The Magic of Non-Fiction

One of Kindergarten Kiddo’s all-time favorite books is… drum roll please… a cookbook.  Specifically, Molly Katzen’s Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up

This was one of the first books that Kiddo could read independently.  Here’s an example of how the recipes are set up:

It is simple, accessible, and genius.  Even very young children can “read” the recipes in this book.  Kiddo has spent hours flipping through the pages of friendly illustrations; sometimes inventing stories based upon them, other times creating her own shopping lists of necessary ingredients. 

The beauty of books like this is, if you know what to look for, you can learn volumes about what your emerging reader knows about reading – even if she doesn’t know her alphabet yet.  Consider this: does your child read the pictures from left to right?  From the top of the page to the bottom?  How does she interact with the illustrations?  What kind of information is she extracting from them?  Does she choose a literal translation or does she use them as starting points for more elaborate, imaginative tales?  If we can broaden our definition of reading beyond letter-sound correlation, and instead define reading as making meaning; what meaning is your child making?

This book works way beyond the preschool years.  It can be enjoyed alone or together, with adults reading the more text-heavy pages.  Before each step-by-step recipe is two pages of detailed instructions like this:

The simple layout has inspired Kindergarten Kiddo to create similar step-by-step instructions of her own, on topics ranging from how to go to school to how to make burritos.  And hey: it’s a cookbook.  You can create the recipes together- though I’m embarrassed to admit we’ve never done so.  Kiddo, like many grown-up foodies, enjoys looking at the cookbook more than the actual cooking.