Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up

This is the best cookbook I know for pre-K kids. The recipes are simple and clearly illustrated, but they're real food - lots of the dishes here would be welcome at any dinner table. If you want to build your child's self esteem, respect and genuine achievement are the best way to do it. This book respects the child's intelligence, and offers the achievement of making a real contribution to the family's meal. Your child will need some help with this book, but you may be surprised at just how little. When I bought this book at a brick'n'mortar store, the clerk took one look and said "Oh. Vegetarian," as if that were all she needed to know. Yes, it is a vegetarian book, but that's the least important thing about it. It's the best cookbook I know for the age group: real food, not just peanut butter on celery, with skills transferrable to any kind of cooking. As an extra benefit, I've found that kids who cook seem a bit less fussy at the dinner table - if that's a battle you have to fight, you have nothing to lose by taking a chance on this book. //wiredweird

I love all of Mollie Katzen's books so I was not suprised that Salad People was wonderful as well. The format is excellent for young children. First, the recipes are explained in text for the adult and then in easy to follow numbered steps with pictures and few words for the children. The dishes are appealing to kids while using healthy and nutritious ingredients. This book is great for parents, preschool teachers, etc. I recently taught a cooking class for young children and used several recipes from this book. The kids had so much fun making egg salad - Katzen's method of using an egg slicer to chop the eggs is such a fun and safe idea for preschoolers. We also made the Cream of Tomato Soup and they Tiny Tacos. All were hits. I also highly recommend Honest Pretzels which I have used for teaching cooking to school-age children.

This cookbook is a real gem in the world of children's cookbooks. All of the kids' cookbooks I have seen in the past are heavily laden with sugar, chocolate, and more sugar. This one focuses on simple, healthy recipes such as "Cool Cucumber Soup" with cucumber, mint, honey, and yogurt; or "Foccacia" made with storebought pizza crust, olive oil, and rosemary. The format is wonderful, with 2 pages for the adult to preread, followed by 2 pages of picture directions, simple enough for a 3 yr. old to "read." I feel good about sharing these recipes with my kids (ages 5 and 3) and I don't have to worry about inducing a euphoric sugar high! My only complaint is that the kids aren't thrilled with most of the recipes... they took one sip of the cucumber soup and said, "Yuck!" They liked the foccacia but picked off the rosemary. But I will keep trying!

My kids got this book for Christmas, along with Pretend Soup And Other Real Recipes by the same author. We love it. The picture recipes are fun for even young kids to follow, and each recipe is preceded by cute reviews by children. There are some really fun recipes, some very quick ones if you're in a hurry, and some that are not messy at all if you don't feel like cleaning up when you're finished. I definately recommend it, it's a lot of fun!

All the recipes in this unique, kid friendly cookbook are done two times, once in words for adult helpers and once in fun pictures for kids, so they can "read" the recipes themselves. I gave this to Adam, 4 years old, and he loves the recipes! He also loves just sitting down and "reading" the recipes which he can do since they are all in pictures. And the illustrations are great. The receipes are healthy and kid approved. They were developled by Molly Katzen and a pre-school teacher who cooks with her class alot. So recipes can be done at home or in school. It also teaches kids about healthy eating, whole foods and making eating and cooking fun.