Children's Books that Feature Food

[Passadumkeg]

My Side of the Mountain is a classic food survival story as is Hatchet. Worry Week, by Anne Morrow Lindburgh, is a girls survival story set on North Haven, Maine. Blueberries for Sal, Newbury the Clam and Leroy the Lobster all use a Maine setting. Ping of the Yangse is set in China. What other children's books feature food as as a theme, either directly of indirectly?

[Leslie]

I was just going through my now grown daughter's books that I dust every once in a while. Right on top of the bookcase was The Search for Delicious, a chapter book by Natalie Babbitt (Tuck Everlasting). I forgot all about this great adventure book about a search through the kingdom to find consensus for the word "delicious."

[cresyd]

The Redwall series has wonderful descriptions of food. Being raised as a vegetarian during chilhood, the descriptions were particularly wonderful.

[donovt]

Great thread!! Here are two that I've read to my almost three year old son recently:

Chicks and Salsa
I Will Not Ever, Never Eat a Tomato

[JBAZ]

McCloskey's Blueberries for Sal is another classic :-)

[Mawrter]

I just did a keyword search on this thread (which I've been reading all along, but will not re-read in toto!) & is it possible that "Bread and Jam for Frances" by Russell Hoban (text) & Lillian Hoban (illus.) was not mentioned? Now *that* is a classic kids' food story! How's that Albert for a chowhound?

[maggiehc]

Here is my list of children's books about food:
http://doghillkitchen.blogspot.com/20...

"The Giant Jam Sandwich" is my favorite.

[AMFM]

there's a kids book - "i love you stinky face" that my daughter and i just loved and laughed over and somehow we were both very conscious of the food references even though they are unusual and minor.

[JamieK]

Alligator Pie by Dennis Lee

[jjw]

How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina Friedman. Lower elementary level. A girl tells how her American sailor father and her Japanese mother met, and learned to appreciate each others food and culture

[Passadumkeg]

I am so pleased at all the responses. I may return to elem. ed next year, after years of high school teaching and enjoy reading about the "newer" books.
I've been thinking a lot about Green Eggs and Ham lately.
"I will not eat them, Sam I am."
Sigh.
Turn, turn, turn, I have 2 new grandsons in the past year and a half, one in Seoul and one in Austin. I have been sending books, Never too early to look at food porn.
Carpe Chow

[CindyJ]

"Carpe Chow" -- I LOVE the concept! I just might get a little plaque made for my kitchen.

[Mawrter]

Congrats on the new grandchowchildren! Green Eggs & Hame may not be new, but man, what language, what humor, what universal kid themes! I didn't have it as a kid (I read it but not to death) but it was on the Most Favored Titles list when my son was small, and now we both can recite it.

[Beckyleach]

Farmer Boy of the Little House series oooozes food. (actually, food--or the lack thereof--is a constant sub-theme in the series. Have you ever seen The Little House Cookbook? It's great). The Boxcar Children (not great literature, buy my girls liked them) spend at least the first episode doing a lot of foraging and cooking. Ratty and Mole's picnic in The Wind and the Willows...the amazing feasts (and the nearly starving days) from A Little Princess remain in my memory, decades later. Oh, those "soft, white rolls" that starving Sara gave to the even hungrier beggar child! What a scene!

[Mawrter]

Oh, god, yes, the food in Little Princess. As soon as you said that, I flashed to my image of he in the street and how I imagined those rolls (complete with smell!). I have never seen any of the movies b/c I didn't want to mess up my mental images of the story.

[AMFM]

love the boxcar children! and a little princess.

we also had a book of pictures (objects like animals) made out of fruits and veggies. but i don't remember the name. super cool and my kids loved it.

also like "if you give a pig a pancake" out of that series.

[Beckyleach]

"Sooooft white rolls.." :-) Alas, I had two daughters who really, really wanted to see the movie that came out quite a while ago, so I went. Messed up my head! They turned it into a Victorian "Home Alone." Awful!

[absolutjag9]

im looking for the title of a book that my mom read to me about dogs or cats making spaghetti while the family was away for the workday....any help is appreciated.

