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Cooking Club Chaos! #4
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Description
Written by Newbery Honor winner Veera Hiranandani, with all-new, lively illustrations by Christine Almeda!
Phoebe G. Green has never given much thought to food, but when a new French classmate enters the cafeteria with a lunchbox full of unusual foods, a new love is born. Spunky and likable, Phoebe is a budding foodie who’s sure to win over your heart–and stomach!
Phoebe’s best friend, Sage, has the same lunch every day: a turkey sandwich, a cheese stick, and a bag of popcorn. Phoebe doesn’t understand why he won’t try new things, and is determined to convince him to. She and Camille come up with the perfect solution: a cooking club to show Sage how many exciting foods there are! But will it be enough to convince Sage? Or will it spoil their friendship?Praise for Phoebe G. Green, Lunch Will Never Be the Same!:
“Hiranandani has a light touch when exploring the friendship issues of these three likable characters. Nothing is over-the-top, and the plot is fun and easy to understand for the newest chapter-book readers… With all the foodies out there, this delightful series deserves a long shelf life…and many more courses.”–-Kirkus Reviews
“The plot is engaging and easy to follow… Fans of Junie B. Jones and Judy Moody or those who like realistic fiction and friendship stories will enjoy this chapter book.”–School Library Journal
“This is a splendid attempt to convey several lessons about growing pains to young readers, with age-appropriate humor via an outspoken, lovable, take-charge narrator.”–Booklist
Veera Hiranandani is the author of The Night Diary (Kokila), which received the 2019 Newbery Honor Award, the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award, and the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. The Night Diary has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, is a New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick, and was chosen as a 2018 Best Children’s Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Amazon, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews, among others. She is also the author of The Whole Story of Half a Girl (Yearling), which was named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a South Asian Book Award Finalist. She earned her MFA in fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she now teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College’s Writing Institute and is working on her next novel.
Christine Almeda is a Filipino-American freelance illustrator from NJ/NYC, and is the illustrator for Scholastic’s Sarai Gonzalez series. She graduated from Montclair State University, earning a BFA and an Award for Excellence in Animation & Illustration, focusing on children’s media. Christine believes in the power of storytelling and that art has the ability to make life a little more beautiful.Chapter One
Did you know my middle name is Gertrude, after my great-grandma Gertrude? That’s what the G stands for. My mom told me Great-Grandma Gertrude really liked to cook and eat, which makes sense, because I do, too. I even found out I’m a foodie, which is someone who loves to eat interesting foods. I don’t know if they called people foodies in the very old-fashioned days, though.
Great-Grandma Gertrude grew up in Russia and made things like matzo ball soup (chicken soup with yummy balls made out of matzo stuff), kasha (it’s sort of like rice but browner), and knishes (mashed potatoes wrapped up all comfy in dough). She even made her own pickles and kept them in a barrel in her backyard.
Mom always says Great-Grandma Gertrude could cook like nobody’s business. But if Great-Grandma Gertrude cooked like nobody’s business, how did anyone taste her food? Sometimes things adults say make no sense to me. Actually, there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense to me. I like making lists, so I thought I’d make a list of nonsensey things:
1 Three weeks ago, Sage (one of my best friends) decided he didn’t like the hot lunch in the cafeteria because it was too boring (it is). But now he brings the same exact lunch from home every day. Isn’t that even more boring?
2 Camille (my other best friend, who is from France) always wears fancy dresses. I think it might be because she’s French. But then she can’t hang on the monkey bars with me and Sage and that makes her sad. I don’t get why she won’t just wear pants.
3 Mrs. B, my teacher and the best teacher ever, got new glasses that hang on a pretty chain around her neck. She used to wear her glasses a lot, but since she got the new ones I’ve NEVER seen her put them on her face. It’s a big mystery.
I wonder if I’ll ever understand these things. But back to Sage. This is what he brings to lunch every day:
1 A turkey sandwich: two pieces of turkey, two pieces of bread, and that’s it.
2 A cheese stick (the really bendy kind).
3 A bag of popcorn. (Sometimes when no one’s looking, he throws pieces of popcorn at somebody and then pretends he didn’t. But I always see him.)
4 An apple (that he doesn’t eat at all).
5 A box of juice (that he spills on his shirt every time he opens it).
I think it’s a perfectly good lunch for one day, but not for the rest of your life. There’s just too much good food out there in the world.
Yesterday at lunch while I was eating a salad I made myself (with black beans, corn, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese), and Camille was eating roast chicken with asparagus and a tiny loaf of bread with delicious cheese from a goat, I asked Sage if he was ever going to bring something different to lunch.
He looked at me and blinked. “Why?” he said.
“Don’t you get tired of eating the same thing every day?” I asked.
“Why would I? It’s my favorite lunch,” he said.
It was much worse than I thought. I know this sounds a little weird, but I just couldn’t help feeling sad about all the foods he might never eat. Sage didn’t like to share lunches with me or Camille, and lunchtime just wasn’t as much fun when Sage ate the same thing every day. After school I thought about it and thought about it, but I could only come up with the first part of a plan to help Sage.
It started by wearing a dress to school—my lucky purple one with white and green polka dots on it. I usually only wear dresses on picture day because Mom makes me.
At breakfast, everyone noticed.
“What’s the occasion?” Dad said, drinking his coffee.
“Yeah,” my big sister, Molly, said. “Is it picture day?”
“That’s what I was wondering,” Mom said. “Did I fill out the form? I don’t remember seeing one.”
“Hold all of your horses,” I said, holding my fork up into the air. That’s what Dad always says when Molly or I get upset about something.
Mom, Dad, and Molly looked at me.
“Don’t worry, it’s part of my plan,” I said, and started eating my eggs again.
“Oh, and what plan is that?” Mom asked, the corners of her mouth smiling in a nervous way.
“Well, I’m afraid Sage is going to eat the same boring lunch for the rest of his life and it’s not going to be very fun for him or me. So if I wear a dress, then he won’t think it’s strange that I don’t want to hang on the monkey bars with him at recess. That way I can talk to Camille in private about what to do, because she always wears dresses,” I explained.
“Well, that makes total sense,” Molly said, shaking her head, and went off to get her backpack.
“Phoebe,” Dad said, putting on his jacket. “Why can’t Sage eat whatever lunch he likes?”
“He can, but once a week, tops,” I said and crossed my arms.
“Pheebs, just because you like all sorts of things doesn’t mean other people have to as well,” Dad said in an extra-nice way. He always does that when he wants to make sure I’ll listen.
“Yes honey, you need to let Sage eat what he wants,” Mom said, nodding at Dad.
“Okay,” I said and smiled weakly.
But deep inside my stomach where my scrambled eggs were, I didn’t think it was okay. Camille would know what to do. She even liked to eat snails. I saw her do it with my own eyes when we went to France together.US
Additional information
| Dimensions | 0.2800 × 5.1300 × 7.6300 in |
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| Subjects | multicultural children's books, kids cooking, friendship book, books for 7 year old girls, first grade reading books, kindness books for children, books for 8 year old girls, chapter books for kids 6-8, chapter books for kids age 9-12, chapter books for kids age 8-10, cooking for kids, friendship books for kids, chapter books, JUV050000, kindness, friends, JUV039060, Cooking, books for kids 5-7, childrens books by age 5-8, Friendship, 1st grade reading books, 2nd grade reading books, 2nd grade books, 3rd grade reading books |