Food Positive Books For Younger Kids

I’ve already covered body affirming books for older and younger kids (here and here) but how can we teach kids about food without scaring them, pressuring them, or boring the shit out of them?

Books can be a helpful resource for kids who are more cautious when it comes to trying new foods, particularly if they have any sensory processing differences that make being near unfamiliar foods too challenging or dysregulating. There are no new smells, textures or flavours, and they can decide whether or not to interact and engage with a food they’ve seen in a book.

They can also be great for teaching kids about food in a way that doesn’t distill it down to good/bad, healthy/unhealthy binaries, or narrowing down the function of food to just ‘fuel’. Instead they can expand our ideas about how we classify and imagine foods: as being part of our culture or heritage, as part of our community, as part of family traditions, as something we celebrate and connect over, and as a way to learn about other people, cultures and countries.

So many of the food and recipes books I’ve found at the library are centred on white, European foods, which doesn’t even reflect how most white Europeans eat, never mind the rich culinary landscape of *the entire rest of the world*. So I’ve tried to gather books that uplift diverse foodways and cultures. I haven’t included recipe books here. And I find that a lot of story books have this very transparent veg superiority agenda that I think can feel like a hard sell for some kids who might be sensitive to pressure.

I’ve given general age guidelines (taken from Amazon) but they are just a guide and all the books I’ve listed below my 2.5 yo loves (just for age reference).

This post contains links to the CIHAS Bookshop.org store - if you buy any books following these links you help us out at no extra cost to you. You can find loads more book recommendations (including for adults) at the CIHAS Bookshop.

Rise And Shine Breakfast Around the Globe (Illustrated by Erica Harrison)
Age 0-5(ish)

This is such a cool book for introducing kids to foods from different cuisines around the world (half of which I hadn’t even heard of before) - like Ichiju- Sansai or “one soup, three ways” from Japan. Or Kunun Gyada - a rice and peanut blend drizzled with tamarind from West Africa. Or Jok Moo - a rice porridge topped with pork meatballs from Thailand. Even though my toddler (2.5years) has never eaten most of the foods in this book, he still loves to look at the pictures and point to the parts of the meal that he does recognise. A super cute little board book that won’t get ripped to shreds by tiny freakishly strong little hands.

Counting at the Market by Amanda Stewart of Mochi Kids
Age 0-4

I am *extremely* into Mochi Kids colourful apparel that celebrates Asian-American foods and all things Kawaii. They’re just adorable and fun. But their international shipping rates are extortionate, and on top of the exchange rate with the USD at the moment, I just can’t justify getting my toddler a kimchi shirt. Womp womp.