[Passadumkeg]

I just bought my 3 week old grandson (middle name Nikoli) a Matruska doll picture book to teach the dys of the week. Every day features a Russian Food.
Na Zdrovia!

[Chimayo Joe]

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

[fern]

The Stinky Cheese Man!

[flourgirl]

ahahhaa, I love this one!

[Mawrter]

Just discovered "Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes" (This is the author of "Fantastic MR. Fox".) Lots of references to characters in his other stories.

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/books/re...

[Beckyleach]

Yeah, that's a good one! Also love (along with The Little House Cookbook, mentioned down thread) The Wind in the Willows Country Cookbook, by Arabella Boxer, and Once Upon a Recipe, by Karen Greene (nursery rhyme and Peter Rabbit and so forth recipes).

[meginAB]

I never saw this thread before - love it!!!
Some of our family favorites...

Yoko (about a little Japanese cat who takes sushi to school)
Noodles from Scratch (about Sylvia Sheep making pasta with her animal friends - hard to find - sold through Do-Re-Me and you consultants - used to come with small chef hat, whisk and wooden spoon)

These others were mentioned but I have to say I LOVE
In the Night Kitchen
Bread and Jam for Frances
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Good memories!

[cayjohan]

Maurice Sendak"s "Chicken Soup with Rice" was a great favorite of mine as a child. It was a long poem centered around eating chicken soup with rice in each month of the year. And superbly illustrated, naturally.

Cay

[CindyJ]

I don't think anyone's mentioned "Gino Badino" -- the mouse from a family of pasta makers.

[ktb615]

I recently picked up "Fanny at Chez Panisse" by Alice Waters. A short book about her daughter's "adventures" at Chez Panisse. It also includes some recipes for kids to cook.

[chicken kabob]

Hansel & Gretal
Peelings (photographs of veggies showing happiness, sadness, etc.)

[pickledginger]

Oh, my parents bought me Fanny at Chez Panisse when I was in my early teens. I read it several times and remember making the pizza dough and the 1-2-3-4 cake. I'm not a complete Alice Waters acolyte, but since her way of cooking relies on good ingredients instead of complex recipes, it made cooking seem accessible rather than intimidating. And Fanny's descriptions of the food and the garden and the restaurant created a real sensory experience for a budding food lover. Great book for the right kid.

[Beckyleach]

Thanks, Pickle, for making me feel really old. I bought this for MY DAUGHTER. ;-)

[Passadumkeg]

Newberry the Clam and Leroy the Lobster (sorta about food.),

[PattiCakes]

Here are the books suggested by Kate, the teacher. She hasn't had an opportunity to ask her class yet:

If you give a Mouse a Cookie series ( Laura Numeroff)
The Eleventh Hour (Graeme Base)
Enemy Pie ( Derek Munson)
Too Many Pumpkins (Linda White)
Thank You, Mr. Falker (Patricia Polacco) Kate says: "MY FAVORITE!!!!!! 'The honey is sweet, just like knowledge' ".

[chicken kabob]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
Old McDonald's Apartment House.
Green Eggs And Ham by Dr Seuss.
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
Chocolatina
Pinkalicious
Arnie The Doughnut

[jhfinxy]

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco--a great book where a girl visits her grandma's farm and as a thunderstorm comes, the girl is scared, so the grandma helps her make a chocolate cake to distract her. she has the little girl gathering eggs from the chickens, etc., and then mixing all the ingredients together and baking it. the grandma uses the time in between the lightning and thunder to measure how much time they have left to make the cake. and of course the book comes with the recipe for thunder cake (I'm so sure i made it as a kid with my mom). Patricia Polacco is fabulous!

[chicken kabob]

The Seven Silly Eaters By Hoberman & Frazee
A Bad Case Of Stripes By David Shannon
The Chocolate Cat By Staintion & Mortimer
Snow White (the poison apple!)
Gorgonzola By Palatini (A dinosaur named Gorgonzola who smells like stinky cheese until he learns dinosaur hygiene and then becomes "ex-stink! =)

I love this post, by the way, as I teach first grade...

