Peace, Love, and Pasta: A Celebration of Family

English All Family Cooking Chosen Family Bilingual Books Turkish summary Pasta, food of the masses. Delightful, buttery, easy to share (sometimes). Diving into Scott Conant’s most recent book Peace, Love, and Pasta (from Abrams Books) made one thing clear: he values family above all else. This got me thinking about all types of family, chosen…

The Wild Ones & a Love of Dessert

English YA Feminism Sci-Fi Fantasy BIPOC Narratives Anger Chosen Family Magic Love CW: Mentions of assault Nafiza Azad summary This. Book. Is. Everything. When a publicist got in touch and told me about The Wild Ones, I was instantly hooked. A roving band of girls that weaponize their screams in retaliation for the times they’ve…

Salma the Syrian Chef

English & Arabic 4-8 years Immigration Refugee Stories Community Chosen Family Cooking Danny Ramadan & Anna Bron Summary: For #TheFictionFeast this month, I wanted to highlight a book that hits a lot of important details that I look for in a story. Main character Salma from Salma the Syrian Chef looks to a mixed refugee…

sylvia and marsha start a revolution!

For #sweetsandsocialjustice this week I experimented with tahini again, this time adding it to chocolate chip cookies! There might not be a clear connection between the cookies and the book, except that my love for Sylvia, Marsha, and cookies knows no bounds.

Mrs. Bibi’s Elephant

Written & Illustrated by: Reza Dalvand For ages: 4-8 years Language: English Topics Covered: Community Involvement, Friendship, Pets, Family, Chosen Family, Empathy, Economics, Social-Emotional Learning.  Summary: Mrs. Bibi has a pet elephant, and they spend all of their time together.  The elephant loved playing with the children in the streets, and drinking tea with Mrs. Bibi, listening to stories.  The others…