So, as you know if you have been forced to look at my dinner on the internet far too often lately, my quest this month is to break the chain of hot dogs and takeout and feed my two toddlers as many different vegetables as I can manage in the month of January. This is mostly for my own sodium-saturated partially hydrogenated microwave-dependent benefit, but the Recipe for Success Foundation is primarily working to make healthy eating a fun, accessible option for kids in high-poverty areas. Check them out here.
So far, our vegetable marathon has been hard but surprisingly great. The kids are enjoying the novelty of actual sit-down dinner (#lowbar). They aren’t eating everything, but they never eat everything, so no harm done there.
As we hit the midway point of the month and I persist in my Hidden Agenda™, though, I’m thinking I need some books about vegetables to provide a little more pizzazz—anything from a book is automatically more interesting. So I have surveyed the field, and here are the neatest-looking board books on vegetables for toddlers:
*Soup Day (Amazon) features a mother and daughter choosing vegetables, preparing them, and making a meal, with attention to the details and a comforting, homey progression. I'm getting this one for the process discussion and for help in the kitchen. :)
*Edible Colors (Amazon) and *Edible Numbers (Amazon) feature beautiful cookbook-grade photography and break the mold of the expected: “Carrots are orange,” Colors begins, “They can also be purple,” and there begins a gorgeous celebration of plant diversity. Up against the lockstep conformity of so many preschool materials, this feels like a quietly subversive take.
(Edible Numbers is a funny book to introduce counting with; the different cucumbers and whatnot are really very different from one another and it might not be quite as clear as more uniform items. But it's gorgeous and my kids have stayed interested in it for a long time.)
*Mrs. Peanuckle’s Vegetable Alphabet (Amazon) has stylish, alphabetical veggies arrayed with facts about them—some pretty uncommon, like F for Fiddlehead, as in the fern. I always learn something from Mrs. Peanuckle.
Rah, Rah, Radishes! (Amazon) a cheer for vegetables with photos of the real thing, often at farmer’s markets. Interesting to see how the veggies grow, for kids or indoor adults.
*Tacos! An Interactive Recipe Book (Amazon) seems to use cut-outs to let kids actually practice kitchen skills. This kind of removable-pieces board book isn't for everyone, but we have a similar book that has made it through a year of happy, frequent use with no real damage. From what I can tell the tacos are black bean and guacamole, yum. Also comes in Pizza.
Growing Vegetable Soup (Amazon) has some knocks against the design, but this board book version is bilingual, the concept (growing plants in a garden, then eating them in soup) is appealing and our family loves Lois Ehlert’s Planting a Rainbow, so I’m giving this one a try too.
Vegetables: Simple, bright pictures of vegetables arranged so the names rhyme.
Eating the Alphabet: Simple, bright pictures of vegetables arranged around the letter they start with.
I Like Vegetables teaches opposites (big/little, inside/outside) and gives babies textures to play with (not necessarily the textures of the actual vegetables under discussion, but hey).
Vegetables (My First Bilingual Book) has Spanish and English names for the veggies with straightforward textbookish design. Also comes in English and Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Korean, Somali, and Vietnamese.
If you want to test the waters a bit with some books that hit some broader notes, maybe consider these:
Baby’s Favorite Foods (Amazon): This is an oldie but a kid favorite (parents, not so much). But this book sold my kids on the idea of picnics!
We're Going to the Farmer's Market (Amazon): Guess where they're headed.
Yummy Yucky (Amazon): this is primarily a primer on what to put in your mouth, and what to definitely not put in your mouth, and as with many of Leslie Patricelli’s books it is funny and useful and clear but may introduce some howling for the cookies that are declared Yummy too.
Feast for 10 (Amazon) is a counting book about making dinner for kids, parents, and grandparents, starting at the grocery store and with everyone involved in the process--menu is chicken, collard greens, and pumpkin pie.
Dim Sum for Everyone! (Amazon) looks delicious.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Amazon): Upside: you already own it and it’s easy to talk about food with this book. It’s mainly fruit, but there’s something to be said for the glamor treatment of those gorgeous oranges and strawberries, and a nice green leaf making one feel better is a great intro into salad. Downside: plums at my grocery store do not look like that, causing much distress. This is where Edible Colors is going to be my new best friend.
On that note, Eric Carle’s My Very First Book of Food talks about what various animals eat, which can be an interesting conversation-starter too.