Liversidge Cassie. Pasta Sauce!: Grow Your Own Ingredients

Sky Pony Press, 2013. — 40 p. — ISBN10: 1620875330, ISBN13: 978-1620875339.Grade Level: Kindergarten - 3Spaghetti with sauce is a staple meal in many households, and now kids can learn how to make their very own tomato sauce with this step-by-step guide. Master gardener Cassie Liversidge's cut-out art accompanies simple, easy-to-understand instructions for planting and growing tomatoes, onions, peppers, basil, and garlic—all the ingredients you need for making pasta sauce. Even kids who have never met a weed can tackle this project! Parents will appreciate reminders to wait patiently and handle buds and flowers gently; kids will love the jokes scattered throughout the book. (Why did the tomato blush? Because he saw the salad dressing!) Budding chefs will love following this easy guide and will take pride in each step of the culinary process, from planting tomato seeds to serving a delicious meal!Pasta Sauce! is part gardening book and part cookbook and is sure to delight young gardeners and cooks. This is the perfect springtime gift for food-loving children. And as a bonus: Watching tomatoes and peppers grow from seeds and learning how to cook is the perfect way to get kids to appreciate their veggies!Kids interested in digging into this project will need to bring an engaged grown-up along for the ride, but it shouldn't be hard to find one. Adorable, friendly vegetables take readers on a chapter-by-chapter guide through each ingredient in the garden: tomatoes, onions, basil, peppers, and garlic. Supplies for growing each one are laid out, and step-by-step instructions follow, with a few hilarious veggie jokes interspersed throughout. The introduction provides a "rough guide" for when to sow and harvest, but makes the wise recommendation to check the local weather. Some terms are defined while others, like "worm tea" and "wormery" are not. The pasta-sauce recipe is a little vague at times, using "about ten big handfuls" and "a bunch" as measurements. Each step is illustrated with photos and includes instructions for kids to cut onions and garlic, but recommend asking an adult to help cut the pepper. In spite of a few inconsistencies, this is a fun concept in an attractive package that could get kids growing and cooking their own food.About the Author
Cassie Liversidge is a fine artist and mom of two young boys as well as an avid gardener and cook. She has been developing an "Edible Playground" at her son's school in East London, and the idea for this book grew out of that. Cassie was lucky to be raised in the country, where her parents owned a plant nursery, so growing is something she once took for granted and now loves to share with adults and children alike. This is her first children's book.