[Stuffed Monkey]

One of my first books was Susie's New Stove. A cookbook a la Dick and Jane. Maybe that's why I'm a cookbook hoarder.
There are a few copies available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_...

I didn't check alibris.

[PattiCakes]

My daughter Kate is a 5th grade teacher, and talks to her students quite a bit about books, especialy about how stories are constructed. She does this in prepearation for their writing their own books at the end of the year. As a result, she has a HUGE collection of books, from all age levels, that she uses as examples.

She is going to throw this topic out to her students as a fun topic of discussion. She thinks it will be a great thing to do at the end of the day, while everyone is waiting for their busses. I'll let you know the results!

On another note, Kate gave my grand daughter Annabelle (who is 3) a Fancy Nancy book for Christmas. That sparked such an interest, that Belle asked for a tea set for her birthday -- like the tea set in her Fancy Nancy book. She now wants to learn to make tea sandwiches to serve with her tea.

[Passadumkeg]

The Ginger Bread Man

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie

[neverlate]

"Little Red Hen"

[Beckyleach]

Oh, man! My mother used to admonish us all the time: "The Little Red Hen is getting annoyed in the kitchen"....and "The Little Red Hen may just keep these cookies all for herself, if she doesn't get any help cleaning up."

[Mawrter]

I posted some other titles to that other thread, so don't miss them, okay?

more, as I think of them:

"The Truffle Hunter" by Inga Moore
"The Turnip" by Pierr Morgan (based on classic Russian folk tale)
Hansel & Gretel, of course!

[flourgirl]

"Marcel the Pastry Chef"

It's about a hippo who wants more than anything else to be a pastry chef.

[LulusMom]

That sounds fantastic. Going to look for it at the library tomorrow.

[Beckyleach]

My children simply adored Marcel. I must have read that 50 times.

[Mag454]

My favorite book when I was little was called "The Funny Little Woman." It is set in Japan and an old lady makes dumplings (and laughs tee hee tee hee). One of her dumplings falls into a crack in the earth and she follows it into the "underworld." I remember the book ALWAYS made me hungry for dumplings, which to this day remain one of my favorite foods.

Also, I second "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" What a great and fun story.

I also remember a book about an elephant and another animal, can't remember what, who open a diner. The book has all this fun diner slang for food items and I thought it was super cute!

[pumpkinweed]

One of my most vivid childhood memories was reading They Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Very Hungry Bear is a great book for young kids.

[jillbcooks]

Pancakes by Eric Carle...little boy gathers all the necessary ingredients (from their local purveyors) to make pancakes with his mother. Great illustrations and it includes the recipe.

[isadorasmama]

A very enjoyable Lemony Snicket
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story

http://tinyurl.com/akb74g

[Passadumkeg]

Lord of the Flies! "Slit their throats! Drink their blood!"

Heh, heh, heh,

Piggy

[neverlate]

Little Black Sambo, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Good Earth

[sugarsnapp]

oh yes definitely the good earth! (my favorite book btw)

[sugarsnapp]

well...the good earth really isnt a children's book...

[Passadumkeg]

The Wave, also by Pearl Buck

[LulusMom]

Pigeon finds a Hot Dog is great. Another book that my daughter really loves is called My Mom Loves Me More than Sushi. It goes through various foods that the mom loves her more than, and talks about how delicious they are, what they're made of, and where they are from. My daughter has learned about 10 countries from this book, and gets excited each time we try another one of the foods in it (loves sushi, couscous, samosa and crepes which are all mentioned in here). We have yet to try megadarra, smorgastarta or canja, but we're looking forward to it.

[sugarsnapp]

I second the secret garden and REALLY second the Littlehouse books - heck i still give one a read from time to time and i am no child that's for sure!

great books

[HillJ]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763...

Let's Cook, a popup from young children
recent Chow Pick

[anonymoose]

Reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a child made me deperately want to try Turkish Delight.

[Old Spice]

Jane Brocket, a British author and blogger, has a new book coming out, "Cherry Cake & Ginger Beer." It's a treasury of recipes for foods mentioned in children's classics, mostly British and American, she's said. Not sure of the publishing date, but it's already on pre-order at Amazon UK.

