Fairytales and Feasts — Food in children's literature ABC Radio National

Fairytales and feasts — Food in children's literature 

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The title of this program held great promise for me - Children's Literature (tick); food and feasts (tick); and fairytales (tick). BUT sadly I was quite disappointed. The title didn't say that this was about adults sharing memories of kids books which featured food. Although the focus of the twenty-eight precious radio minutes, where some truly splendid books COULD have been shared, instead took the popular culture route and spent around half of the show with Andy Griffiths. 

The net worth of Andy Griffiths though sales of books like his Just and Treehouse series books is estimated at 25 million! I don't think ABC Radio National need to promote him. A brief mention of a couple of his food inclusions such as brussels sprouts (always a baddie - could they talk about why), peanut butter and marshmallows would have been enough. Andy Griffiths does write popular books, but he is in no way a children's book expert. 

Luckily, the producers did invite an academic, Kara K. Keeling for the second part of this show BUT because she is from the US no Australian books were mentioned (that's not a big issue for me). Other ABC Radio National Book Show presenters mentioned very old 'classics' from their own childhoods such as Where the Wild Things are and In the Night Kitchen. The content became quite nostalgic, which I didn't expect from the introduction, with lots of references to Roald Dahl and Maurice Sendak. Thank goodness we were spared Enid Blyton, but I do wish the program had not taken this nostalgic focus. All of the titles they shared are fine, but I had high hopes for some other titles to be explored AND I didn't hear any mention of fairytales except for a very brief mention of Jack and the Beanstalk! 

Claire Nicols - Matilda

Alison Lester - the Billabong Books by Mary Grant Bruce

Kate Evans - The Hobbit

Sarah L'Strange - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Cassie McCullagh - The Night Kitchen

Blurb from ABC: The books of childhood take us on adventures far from our own backyard, where we often encounter culinary delights that arouse memory and spark imagination. But if there's a common thread that runs through much of children's literature, it's that the paths to our deepest desires are stalked by danger. We explore the deep symbolism behind our favourite foodie fantasies in children's books.

The purpose of this episode of Every Bite was to promote the current ABC Radio National voting of the top 100 books (adult and children's books) so I will say I am happy the program focus was children's books. Take a look at my previous post. 

I was surprised Possum Magic didn't get a mention. Here are some other book choices for this program - some newer books and some Australian titles. Perhaps there will be a follow-up show from Every Bite. They could do a whole show just about pancakes for example:

Dear Broccoli

The Biscuit Maker

Mr Lepron's Mystery Soup

Thank you Omu!

Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten (hot fairy cakes)

Here is the book by Kara K. Keeling:

Published in 2020

Publisher blurb: Table Lands: Food in Children’s Literature is a survey of food’s function in children’s texts, showing how the sociocultural contexts of food reveal children’s agency. Authors Kara K. Keeling and Scott T. Pollard examine texts that vary from historical to contemporary, noncanonical to classics, and Anglo-American to multicultural traditions, including a variety of genres, formats, and audiences: realism, fantasy, cookbooks, picture books, chapter books, YA novels, and film. Table Lands offers a unified approach to studying food in a wide variety of texts for children. Spanning nearly 150 years of children’s literature, Keeling and Pollard’s analysis covers a selection of texts that show the omnipresence of food in children’s literature and culture and how they vary in representations of race, region, and class, due to the impact of these issues on food. Furthermore, they include not only classic children’s books, such as Winnie-the-Pooh, but recent award-winning multicultural novels as well as cookbooks and even one film, Pixar’s Ratatouille.

If you are feeling especially nostalgic you might like to look for this one (and the sequel):

The Little Library Cookbook

Here are my own nostalgic food books from my years of working in a school library are:

Where's Julius

Jam

Bread and Jam for Frances

Food in fairy tales - Goldilocks and the Three Bears; Hansel and Gretel; The Princess and the Pea; The Gingerbread Boy; and Little Red Riding Hood AND the book that brings nearly all of these together is one of my all-time favourite books to read aloud:

Jeremiah in the Dark Woods

The crocodile asks "would these be jam tarts? ... (and) by any chance would this jam be 

strawberry jam all dark and delicious from the baking ... 

And is it possible that the pastry of these tarts is a golden brown 

with glorious little crisp and curly edges?"