily contributing to outcomes including braided challah, toasty arepas, and silky baos, all shared among their community. With a palette of golden brown and ochre and frequent close-up and birds-eye perspectives, the digitally edited, colored-pencil artwork perfectly suits the text. More Ina Garten than Martha Stewart in its approach, the story ensures nothing about this process comes off as precious except the time spent together. Back matter includes an illustrated bread glossary as well as recipes for arepas and pandesal. This is a welcome refresh of Norah Dooley's kindergarten staple Everybody Bakes Bread and a unifying addition to conversations around community and food literacy. Butter up young readers with Kate DePalma's The Bread Pet (2020) or Sarah Hwang's Toasty (2021) for a starchy storytime.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Bustling spread-length illustrations show adults and children coming together to gather ingredients, mix, knead, shape, and bake various types of bread. Under the watchful guidance of adults, children observe and work alongside the grown-ups. Text and illustrations celebrate family traditions. The narrative points out that a spoon or hands may be used to mix and knead; but: "I like to use my hands because that's how my papi taught me." Colorful pencil renderings in warm hues of yellow, brown, and red, convey the wide-eyed wonder of gazing upon rising dough. It ends with a parade of proud bakers, young and old, carrying their fresh baked breads to eat and share together in a joyful outdoor celebration. Appendices briefly describe 11 breads from around the world, including recipes--arepas made with white corn flour, popular in Latin America, and pandesal, a Filipino roll. VERDICT This lively celebration of bread offers a welcome emphasis on diversity and collaboration. A warm and engaging read-aloud, it is also an excellent resource for caregivers and teachers.--Marilyn Taniguchi
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Families make different kinds of bread that share a common ingredient: love. In a bustling apartment building, various families of diverse races and ethnicities are making bread. Told in a voice that evokes the absolutist tone of a child, the story opens with the pronouncement, "The only way to make bread is like this." What follows, however, is not a single recipe to follow but an exploration of what all bread has in common and what makes each kind of bread unique. For instance, you might use flour that's "soft and white as fresh snow" or "pale yellow and powdery fine" or "coarse and heavy like a pile of teeny tiny rocks." Different ingredients--"a handful of this," "a dash of that"--and cooking techniques involving ovens, frying pans, and fires finish the job. In the end, the important thing is to find someone to share it with, "because bread must always be broken together." It may look and taste different, but "all bread is delicious." The warm tones and textures of Gonzales' colored pencil illustrations evoke the feeling of being in a kitchen baking bread with loved ones. The backmatter includes descriptions of the 11 breads featured in the story and recipes for Colombian arepas and Filipino pandesal. A celebration of differences and the commonalities that unite us. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