[babette feasts]

More Spaghetti, I Say!

Freddie is always trying to get Minnie to play with him, but all she wants to do is eat spaghetti (play with me Minnie, play with me please, we can jump on the bed, we can hang by our knees. Oh no, I cannot, I cannot run and play with you Freddie - can't you see? I am eating spaghetti!). Hilarity ensues, of course. I had this memorized when I was little, maybe I still do.

[julied0421]

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak is fun - great illustrations.

[peppatty]

The Hungry Thing

[Katie Nell]

Thought of another one... Amelia Bedelia! Remember when she "dresses" a chicken (I think it was a chicken)?!

[yumyum]

I loved Amelia Bedelia. She dressed the chicken right after she "dusted" the drawing room and "drew" a bath.

[KTFoley]

And i that same book -- or perhaps another one -- didn't she make a jelly "roll"?

[grant.cook]

Its a rare one to find, but the sequel to Make Way for Ducklings - called "Make Way for Duckling Confit" - it got some negative press and 99% of the copies were burned.

[choctastic]

This thread put a smile on my face as many listed were my all time favorites. Wow, I guess I was a foodie from a young age.

Also, I thought the Boxcar Children series had good food descriptions. I remember they would make stew from various roots and meat they bought. They also picked cherries one time and made something (forget what).

I remember reading a Raggedy Ann book where they made taffy. I remember how they had to butter their hands so the taffy wouldn't stick.

[Philly Ray]

I read The Boxcar Children in 2nd grade (I'm 40 now) and I can still remember the description of how Jessie made baked potatoes in the campfire.

[Avalondaughter]

I remember that. It was Raggedy Ann and the Daffy Taffy Pull. The problem was they forgot to butter their hands and all of the dolls had taffy stuck to them, so the leaped off the staircase when the taffy got hard so it would crack off. I had a popup version and I remember pulling the tab to watch Raggedy Ann crash down teh stairs.

[MrsT]

There was a series of books that I don't think quite took off called "Sweet Pickles" and one of them featured an elephant and her breakfast. I wish I remembered the title. There was also Bread and Jam for Frances, which my husband fondly remembers about a bear.

I too tried to make the maple candy with syrup and snow after reading those Little House books. I even attempted to make my own rag doll.

[Katie Nell]

Actually, I believe Frances was a badger.

[Cuoca]

I just remembered two other books that I loved as a child that had some wonderful English food references: A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, both by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I still remember the description of fresh clotted cream in The Secret Garden -- yum!

[Euonymous]

Wow, I can't believe that no one mentioned "Green Eggs and Ham"! For older kids, the Harry Potter series has many enticing descriptions of food, breakfast in particular.

[bostonfoodie111]

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems - great book and illustrations

Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak - it's also been made into a cute children's song. :)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis - TURKISH DELIGHT!! :)

What about Goldilocks and the Three Bears?? The fight over "who ate my porridge?

Fun post... :) brings back memories...

[Gio]

And the Oliver Twist porridge request..... "Please sir, I want some more."

[shellyesq]

My son makes me read the Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog book every time we have hot dogs.

There is a book called Curious George Makes Pancakes where George goes to a pancake breakfast and helps them make pancakes with blueberries.

[quirkydeb]

I can't even tell you how disappointed I was when I finally tasted Turkish delight. Sooo not worth selling my soul over.

[Mawrter]

Agreed!

[normalheightsfoodie]

These are books for the younger set, but enjoyed by the parents who read them to their children:

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Foods Yoler and Teague (teaches manors) If my son is not pradcticing good manors, I often ask him which dinosaur he is being, or tell him to stop acting like a dino.
Runaway Tortilla Kimmel
Runaway Latke Kimmelman

My Fav is:

Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke. Edwards and Cole It is about a group of foxes that must fend for themselves while their parents are away, and their brother who trys to cook for them. Almost everything in the book revolves around items with the letter F. In fact, this book introduced me to Fiddle Heads.

Another good one is:

Pineapple Poet and the Curse of the Smoothie Man Cam MacMillan It comes with recipes for smothies as well.

Jay Leno has a funny book about his father building a BBQ, and how he ruined the roast.

