Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Weird Stuff You Didn't Know about Food Book

Did you know that radishes are a common breakfast food in Japan? Why do Americans love corn dogs? Do watermelons remove freckles? Can you really clean a toilet with a can of cola? Where does the expression "say cheese" come from? Did you know that in 1919 a molasses flood killed 21 people in Boston?
What child isn't going to want to know the answers to these questions? Step into any school cafeteria and you'll hear kids buzzing about food. Everything but the Kitchen Sink builds on that fascination with food through history, science, art, superstitions, and world records.
Organized in 10 fast-paced and fun chapters, Everything but the Kitchen Sink will present bite-size facts, interviews with fantastic "foodies," and amazing but true sidebars. Some recipes and activities are also included.
Sample outline:
1. Hey, Dad, what's for breakfast! The first meal of the day across North America and around the world
2. Coo-coo, corn dogs, and mudbugs: Food through the ages: Why we eat what we eat
3. Why don't vampires like garlic? Outrageous food superstitions
4. Say cheese and grunt: Crazy food names and expressions
5. Snack attack! Everything you ever wanted to know about pizza, pop, cookies, and more
6. There's a lab in my kitchen: The science of food
7. Stuffed camel and other delicious holiday food: Festive foods and customs in North America and other continents
8. Biggest, longest, tallest, stinkiest: Food records that will amaze you
9. Who thought of that: Incredible food inventions
10. Everything but the kitchen sink: More fabulous food trivia

Children's Literature

Buckle up folks, this is 112 pages of fun! Ten chapters filled with short items about food that sound like Alton Brown and Anthony Bourdain have been moonlighting writing children's books. "Chapter One: Food Through the Ages, What We Eat and Why," includes the rather disgusting fact that during the siege of Paris, the delicate palates of the French feasted on everything from rats and dogs to elephants and zebras. "Chapter Two: What's for Breakfast" includes wonderful tidbits about cereal, soup, and beer for breakfast, a recipe for Omelet in a Bag, and a crossword puzzle. "Chapter Three: Why Don't Vampires Like Garlic" is full of food traditions, taboos and superstitions. "Chapter Four: Don't Grunt, It's a Piece of Cake" is about food expressions, food-related cliches, weird food names like "hushpuppies," and nomenclature trivia. "Chapter Five: Snack Attack!" offers facts about pop, popcorn, pizza, popsicles, and potato chips as well as cookies, candy, and a recipe for haystacks. Chapter Six is all about food chemistry and includes several recipes and experiments. "Chapter Seven: Would You Eat a Tarantula," covers world taste treats that tend to the bizarre. "Chapter Eight: Largest, Longest, Tallest, Stinkiest" covers the extremes of edibles. "Chapter Nine: Who Invented That?" is all about created foods and processes, and "Chapter Ten: Everything but the Kitchen Sink" is just loads of trivia. Each tidbit in every chapter is one or two paragraphs (about 100 words), with zippy illustrations that are not childish, making this a great browsing book for all ages. It even would be a great resource to use with English-as-a-second-language classes, because adults will love it as much as kids.Scattered throughout the pages are small sidebars called "Bits and Bites," with snappy facts well wrapped up. The book is indexed, with a trim size that makes it not a little kid book, not a mass market, but "just right" as Goldilocks would say, as she gobbled it all down. If I had my way, there would be a copy in the hand of every kid waiting in every line in every lunchroom in the land. Reviewer: Gwynne Spencer