This delightful and informative romp through the world, written by young Hayley Nevitt, is full of recipes from around the globe, collected during the travels of Serena, the word’s foremost food critic. Long-haired Serena’s mission is to find the best recipes from around the world to be used in the world-famous Nevitt restaurants that are as big as the CN tower and Eiffel Tower combined (Miss 8 looked at me in amazement, “Is that true!?”) and that can be seen from China (hysterical giggles). Whatever Serena found that could be useful to Nevitt Incorporated was popped into her magic travel case where her bunny Alex lived on left over bits of scrumptious food.
The first time we read A Bunny, a Case, and a World of Taste, the Little Misses and I laughed and laughed! It certainly is written by a young girl with a wild imagination; she would fit right in at our house. My girls loved the story and eagerly followed along on the globe.
Obviously this is a recipe book. It is also a geography book and a unique addition to any geography program. For example, we learned about India‘s enormous population, its very inexpensive car (the Tato Nano, worth $2000 Canadian), and the Taj Mahal, while collecting recipes for Deep-Fried Cauliflower, Lassi (an India smoothie), and Lavish (an Indian flat bread). In Poland, the home of Copernicus, Serena visited a planetarium, listened to Chopin, and chatted about Marie Curie while folding pierogis. Recipes include Apple Pancakes and Sauerkraut Soup. In Quebec, Serena visited a vineyard, watched a jazz festival, and ate poutine. She took home Pierre, who made fine wines at the vineyard, two Tourtiere recipes, and a recipe for Beef Bourguinon. In England, Serena visited the Queen (of course), ate crumpets with her, and dressed up as a princess to review the royal guard. She visited Stonehenge and Grandpa Joseph Nevitt’s Pork Pie Shop and took home the secret Pork Pie recipe, as well as recipes for Toad in a Hole and English Trifle.
Tucked in among the the yummy recipes that Serena gathered from all over the world are a few that my children chuckle over and have pointed out to me many times. We’ve had so much fun with Mark’s Top Eight Squash Preparation Recipes! (He did not obtain a chef’s position at Nevitt Incorporated.) Other kid-friendly touches include this one appended to Auf Lauf, a decadent noodle dish: “Do not add vegetables. Sadly, it ruins the whole experience.”
This user-friendly book, just over a hundred pages long, is coil-bound for convenience during cooking or globe-work. At the beginning of each chapter, we see a map of the country, locating it in the world, and there’s also always a flag (all in black and white). Different indices group the recipes by course, region, and name. Another helpful feature, the chapter entitled “More Adventures with Taste,” includes a book recommendation, a game, and many other suggestions for further learning.
Although A Bunny, a Case, and a World of Taste is obviously written by a youngster and lacks some adult polish, it displays a lightheartedness that is rarely found in published work. My younger children loved it and even the older ones enjoyed it. If you want a change of pace in your schooling or kitchen, check out this book. As an added bonus, part of the proceeds will go to Gospel for Asia’s “Jesus Wells” project which provides clean running water and new opportunities to some of the world’s neediest people.
A Bunny, a Case, and a World of Taste is available from Maple Tree Publications for $12 Canadian.
Disclosure: I received A Bunny, a Case and a World of Taste from Maple Tree Publications in order to review it. I receive no compensation for this review and my opinions are my own.
Sounds like a very fun book! My husband and I both enjoy cooking, and have quite a few cookbooks featuring different countries’ cuisines. The four-year-old likes to help cook, too — and the Indian restaurant around here is her favorite. From your picture, it looks like the correct colors for the various flags are on the cover of the book. Is the paper such that you could use crayons to color the ones inside the book?
It is a lot of fun! Although the paper is good for coloring, the flags are printed in tones of grey in the book, so they wouldn’t color very well, I think. Some of Hayley’s pictures of Serena can be colored too, but they are too small for most four year olds to color.
Annie Kate
Thanks for the clarification. I answered your questions about my book review on my blog.
This looks like just the kind of book my daughter would love!!