Feast Your Eyes on Food (Nonfiction Picture Book)

 

Publication date: October 26, 2021

Author: Laura Gladwin

Illustrator: Zoe Barker

My Thoughts:

This graphic encyclopedia is illustration centric with just enough text and information to invite readers to skim and scan then go and find out more. The illustrations, like the cover are clean, detailed and a sensory feast. The art is the key to, as they say in the introduction to this book, feed more than just our bodies, but to use food to also bring us joy, as well as bring the world to our lips. Finally, this book is highlighted here because not only does it diversify the kinds of books students can pick up and read in your classroom, but it also hits all of the crucial characteristics of a well designed nonfiction picture book.

Crucial Characteristics of NonFiction Picture Books:

• Visual appeal - illustrations should be both  appealing and accurate
• Accurate and authoritative information - this book has a glossary, further reading references and a section on 10 ways to eat some of the foods.
• Engagingly written - the text in the book focuses on the amount of illustrations but the text is separated like a museum card where the text gives enough information in a couple of sentences. For example, for macadamia nuts, in the first sentence I find that they are natives of Australia and have been grown widely in Hawaii since the late 19th century. The second sentence gives some physical characteristics of the macadamia nut. 

Regarding the macadamia nut, a food that I am very familiar with and something that I have often brought with me as little gifts when traveling around the world, that first sentence about the nut being a native to Australia would have clued me in on bringing Kona coffee instead of macadamia nuts when I presented at a conference in Australia. Now I know and I did not have to read a whole books on Australia or on macadamia nuts.