I remember the late-summer Sunday afternoon I started reading. Sitting on the floor in the living room, in front of a roaring window fan that accelerated the hot south wind, I sounded out my first words in the storybook, “Little Red Riding Hood,” looking up occasionally to get a nodded response from my dad, who was trying to watch television.
I had been writing already, rearranging the same letters to make different words, like “rat” into “tar,” my early forays likely the result of having an older sister who was already well on her way with her own writing.
But reading, as others have likened it to taking flight, was a definite lift-off, following those words and stories wherever they would take me.
What I discovered was I wasn’t as worried about the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” as I was excited about the contents of basket she was carrying to her grandmother. Sugar cookies! I remember this version of the story had the cookies brightly illustrated, resembling those shaped like flowers with a hole in the center. This food focus amid a fairy tale would become a fixation for me in other early reads.
I pondered the taste of the three bears’ porridge and imagined how a house could be constructed of gingerbread. I wondered about the cakes Alice nibbled and salivated over Sal’s blueberries. I was impressed by the industriousness of “The Little Red Hen” who ended up enjoying her homemade bread all by herself.
Our elementary school classes as a whole got so hungry exploring the tale of “Stone Soup,” where a community comes together to compose a pot of soup one ingredient at a time, that we made a pot of soup ourselves (this is the type of thing one can do in a small, rural school), each contributing one item (I’m pretty sure I brought a potato and one of the boys provided a stone).
One of my favorite childhood books was “Heidi” by Johanna Spyri, first published somewhere between 1880 and 1881, and while I was all in for the adventures of the little girl running the Swiss Alps barefooted with her grandfather’s goats, I was mesmerized by the vivid descriptions of the simple food they ate, and how “the old man held a large piece of cheese on a long iron fork over the fire, turning it round and round till it was toasted a nice golden yellow color on each side.”
And one of my most foundational reads, the “Little House” books, first published in the 1930s and ’40s by Laura Ingalls Wilder, stand out to me for their depictions of all they ate and at times made do with little to eat: of Laura and Mary sitting on the pumpkins amid the red peppers and onions, ham and venison and dried herbs stored in the attic for winter; of making Christmas candy with molasses syrup poured over pans of snow; of simple heart-shaped cakes made with white sugar and flour, wrapped in blue tissue paper for the girls’ Christmas stockings.
I must not have been the only one enticed by the food in children’s books. A host of cookbooks — for young and old alike — inspired by children’s literature offer homage and recipes to some of the classics.
- In “The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook: Charming Recipes from Anne and Her Friends in Avonlea,” by Kate Macdonald and L.M. Montgomery (Race Point Publishing; 2017), Macdonald draws inspiration and recipes from her grandmother, author of the beloved book series (a favorite of my mom’s) about an orphan girl in Canada set in the late 19th century. Foods from the stories include recipes for such teatime treats as Raspberry Tarts, Afternoon Ruby Tea Biscuits and Creamy Butterscotch Pudding and feature quotes from the books, in a beautifully photographed and illustrated volume.
- “Blueberries for Sal Cookbook: Sweet Recipes Inspired by the Beloved Children’s Classic” by Robert McCloskey (Clarkson Potter: 2023) is as full of blueberries as the Maine thickets Sal and her mother picked from. Blueberry lovers will delight in recipes for Blueberry Jam, Blueberry Lemonade, Blueberry Overnight Oats, Blueberry Maple Pecan Scones and Blueberry-Apple Crisp, among others. Fans of the book will delight in the familiar illustrations.
- “The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories” by Barbara M. Walker (Harper; 1979, 2018), also features original illustrations by Garth Williams and text from the “Little House” books. Recipes celebrate the pioneer spirit and keep details of Wilder’s stories from the woods, creeks and prairies alive, with offerings such as Fried Cornmeal Mush, Spit-Roasted Wild Duck, Cranberry Jelly, Sun-Dried Wild Fruit, Sourdough Starter, Succotash, Stewed Pumpkin, Apple-Core Vinegar and Homemade Sausage.
- “The Winnie-the-Pooh Cookbook” by Virginia H. Ellison (Dutton’s Children’s Books Revised Edition; 2010) celebrates A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner” with original illustrations, excerpts from the books and many honey-centric recipes (as well as an array that are not), including Minted Honey Banana Bread, Honey Hot Chocolate, Easy Honey Buns, Watercress Sandwiches, Quick Corn and Shrimp Chowder and Fruited Honey.
Rebecca Howard grew up in Kansas and currently writes the food blog, “A Woman Sconed.”