Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 4-6. Kids will love the concept--recipes for confections mentioned in Dahl's books--and the book's design is super. There's just one problem: most of the recipes are too difficult for the intended audience. Take "Mosquitoes' Toes and Wampfish Roes," a dish mentioned in James and the Giant Peach. The instructions ask kids to blend cod, ginger scallions, and cornstarch in a food processor, and then, with the motor running, to add egg white from a previously separated egg. Other recipes call for a piping bag and nozzle, stem ginger in syrup, and--I'm not kidding--a blackbird, described as a black pastry funnel found in specialty cooks' shops. A note encouraging families to cook these recipes together and warning children to have an adult present when handling knives and other dangerous objects is hidden away on the verso of the title page. There are a couple of accessible recipes, like fresh mudburgers (hamburgers), but the draw will really be Blake's marvelous drawings, here combined with ingenious photos of food by Jan Baldwin. Larger collections may want this just because it's so much fun to look at. Like some adult cookbooks, this is probably more for browsing than for baking. ~--Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hungry? Perhaps a serving of "Scrambled Dregs" or "Hair Toffee to Make Hair Grow on Bald Men" will hit the spot. Recipes for these and the additional delicacies mentioned in the late Roald Dahl's (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) work are hereby adapted for the home kitchen, thanks to the author's widow. Dahl, one suspects, would have been tickled: the offerings are heavily weighted on the side of sweets, and the order of presentation defies adult logic. True to the book's title, there are some recipes of questionable kid appeal (the green pea soup from The Witches; or cod, scallions and spices spread on bread and fried, identified as "Mosquitoes' Toes and Wampfish Roes Most Delicately Fried"). The graphics, meanwhile, are deliciously playful: Blake's inimitable, droll drawings interact cleverly with Baldwin's food photography. For example, cartoony characters clad in pajamas snooze on a silhouetted photo of ``Eatable Marshmallow Pillows.'' Despite the child-oriented tone, a number of recipes require adult participation by virtue of cursory directions or tricky maneuvers (e.g., ensuring that mixtures boil to specific temperatures). All ages. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6It had to happen: a cookbook based on the extraordinarily fascinating things that are eaten and served up by the characters in Dahl's children's books. Here it is, complete with Blake's zanily familiar illustrations creatively combined with full-color photographs. It features 31 recipes from 11 bookscakes, cookies, drinks, and main dishesknown by such names as ``Snozzcumbers'' (The BFG), ``Wormy Spaghetti'' (The Twits), and ``Lickable Wallpaper'' (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Some of the recipes, despite their titles, produce good tasting, recognizable dishes. Others are works of art. For example, ``Mr. Twit's Beard Food'' is a veritable portrait of himself, composed of mashed-potato base, mushroom-cap nostrils, hardboiled-egg eyeballs, with peas, cornflakes, and baked beans in a potato-stick beard. Many of the recipes are not for beginning cooks; indeed, cooking appears to be a secondary focus. The important thing is the association to a Dahl title, a reminder and celebration of his outrageously imaginative books that so many children love.Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Age: tink bugs' eggs Published fall 1994. Unusual foods from the pages of Roald Dahl's books -- Horn Rating: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration. Reviewed by: snozzcumbers (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
