Multicultural Children’s Books About Food

America the Melting Pot

There are lots of children’s books about food, and lots of multicultural books about food from different countries and cultures. Today, I’m reviewing my favorite multicultural children’s books about food set in the US. The United States has long been known as the melting pot – for good reason! Many different nationalities came to the US and brought with them aspects of their culture such as traditions, language, and food. Eventually, the different cultures started blending into the melting pot we call America.

Creating a Stronger Community Through Food

I was inspired to write this post after watching ‘The Lunch Song’ episode of Cocomelon. If your toddler has not yet seen this wonderful show, please go to Netflix Kids or YouTube and thank me later. The show is short little segments of songs, some classic, some new, but all about day to day things little kids do. The songs are catchy and as an adult, I find me and my husband staring at the screen and unable to look away. (Check out the Cocomelon TikTok challenge, if you play the Cocomelon theme song a toddler will magically appear!)

🎵 “I’ve got something in my lunchbox, something yummy I kno-o-o-ow.” 🎵

In ‘The Lunch Song’, baby JJ and his school friends all bring different lunches to school. They share what they have with the other kids, and all lunches are unique and represent diverse cultures. JJ brings chicken nuggets and carrot sticks, another child brings tortillas and rice and beans, Cece eats chicken dumplings and rice, there’s spaghetti and ham sandwichs and more.

It’s catchy and fun and makes me hungry. The simple message is that we all eat different food, and it’s all delicious!

The melting pot analogy works wonderfully with food. All of the children’s books I’m reviewing today share a common theme of American families of different cultural backgrounds coming together to share food. Cooking and comfort food is a common theme all over the world. These children’s books all celebrate multicultural foods that can be found in America.

THe Best Multicultural Children’s Books About Food

Yoko

When I first saw the book cover for Yoko I thought it looked familiar and wondered if I had read it as a child. It was first published in 1998, so nope, just some very recognizable illustrations from author/illustrator Rosemary Wells. She has a distinctive and engaging style. I really enjoyed the Max and Ruby books when I was little!

The story is about Yoko, an adorable kitten who is a little different from the other animals in her class. She brings sushi for lunch and all the kids make fun of her. Yoko’s teacher decides to help out by having an international food day where everybody brings in food from around the world. All the kids learn about and taste a wide variety of foods. The story resolves itself and Yoko is happy again, but not for the reasons you might think.

“As usual, Wells demonstrates a remarkable feel for children’s small but important difficulties.”

This quote from the Publishers Weekly book review is spot on. Yoko is appealing and resonates with children because it explores young children’s problems that we can be unaware of as adults. Yoko is recommended for children ages 3-7.

Mama Provi and the Pot of Rice

Mama Provi and the Pot of Rice is the story of Puerto Rican grandmother Mama Provi. Mama Provi lives in a big city on the bottom floor of an eight-story apartment building. Her granddaughter lives at the top of the building. One day, when her granddaughter is sick, Mama Provi decides to cook her a delicious pot of rice. Mama Provi does not believe in elevators so she takes the stairs. As she stops on the landing of each story to catch her breath, she smells something delicious and trades a portion of her arroz con pollo for a sampling of her neighbors’ food. By the time she reaches her granddaughter’s apartment, she has a full meal! The food ranges from traditional American apple pie and collard greens, to tea from Mrs. Woo, black beans from Senor Rivera, and more.

I like the mix of Spanish thrown into the story. ‘En un dos por tres’ which means something like ‘lickity split’ or ‘in a flash’ is used repetitively and by the end of the story your child will be saying it along with you.

A note if you’re looking to buy from Amazon, be careful of the paperback version they sell, it appears from the reviews that the illustrations are in black and white. I was able to get a used library copy and the nice watercolor illustrations are worth getting a colored copy. The publisher recommends this book for children ages 5-8.

Everybody Cooks Rice

Everybody Cooks Rice is about a little girl named Carrie going around her friendly and diverse neighborhood looking for her brother – it’s time for dinner. As she visits each neighbor she has a taste of the food that they are cooking for dinner. Each household is culturally different, from Vietnam, Barbados, Puerto Rico, India, China, Haiti, and more, and yet each family is serving rice. Each version of rice is different: the Darlington’s are from Barbados and are making black eyed peas and rice. The Tam family from Vietnam cooks fried rice with nuoc cham, and Carrie’s friend Rajit is taking some biryani to his dad. Finally, Carrie finds her brother and they go home for their own dinner: risi e bisi (rice and peas) from Northern Italy. The book’s message is simple: everybody cooks rice! And it’s all different and all fantastic!

Everybody Cooks Rice is a book worth reading over and over. There are so many little details like the different types of food, the various neighbors’ names, their skills, what they do, even little phrases in different languages. The book also includes ten simple rice recipes to try at home.

Everybody Cooks Rice was such a hit that author Norah Dooley was inspired to write several other books: Everybody Brings Noodles, Everybody Bakes Bread, and Everybody Serves Soup. Dooley based the series on her own experiences growing up in Cambridge, MA. The book was published in 1991 and although the illustrations do look a little dated, the story more than makes up for it. This book is recommended for children ages 5-9.

Food Trucks!

Food Trucks! is a fun book all about different types of food trucks serving many styles of food. If your kid likes food or vehicles this would be a great pick. Food trucks have been around for ages in some form or another, like the Texas chuckwagon, hot dog cart, and mobile canteens on US Army bases. In recent years food trucks have surged in popularity as street food became cool and hip. They’re becoming associated with gourmet, high-end cuisine as chefs migrate to mobile restaurants to start off their careers.

The great thing about food trucks is their mobility and the plethora of food choices they offer. Food trucks of different cultural backgrounds are the ultimate symbol of the melting pot. In my city, we have food truck Thursday, where multiple food trucks gather, there’s live music and families come to eat dinner and walk around the park. You can choose BBQ, Indian, Jamaican, and good old southern comfort food. This book explores all the different kinds of foods offered at food trucks and has some incredible details differentiating each truck. Food Trucks! is recommended for children ages 4-7.

Bilal Cooks Daal

Bilal Cooks Daal is about young Bilal who introduces his friends to one of his favorite food, daal. Daal is a South Asian lentil dish. As Bilal says, “Daal is nutty and creamy and warm like soup.” With the help of his friends and his dad, they prepare the daal and wait and wait and wait! Daal takes a long time to make! But is it worth it in the end? Spoiler alert – it is.

Bilal Cooks Daal won the award for Best Picture Book in 2019 from Kirkus Reviews. It’s a lovely book and paints a nice picture of the different qualities of foods like color, tastes, and texture. You will be wanting to try some Daal yourself by the end of the book and luckily, there is a recipe for Daal included at the end. Remember to give yourself plenty of time to cook it! This book is recommended for children ages 4-8.

Multicultural children’s books about food are fun to read and wonderful for teaching children about different cultures. Thanks for reading!

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
J.R.R. Tolkien