Review by Booklist Review
Thirteen-year-old Eli is lonely. His mother has died from COVID-19 and his father has newly returned to work full time, so Eli is left to himself in the family's tiny Manhattan apartment, forbidden by his anxiety-ridden father from leaving it. Things improve slightly when his virtual summer coding camp begins, but things really improve when he meets Mat, grandson of his neighbor Mrs. Martinez. The two boys quickly bond. In the meantime, Eli has been gobsmacked when he discovers on the private YouTube page of his mother, a gifted cook, a series of videos called Renee's Test Kitchen. Each video demonstrates how to make a favorite recipe. Eli keeps the videos a secret from his father as he begins trying--with Mat's help--to make the featured dishes. Happily, over recipes and coding, the two boys come out to each other without any sturm und drang. Stamper has written a gentle, warmhearted story with appealing characters and a clever premise. Bon appetit!
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thirteen-year-old Eli Adams lives alone with his father, who has become stridently protective ever since Eli's mother, a test kitchen chef, died of Covid months ago. And now that they've moved away from family and friends in Minnesota to New York City, and Dad refuses to talk about Mom, Eli feels lonelier than ever. While using his mother's computer to research project ideas for his virtual summer coding bootcamp, Eli stumbles upon her YouTube channel, where, he learns, she had been uploading instructional cooking videos. With the help of his cute tween neighbor Mat, who is spending the summer with his grandmother, Eli uses his mom's videos to teach himself how to cook, hoping to feel closer to her. After a lot of failures, he slowly hones his skills, but his sudden interest in cooking worries his dad, who believes that Eli is becoming trapped in grief. Eli's burgeoning self-expression--through both his cooking and his sweetly developing relationship with Mat--shines through in this tender, low-conflict drama in which Stamper (Small Town Pride) portrays myriad grieving processes and experiences with sensitivity and care. Eli reads as white. Ages 8--12. (Oct.)
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