With Nova Scotia serving up “spring” days like this, you will want to displace yourself into the warm and delicious world Wanda Taylor has created in her second novel for young readers. Wanda is an author I really admire, ranging as she does from hard-hitting history books like 𝐵𝑖𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝐿𝑜𝑦𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 to this softly served story of a group of kids trying to find a place to be themselves.
The story focuses on Darla Cooper when she finds her grandmother’s old recipe book in the attic. But as much as Darla loves the food it can produce for her belly, she prefers the words it inspires in her heart. Darla learns her friends feel the same way, so they decide to become food poets. Much of the charm in the book comes from experiencing things with the kids, and then watching them struggle to turn it into poetry.
“When Darla thought about a poem she’d written in her head, it all sounded beautiful and perfect,” we read. “But when she recited it, sometimes it came out clunky, or the words got jumbled, or her voice wouldn’t cooperate.” Many writers will relate! And reading the poetry is a lot of fun.
The kids run into enough problems threatening their poetry club to keep the novel bubbling along, but this is truly a book to be savoured. The food descriptions involve a lot of meat, and even this vegetarian was smelling and smiling. The family feasts will make you want to pull up a chair. The food mostly comes from Canada, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Angola, and China.
My advice: strike up a two-person book club for this one. Find your favourite kid, or your favourite adult, and both read this book and then meet to talk about it. Like the meals in 𝐴 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑅ℎ𝑦𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑒, it’ll serve up warm memories long after the table has been cleared.