NonFiction Book Talker-A Moveable Feast

In some delicious advice to Children's Authors, writer Joan Aiken suggests that, to maximize appeal, books for young readers should always include a scene or two of the hero eating a glorious meal. Who doesn't enjoy a vicarious food experience? Think of those amazing feasts at Hogwarts. Aiken's advice also works wonders for nonfiction booktalks.

Tummies will rumble, for instance, when you serve up Bill Haduch's Food Rules! The Stuff You Munch, Its Crunch, Its Punch, and Why You Sometimes Lose Your Lunch (Dutton, 2001, Gr 4–8). "If you lump it all together," writes Haduch, "you spend more than 15 full days a year doing nothing but eating. If you dump it all together, you spend almost four full days a year doing nothing but going to the bathroom." Every year, each of us consumes about 170 grocery bags of food. Listen for the groans when you tell students that over 80 percent of the world's people happily eat bugs. Only folks in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and the Arctic turn their noses up at the idea. Maybe some of your booktalk listeners can prove otherwise!

In Diane Swanson's Burp!: The Most Interesting Book You'll Ever Read About Eating (Kids Can Press, 2001, Gr 4–8), we meet 19-year-old Jay Gwaltney, who, in 1980, ate an entire birch tree, 11 feet tall. It took him 89 hours. Another fun fact: we all carry around a cup of gas in our digestive systems. Throughout the day, we accumulate about another 10 cups. And guess what—that gas has to get out somehow!

Ancient Romans, Swanson informs us, gorged on impossibly huge feasts. After several courses, their servants would tickle the inside of their throats with a feather. They would then, um, regurgitate and proceed to the next course. Would this work at Thanksgiving dinner?

Loretta Ichord's Hasty Pudding, Johnnycakes, and Other Good Stuff: Cooking in Colonial America (Millbrook, 1998, Gr 4–8) will make anyone appreciate the ease of our 21st-century lifestyles. Imagine not having a refrigerator or an oven. In colonial times, there was no fast food. Nobody had heard of pizza. Children helped their families grow or hunt their own food. Meals were cooked over dangerous open flames. Keeping a fire going was tricky work, and accidents were commonplace. Clothing and hair easily caught fire. Ask your booktalk listeners if they have cooked food over a campfire. (Marshmallows don't count.) Do any of them know how to bake bread? Or know which part of a cow is good to eat? Colonial children knew these facts like today's kids know their Pokémon critters.

Have you ever wondered how "buffalo wings" got their name? This chicken—not buffalo—appetizer was invented in Buffalo, NY. And did you know that a peanut is neither a pea nor a nut, but a legume. More fascinating tidbits abound in Charlotte Jones's Eat Your Words: A Fascinating Look at the Language of Food (Delacorte, 1999, Gr 4–6). Did you know that prehistoric people used toothpicks? Contemporary Americans use 30 billion a year. Most are made from Maine birch trees, with one tree yielding four million toothpicks. I wonder how many potential toothpicks that Gwaltney guy ate in 89 hours.

Have any of your listeners ever been bored while waiting to be served at a restaurant? They'll gobble up Eric Muller's While You're Waiting for the Food to Come: A Tabletop Science Activity Book: Experiments and Tricks That Can Be Done at a Restaurant, the Dining Room Table, or Wherever Food Is Served (Orchard, 1999, Gr 4–6). Try looking through the top of a salt shaker and see the surprising results. Discover if your tongue is the only part of your body that can taste. Want to make your own lava lamp? Turn to pages 48 and 49.

Muller's book may help your listeners find their next science fair project. It will certainly keep the conversation going round the dining table, giving your booktalk listeners gobs of fun stuff to chew on until the next course is served.