[Passadumkeg]

My kids (And so did I.) loved the Calvin and Hobbs comic books, especially Calvin's reaction to spinach and other supper fare. We still refer to Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs breakfast cereal. I am sometimes referred as the Naggon King and I reply, Ok, Booger Being!

[flourgirl]

Calvin and Hobbs! Yes! My old-time favorite comic strip! (It was a very dark day for me when I learned that there would be no new strips forthcoming...) And I totally forgot about the Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs until I read this. I think I need to pull out my Clavin books and get reacquainted...

[empecot]

Not sure if this counts as a children's book, but the food descriptions in "The Grapes of Wrath" are so vivid. I could taste the salted pork and Ma's biscuits and gravy. Yum.

[Gio]

The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland both have multiple food references, as does Oliver Twist, Winnie the Pooh and The Beatrice Potter books. I too was an avid reader as a child and still am.

[annabana]

As a little Black girl growing up in NYC I haunted my local library and the "All of a Kind Family" books were among my favorites, not least because of the food references. Also loved the Mary Poppins series--oh those teas!

[Ruth Lafler]

Never mind. Anyway, because it can't be said too often, all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, especially Farmer Boy.

[Miss Needle]

Loved her books. Do you also remember a series of books about a Jewish family living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan? I forgot the name but they always talked about things like gefilte fish, etc. I loved reading the food parts over and over again -- kind of like reading the dirty parts of Judy Blume novels when I was a preteen/teen.

[MMRuth]

The Ella books, I think ....

[mvi]

Could that be the All of a Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor?

[MMRuth]

Exactly -

http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-97804...

I loved those books as a child living abroad, and think of them every time I'm on the LES (food shopping, of course!).

[Miss Needle]

Thank you! Loved those books. Bring back memories.

[Mawrter]

Oh yeah! Those are the All-of-a-kind family books, and they're great food titles!

[sunflwrsdh]

I loved the All of a Kind Family too!

[MMRuth]

Was there something in those books about drizzling maple syrup or molasses in the snow so it would freeze, and then eating it like candy?

[goodhealthgourmet]

little house in the big woods....they used sap from a maple tree. of course after i read it i ran outside with maple syrup & tried it!

[fern]

Yes! In Little House in the Big Woods, I think. I actually tried it after reading the book. Mine didn't work out so well but I probably wasn't using good syrup and it didn't firm up.

The pig tail cooked to cracklin's made my mouth water.

[Ruth Lafler]

I think the point was that they were cooking the syrup down for the purposes of making sugar. So what they were using wasn't regular maple syrup, but syrup that had already been cooked to what sounds like the soft ball stage.

[fern]

well that makes sense. never was the sharpest knife in the drawer. ;)

gosh i can't wait to read Little House to the next generation coming up in our family!

[goodhealthgourmet]

fern, i don't think ANY of us, as children, had a sufficient understanding of the chemistry behind candy-making to realize the futility of our actions when we poured bottled maple syrup onto snow in the hopes of creating maple candy. i even heated mine in a pan on the stove and took it outside while hot, figuring that would be sufficient, but i never would have known to heat or boil it for a certain amount of time to get it to the right stage.

i WAS disappointed when it didn't work. after all the successes in my easy-bake oven i felt like such a failure :)

[fern]

well, thanks, i guess you're right. that particular book is one of my very favorites. oh, those pig tail cracklins. really made my mouth water! i didn't mind being left out of the pig bladder balloon toss, though, ;)
Ah, you lucky duck, you had an easy bake oven. our neighbors had one, boy did i think they had it made!

sounds like there are many readers who wanted to make candy with Laura. what a book.

[Miss Needle]

Oh man. I tried that as well. At that time, we didn't have real maple syrup and just had the Log Cabin stuff. Didn't work at all.

[LARaven]

Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto

[fern]

Anyone remember "Mary Anne's Luncheon" by Dorothy Aldis? The poached egg, milk, carrots and custard each had something to say about being her meal like "I'm a poached egg, I sit on my toast and wonder which fork prick will tickle the most". Then later on, "Oh, what a fork prick! Oh, what a thrust! My beautiful yellow middle is bust!" and in unison "Oh, we are her luncheon, yum yummy yum yummy, and we're all going down to visit her tummy." It's pretty cute.

