Bingeable Books to Satisfy Any Craving

Everyone Loves Lunchtime but Zia By Jenny Liao; illustrated by Dream Chen

A heartwarming picture book about a Chinese-American girl who grows to appreciate the traditional dishes her parents prepare for her and finds a way to share her lunch with her classmates.

Everyone loves lunchtime. Everyone, that is, but Zia.

At school, the other kids are eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and apples on the side. But Zia's always nervous about opening her lunchbox. Her dumpling and noodle dishes look different and smell different. She dreads lunchtime.

Then, during her birthday week, her parents pack her a different Cantonese dish each day and explain what the food represents: a roast pork bun to bring treasure, soy sauce chicken to bring success, and more. At first, Zia doesn’t want to eat her lunch, but once she starts, she just may realize her food could bring her good fortune after all!

Kalamata's Kitchen By Sarah Thomas; illustrated by Jo Kosmides Edwards

Dora the Explorer meets No Reservations in this delicious picture book debut! Follow Kalamata and her alligator sidekick on the first of many exciting food adventures in a charming story about facing fears and overcoming back-to-school jitters.

Grown-ups never seemed to notice, but Kalamata's kitchen table was magical. Under her table, she and Al Dente could transport themselves anywhere....

Tomorrow is Kalamata's first day at a new school, and she's nervous! What if the kids aren't friendly? Or worse, what if they don't like alligators!? If only Kalamata and Al Dente could go to back to the Indian spice market they visited this summer, then maybe she'd remember how to feel brave when new experiences seem scary.

Luckily for Kalamata, all the magic required for her journey is right in her own kitchen! As Kalamata and her alligator friend, Al Dente, transport themselves to a magical land filled with tasty ingredients, she realizes being brave is exciting! And most importantly, she learns that when we're nervous about trying new things, food can comfort us and remind us to stay curious, courageous, and compassionate.

Kalamata's Kitchen: Taste Buds in Harmony By Sarah Thomas; illustrated by Jo Kosmides Edwards

Kalamata and her alligator sidekick Al Dente are back in a brand-new adventure! Join them and their friend Kyo as they discover how different ideas and ingredients can create magic when mixed together!

This charming picture book champions teamwork, harmony, and creativity, and reminds us that sometimes the answers we're looking for can be found in unexpected places.

Kalamata and her friends Al Dente, Kyo, Dovie, and Knox are practicing their dance routine for the upcoming talent show. But none of them agree on what the routine is missing—Dovie thinks it needs more twirls, Knox wants more break-dancing, and everyone is getting frustrated! 
 
Luckily for the Electric (Fried Chicken) Sliders (as their group is called), all the magic they need to create a great dance routine is within reach! As Kalamata, Kyo, and Al Dente transport themselves to Kyo's family's kopitiam (Malaysian coffee shop), they discover how different ingredients are made better when combined with others. When they return, the team works together to incorporate each of their ideas and moves into a routine that steals the show!

Black-Eyed Peas and Hoghead Cheese By Glenda Armand; illustrated by Steffi Walthall

A little girl helping her grandmother prepare a holiday meal learns about the origins of soul food in this powerful picture book that celebrates African American cuisine and identity from an award-winning author.

Know what I like most about Grandma’s kitchen?
More than jambalaya? More than sweet potato pie? Even more than pralines?
Grandma’s stories! Every meal Grandma cooks comes with a story.
What will today’s story be?

While visiting her grandma in Louisiana, nine-year-old Frances is excited to help prepare the New Year’s Day meal. She listens as Grandma tells stories—dating back to the Atlantic Slave Trade—about the food for their feast. Through these stories, Frances learns not only about the ingredients and the dishes they are making but about her ancestors and their history as well. 
 
A celebration of the stories that connect us, this picture book urges us to think about the foods we eat and why we eat them. This book was inspired by the author's own childhood and includes her family's very own recipe for pralines in the back!

Maizy Chen's Last Chance By Lisa Yee

NEWBERY HONOR AWARD • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST •
ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN AWARD FOR YOUTH LITERATURE WINNER • Twelve year-old Maizy discovers her family’s Chinese restaurant is full of secrets in this irresistible novel that celebrates food, fortune, and family.

Welcome to the Golden Palace!

Maizy has never been to Last Chance, Minnesota . . . until now. Her mom’s plan is just to stay for a couple weeks, until her grandfather gets better. But plans change, and as Maizy spends more time in Last Chance (where she and her family are the only Asian Americans) and at the Golden Palace—the restaurant that’s been in her family for generations—she makes some discoveries. For instance:

• You can tell a LOT about someone by the way they order food. 

• And people can surprise you. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes in disappointing ways.

• And the Golden Palace has secrets.

Yummy By Victoria Grace Elliott

Cake is delicious, and comics are awesome: this exciting nonfiction graphic novel for kids combines both! Explore the history of desserts through a fun adventure with facts, legends, and recipes for readers to try at home.

Have you ever wondered who first thought to freeze cream? Or when people began making sweet pastry shells to encase fruity fillings? Peri is excited to show you the delicious history of sweets while taking you around the world and back!
 
The team-up that made ice cream cones!
 
The mistake that made brownies!
 
Learn about and taste the true stories behind everyone’s favorite treats, paired with fun and easy recipes to try at home. After all, sweets—and their stories—are always better when they’re shared!

Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love By Jared Reck

A sweet romantic story about donuts, food trucks, family, and first loves.

It's easy to look at high school senior Oscar Olsson and think: lost. He hates school, struggles to read, and wants nothing to do with college. But Oscar is anything but lost---he knows exactly what he wants and exactly how to get it. Oscar and Farfar, the Swedish grandfather who's raised him, run a food truck together selling rullekebab and munkar, and Oscar wants to finish school so he can focus on the food truck full-time.

It's easy to look at Mary Louise (Lou for short) Messinger and think: driven. AP everything, valedictorian in her sights, and Ivy league college aspirations.

When Lou hijacks Oscar's carefully crafted schedule of independent studies and blocks of time in the Culinary Lab, Oscar is roped into helping Lou complete her over-ambitious, resume-building service project-reducing food waste in Central Adams High School. While Lou stands to gain her Girl Scout Gold Award, Oscar will be faced with a mountain of uneaten school apples and countless hours with a girl he can't stand.

With the finish line in sight, a relationship he never expected, and festival season about to begin (for good), the unthinkable happens, and Oscar's future is anything but certain.

Love from Scratch By Kaitlyn Hill

Rival interns with sizzling chemistry in and out of the kitchen? That’s a recipe for love.
 
“Sweet and satisfying!”—Jenna Evans Welch, New York Times bestselling author of Love & Gelato

This summer, Reese Camden is trading sweet tea and Southern hospitality for cold brew and crisp coastal air. She's landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the relentlessly charming, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing culinary intern—and her main competition for the fall job.

Reese's plan to keep work a No Feelings Zone crumbles like a day-old muffin when she and Benny are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, making them the internet's newest ship. Audiences are hungry for more, and their bosses at Friends of Flavor are happy to deliver. Soon Reese and Benny are in an all-out food war, churning homemade ice cream, twisting soft pretzels, breaking eggs in an omelet showdown—while hundreds of thousands of viewers watch.  

Reese can't deny the chemistry between her and Benny. But the more their rivalry heats up, the harder it is to keep love on the back burner...