Susanna Leonard Hill has a feature on her blog called Perfect Picture Book Friday. It is a list of “perfect” picture books recommended by all sorts of people. I chose this book because it tells you about how to grow what you need for a pizza in simple ways.
So you Want to Grow a Pizza?
Written by Bridget Heos
Illustrated by Daniele Fabbri
24 pages – ages 6+
Published by Amicus Ink on February 2, 2016
Theme/Topic- Making your own food/Eating healthy
Genre- Realistic Fiction
Opening and Synopsis- Opening: “Pizza is delicious. Have you ever wondered where it came from? Like all food, it comes from plants and animals. How would you like to grow a pizza at home?”
Publisher’s Synopsis: “If you really wanted to grow a pizza, you’d need a wheat field, a cow, a pig, a vegetable garden… and you’d run out of room quickly! The sensible narrator advises each child gardener to start small, and they all gain an appreciation for fresh ingredients by the end of each book. A young boy wants to grow his own pizza, learns where the many ingredients come from, and learns how to grow the ingredients to make pizza sauce. Includes kid-friendly pizza sauce recipe.”
What I Thought- This is a really nice book, with gentle humor, present in the tone that the words and illustrations take. The book is rather encouraging, while also informing the reader of what they can do. Kids will enjoy reading the book to learn how they can make their own pizza. The illustrations have a certain warmth to them that generates a feeling of hominess. This is a great book part of a series about making your own food (like a pie, a taco, and a salad). The book features a recipe in the back for making your own tomato sauce, which gives the kids something to do with what they have grown. It’s a great idea to have kids learn to cook and where their food comes from.
Activities and Resources- You can find a recipe for making homemade pizza at Babble.com HERE, which I think would go nicely with the pizza sauce recipe featured in the book.
Even if you don’t have a big field, you can still grow your own wheat in your garden! WikiHow.com has a nice tutorial for growing your wheat crop HERE.
The book does mention that you can start your own compost pile, including basic directions such as what can go in it, but Gardenguides.com has a nice tutorial for creating your own compost pile from scratch right HERE!
To find more Perfect Picture Books please visit Susanna Hill’s blog HERE!
Categories: Age 6-9, Perfect Picture Book Friday
What a great summer activity for kids. It helps them understand the food chain. Great choice!
It isn’t so much about the food chain, but more about where our food comes from. 🙂
Wait. What?? If Mom grows and makes her own pizza, how will I lick the cheese from the bottom of the box??
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Um… By licking the plates covered in deliciously homemade sauce and cheese? 😉
Erik
I think this book would pair well with Miranda Paul’s home-built pizza oven. 😀
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that any book would go fine with a home-built pizza oven (I would love to have a home-built pizza oven, so…that book mentioned a pig, pig makes bacon, bacon can go on pizza, so we need to build a home-built pizza oven) 😉
Now I want to eat pizza!
Go ahead! Maybe make it yourself (or buy local!)!
Yum! I like the sound of the entire series. 🙂
I knew you would! Maybe Mr. Cornelius was thinking of taking up gardening? 😉
Sounds educational and yummy!
Yes it is! 🙂