[JBAZ]

Not only do I remember it but I would love to find a copy of it! Any ideas?

[fern]

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwo...

It's in "All Together, A Treasury of Child's Verse" by Dorothy Aldis.

Good luck!

[JBAZ]

THX so very much Fern :)

[Philly Ray]

There is a whole series of books by Amy Wilson Sanger that covers all kinds of ethnic foods. My daughter is only one, but I bought them all for her.

Here is an Amazon link...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/sea...

[Mawrter]

My son son received the sushi one when he was a baby (or maybe not even born yet?). He memorized it before he could read and *still* at almost 6 references it when he orders at Japanese restaurants. If I run across those other titles I wouldn't buy them for him now (too old), but we'd definitely enjoy them in the library together. Heck, I'd enjoy them even without the pretext of the kid!

Enjoy the books & the food with your little one! You can stick those in your 'restaurant bag' when she's a little bigger to keep her busy before the food arrives. :-)

[ktb615]

I'm about to have a son, my first child, and I'm going to buy him all of those books. Thanks for the link!

[flourgirl]

Congratulations!!!! And what a lucky little boy! :)

[Miss Needle]

Linda Sue Park's Bee Bim Bop!

[goodhealthgourmet]

i just had to say thank you for posting this thread. i was a total bookworm as a kid [actually, i still am], and reading these posts has brought back really wonderful memories of some of my favorite childhood reads.

[uman]

The Canning Season - also set in coastal Maine. Although more YA than children's. I loved it.

[Cuoca]

I just read my daughter The Pie and the Patty Pan by Beatrix Potter this morning, which is full of fun cooking/baking references.

[Katie Nell]

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was always one of my favorites- there's a sequel but I can't remember what it's called.

There's a set of books with really cute sort of pop-ups called Sam's Sandwich... each layer of the sandwich is a page and there are all sorts of critters hiding in each layer.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
If You Give a Pig a Pancake
If You Give a Moose a Muffin

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- it all starts with gum in the hair!

The Berenstain Bears always seemed to have a lot of food references in their series... my personal favorite was The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food... not because of the message, but because I liked all the drawings of the candy!

And my absolute favorite of all time was The Tawny Scrawny Lion.

[goodhealthgourmet]

"pickles to pittsburgh" is the sequel to "cloudy with a chance of meatballs."

fyi, sony pictures is doing a film version of "cloudy." it's slated for a march 2009 release.

[Passadumkeg]

Thanks, I should have searched the board. At least I didn't post on the other thread and forgot about it! Whew!

[charlesbois]

Mexicali Soup
Bunny Cakes
Pumpernickel Tickle and Mean Green Cheese
Bread and Jam for Francis
Leave Herbert Alone features a tuna fish sandwich as a sort of deus ex machina

and the descriptions of food in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy are drool-worthy

[cackalackie]

Another similar thread.........
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/455279

Two of my favorites:

Something's Happening on Calabash Street
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

[macca]

Not exclusively a childrens book, but I remember reading Heidi when I was a kids and loving the description of the cheeses, the goats milk and bread. Wanted to be in the mountains with Grandfather and Heidi feasting!

[jhfinxy]

oh wow i totally remember those descriptions in Heidi! It just sounded like such a simple but perfect meal, it was definitely a fantasy of mine to eat exactly that in a wood cabin.

[Beckyleach]

Me, too. Never got over the images of those toasted cheese meals or the milk in the bowl...

[butterfly]

An obvious one: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[dolores]

Stone Soup.
Strega Nona.
In the Night Kitchen.

[pickledginger]

In the Night Kitchen is great.

Besides Strega Nona, Tomie de Paola also has a book called The Popcorn Book, obviously about popcorn. I love his illustrations, especially the ones of a little guy inside the kernel getting redder and angrier until the kernel pops.

[dkinnes]

This one is by far my favorite! Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is also high at the top for me. There's also this relatively new book called Carl's Odyssey. My niece and nephew love it! Best of all, it's a series.