When embracing food neutrality and adapting its messages into your classroom you may notice some of the kids’ books on your shelf don’t work anymore. We’re looking at you, Gregory, The Terrible Eater. We’ve compiled our favourite children’s books for food exploration in the classroom. Next time you’re wandering the isles of your favourite bookstore or flipping through an old favourite, take a second to evaluate if the books support your food-neutral work in your classroom.
Does the book?
- Present all food as good food;
- Embrace curiosity around food;
- Avoid food labels such as healthy/unhealthy & every day/sometimes foods/fun/fuel foods; and
- Avoid judgement of food and people eating the foods?
We’ve made it easy and listed some of our favourite books that celebrate food while encouraging its exploration to enhance food literacy skills.
Of course, we don’t need to remind you; even some of our favourite books have a line or two that isn’t quite right. Feel free to edit it out or skip it when you are reading.
Food and eating exploration
Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z
This is a great food exploration book to discover a wide variety of fruits and vegetables all through the alphabet. Which ones have your class eaten before?
A guide that introduces readers to a diverse range of words to describe flavours, textures, and aromas in food. It enhances culinary exploration and encourages appreciation of different tastes and experiences.
Through colourful illustrations and engaging storytelling, it introduces young readers to diverse cuisines and the passion behind running a mobile food business. It sparks curiosity and appreciation for different flavours and cultures.
Don’t let this board book fool you into thinking this is only for pre-schoolers. This beautifully photographed book shows many joyful images of feeding that the students in your classroom (and you) may never have been exposed to before. This includes different tools and utensils, tube feeding, and showing eating with different people. This is a great book for discussing all of the wonderful ways that people can eat.
While this isn’t specifically about food, this beautifully photographed book shows many celebrations and talks about the beauty of recognizing and respecting all of the different celebrations and ways that we celebrate.
A heartwarming story of a family’s multigenerational traditions. Violet gathers the family together to reconnect at the table with food, laughter and memories. This is a nice change of pace to highlight how we eat, not just what we eat.
Books about cooking or recipes.
This delightful story about embracing your personal food culture and sharing it with friends is perfect for sharing with students. It even has a recipe for Chana Daal in the back that would be perfect to explore with your class.
“The story of fry bread is the story of American Indians: embracing community and culture in the face of opposition.” Discover what fry bread is, and how it is more than just food. What is fry bread to your students?
The story follows Carrie as she visits different families in her neighbourhood, discovering the unique rice dishes they prepare. A fun story that highlights the power of food to bring people together.
A fun rhyming story where we join a hungry child and their mother to make bibimbap for dinner. We join them grocery shopping, preparing, cooking, and sitting down together to enjoy a family favourite!
The story of Haiti’s revolution and the New Year’s tradition of Freedom Soup is descriptive, engaging and sure makes you want to cook the recipe in the back of the book.
You may be familiar with the traditional stone soup but have you read it from the traditional Buddha story tradition where tricksters spread enlightenment rather than seeking gain for themselves? If not, this book is sure to delight.
Perfect for food and culinary exploration as it dives into essential questions like “If I fry a strip of potato and a slice of tomato, can I fry a scoop of gelato?”. Perfect for inspiring engaging conversations in class.
A generous bear named LouAnn makes batch after batch of doughnuts for her woodland friends. However, she forgets to save any for herself, leading to an empty kitchen and an empty stomach as winter approaches.
What’s cooking at 10 Garden Street?
This book is a beautiful story of the gathering of unique and diverse families and foods within an apartment dwelling. Each page celebrates people and food, all while providing 16 recipes for the reader.
What’s cooking in Flowerville?
Readers join the townspeople as they showcase their culinary talents, celebrate diverse flavours, and come together for a joyous feast. Through captivating illustrations and storyline, the book inspires a love for cooking, community, and the magic of food.
Neighbors gather in a shared kitchen, bringing their unique culinary skills and cultural traditions. The book highlights the power of teamwork, kindness, and sharing food with others in need. A story that promotes inclusivity and the joy of coming together around a kitchen table.
Silly Food Fun
How are you Peeling? Foods with Moods.
A playful and creative children’s book featuring photographs of fruits and vegetables with expressive faces. Each colourful image captures different emotions, inviting young readers to explore and discuss feelings in a fun and imaginative way.
A hilarious book about piranhas trying fruits and vegetables. With playful illustrations and witty text, it encourages open-mindedness, diversity, and trying new things.
A lighthearted story where we discover many fruits mistaken as vegetables! It showcases the vibrant colours, shapes, and textures of different fruits that we eat.
A fun book about dragons who have a big appetite for tacos but can’t handle spicy salsa. A charming and humorous story that explores friendship, preferences, and the importance of attention to detail.
Veggies with Wedgies
Simply fun, silly and always good for a laugh. No hidden healthy eating messages here! These veggies are simply curious and the farmer’s underwear they see hanging on the line.
How Food is Produced
Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuko Ando
Enjoy this inspiring read of the story of Momofuko and how he worked tirelessly to develop an easy instant ramen product after watching the people of Japan struggle with food insecurity following World War II.
Before we eat – from farm to table.
Readers follow a family’s trip to a farmer’s market. Through vivid illustrations and simple text, it teaches young readers about the process of food production and sustainable farming.
An engaging children’s book that takes readers on a school field trip to a farm. It explores different food groups and how our food choices have an impact.
This book shares the story of an orange’s journey from the blossom in “a land that glowed” to children sharing the sweetness on the snowy playground at school. This book is full of rich language, vivid art and many teaching tie-ins.
This book explores different plant-based foods, their nutritional benefits, and the role they play in sustaining our bodies. The book promotes curiosity about the natural world and gardening.
A captivating true story about Tony Hillery, who transforms abandoned lots in Harlem into thriving urban gardens. The book highlights the importance of fresh food, community engagement, and the power of nature to create positive change in underserved communities.
How did that get in my lunch box?
Explore together the path that all the foods in the lunchbox took together. Did you know chocolate chips have an ocean journey involved? A great book to discuss food processing in a food-neutral way.
*Note: There are definitely a few pages you would want to skip at the end of this book talking about junk/sweets
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