Cook Me a Rhyme

May 29, 2017
This spiral-bound cooking primer, a companion to Kozlowski’s Cook Me a Story, presents 17 simple recipes based on nursery rhymes. In the brunch section, readers can prepare Blueberry Haystack Muffins à la “Little Boy Blue” and a breakfast cake marked with an icing B. Lunch recipes include Cockle Shell Pasta Salad (based on “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”) and a “Hickory BBQ Pizza Clock,” inspired by “Hickory Dickory Dock,” followed by sections devoted to treats and sweets. Kozlowski uses the text of the rhymes to inform the recipes, which are framed by Wood’s friendly cartoons of nursery rhyme characters and animals. Cooking and classic rhymes: a tasty combination. Ages 5–11.

August 1, 2017

Gr 2-5-Child-friendly recipes combined with popular Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Author and trained chef Kozlowski teaches readers step-by-step to make a dish. The illustrations are a nice addition to the book, although the pictures only show the story of the nursery rhymes and not of the food described in each recipe. Children and parents alike may have a hard time picturing the finished product. Some of the recipe names are a little out of the ordinary, such as the "Bag Full of Black Wool Granola," "Mouse Tail Chicken Nuggets" (which ends with the sentence: "Have you ever tasted such a bite in your life as crunchy, munchy nugget mice?"), and "Pail of Cotton-Crown Water," which could deter some chefs. VERDICT Not as pleasing to the palette as one would hope, useful for programming ideas for professionals but not a must-buy for all libraries.-Joanne Albano, Commack Public Library, NY

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