Six Children’s Books with Great Food by Pari Thomson
Food and books are such a perfect match! Will author Pari Thomson tempt you to read her six favourite books featuring food with her guest blog today?
Six children’s books with great food by Pari Thomson
Food and books are two of my favourite things in life – so food in books is pretty much the best thing I can think of. As C.S. Lewis said, “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”
When I started writing Greenwild, I knew that I wanted it to be filled with delicious things. Inside its pages you’ll find pancakes and hot buttered toast, steaming soup and fresh bread, dandelion cordial and chocolate birthday cake and cloudberry pie. There’s even a tree that grows pure milk chocolate!
My favourite children’s books all feature wonderful food. I love the way that this grounds them in reality – in appetite and greed and hunger. Here are a few of the best:
Nothing – and I mean nothing! – can beat the descriptions of food in Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. The animals – mice, hedgehogs, moles and badgers – at Redwall Abbey take their food very seriously, and in-between having grand adventures, they enjoy glorious, happy feasts produced in their magnificent kitchens. Just listen to this:
“Lunchtime! Come on, it’s being served in the Great Hall – onion flan, followed by whipped honey and candied damson pieces. And I want to see clean paws before any beast gets served!”
When I was about seven years old, I fell deeply in love with The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – and I’m pretty sure it was because of the excellent food. Bilbo Baggins is a firm believer in the importance of a good meal, and he never misses the chance to have elevenses and afternoon tea and hot buttered crumpets in front of the fire. He welcomes you in with these words:
“If ever you are passing my way, don’t wait to knock! Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time”.
Another book that entranced me with food was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and the reason for this was – yes, porridge. Hear me out! When Mary arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, she’s thin and spiky and grieving. Good food and fresh air begin to work their magic, starting with a bowl of porridge, served with “a bit o’ treacle” and a “bit o’ sugar”. At first, Mary refuses to eat it. Then she does, and everything begins to change.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is full of wonderful food – including, famously, the Turkish delight that the White Witch gives to Edmund, tempting him into betraying his siblings. I don’t actually like Turkish delight very
much, but I love the idea of it because of this book. It comes in a round box tied with a green silk ribbon, and each piece is “sweet and light to the very centre.”
If the Turkish delight is the darkly seductive food of the book, then Mr Tumnus’s tea party is its wholesome antidote. This is the meal I most remember and love from reading these books as a child – a meal served to Lucy Pevensie beside a roaring fire:
“And really it was a wonderful tea. There was a nice brown egg, nicely boiled, for each of them, and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast, and then toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake.”
It’s so solid – all that wonderful toast! – that it makes Narnia feel completely real.
I have always had a soft spot for picnics, and I can’t think of anything better than reading about them – preferably lying somewhere sunny on the grass. One of the very best literary picnics happens in The Wind in Willows by Kenneth Grahame, where Ratty and Mole take a “fat, wicker luncheon basket” on a meandering afternoon boat trip on the river. It’s totally idyllic and over the top:
“‘What’s inside it?’ asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
‘There’s cold chicken inside it,’ replied the Rat briefly; ‘coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwiches pottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater—-‘
‘O stop, stop,’ cried the Mole in ecstasies: ‘This is too much!’
Finally, I have to mention the Moomins. Tove Jansson’s Moomin books are all masterpieces, and among their many pieces of wisdom and delight, they contain some of the best food writing in children’s literature. Jansson knew how food can bolster you against the dark and the unknown, and also how it can be the ultimate expression of love and celebration and homecoming. Here is the cake Moominmamma bakes for Moomintroll at the end of Comet in Moominland, in readiness for his return from adventuring. I think it might be the best cake in the world:
“Moominamma was in the kitchen decorating a big cake with pale yellow lemon peel and slices of crystallised pear. The words ‘To my darling Moomintroll’ were written around it in chocolate, and on the top there was a glittering star of spun sugar.”
Celebrations don’t get much better than that. As Bilbo Baggins rightly says, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”