A Foodie's Alphabet: A Is For Artichoke: a Foodie Alphabet from Artichoke to Zest by Maddie Frost

V Is For Vanilla

W Is For Whisk

Maddie Frost's A Is for Artichoke: A Foodie Alphabet from Artichoke to Zest (Sourcebooks, 2018) is not your father's alphabet book. Sponsored by America's Test Kitchen, this little book is tailored for the hardcore young foodie and filled with varieties of vegetables, fancy fruits, culinary concepts, and esoteric equipment, and the eye-pleasing pages mix colorful entries for ordinary foods--ice cream and jam--and unusual foods--kumquats, quinoa, xigua, ganache--and kitchen equipment from the ubiquitous oven to the less-common lemon zester.

Along with their letters, young children will learn about foods they may spot in the supermarket and enjoy the anthropomorphic cartoon illustrations, and slightly older kids may appreciate a nodding acquaintance with edibles like lox and edamame, tools like the whisk and tongs, and processes such as brining and caramelization. Even umami gets a mention, although the definition of "savory" only approaches the somewhat amorphous meaning of the term and may not be familiar for the youngest kids. This is indeed an alphabet book in a class by itself.

This different drummer of an abecedarius has specific appeal to kids who know or wish to know their way around the kitchen and table. Says School Library Journal, "Foodies will love this celebration of all good things to eat. Also an excellent introduction to more complex culinary vocabulary."

I Yam Who I Yam! Quackers by Liz Wong

QUACKERS IS A DUCK.

HE KNOWS HE'S A DUCK BECAUSE HE LIVES AT THE DUCK POND WITH ALL THE OTHER DUCKS.

He can sit on a lilypad. but the daily duck hors d'oeuvres--snails, slugs, weed seeds and worms--aren't exactly appetizing, and that duckweed doesn't go down so easy either. His quack (ME-OW!) is, how shall we say, communicatively distinctive.

SOMETIMES HE FEELS THAT HE DOESN'T QUITE FIT IN.

All the ducks are quite supportive, but Quackers sometimes feels the need to roam beyond the confines of the duck pond. And then he encounters something novel.

ONE DAY QUACKERS MET A STRANGE DUCK.

"ME-OW?

ME-OW!"

"YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

The little gray cat points out that yes, he can, because he, too, is a cat. In fact, he's amazed when Quackers admits he's never met a duck who could understand his language.

"WAIT! YOU THINK YOU'RE A DUCK?"

MOWR! Quacker's worlds are colliding! He's not a duck? He's actually a... cat?

His new friend Mittens introduces him to the other cats in his barn and teaches him the pleasures of chasing mice and drinking fresh milk from the cows. (PURRR!), and the necessity of giving himself a tongue bath frequently (YURGH!) Still, Quackers pronounces milk way better than duckweed. This being a cat is not so bad!

But then, he begins to miss his old snail-eating friends, too. After all, they are still his first family and he loves them.

Quackers has a dual identity--duck + cat-- and he's all right with that (and even a snack of duckweed now and again), in Liz Wong's Quackers (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017). Wong's text is simple, humorous, and poignant in its gentle exploration of self-identify and community, and her illustrations, also simplicity themselves, tell the story sweetly and wittily in a way that preschoolers will understand. You are what you are, but you can be many things, and duckweed and milk can mix when shared between friends. Says Booklist, "This picture-book debut about a cat with a paw in two worlds is at times charming, at times laugh-out-loud funny, and its ugly-duckling case of mistaken identity will endear it to many."