Children's Book Recommendation: Let's Cook! by Robert Crowther

We usually leave this type of thing for our friends over at Ohdeedoh, but we're absolutely in love with this interactive "Press-Out-And-Play" cooking book for kids! So much so that when it came time to hand it over to its intended 3-year-old recipient, we had a hard time letting it go. Take a look for yourselves!

The book takes kids through making breakfast, toasting bread, assembling a sandwich, and creating an ice cream sundae. On the left-hand side of each page are cardboard pop-outs of ingredients and cooking tools. The right-hand side is for the "cooking" step, providing young chefs with pictures of a stove top, a toaster, or a plate as needed.

The ingredients and utensils are easy for little fingers to pop out and replace, and the cardboard seems durable enough to withstand some rough play. The flip side of each pop-out is printed with the name of the item, helping kids to associate the word with the thing itself.

The book also doubles as a counting game, asking questions like, "Can you cook three things at once?" and "Can you put four fillings in your sandwich?"

We're proponents of involving kids in food and cooking from an early age, and this feels like a good tool to encourage exploration and creativity. What do you think?

• Let's Cook by Robert Crowther is available on Amazon.com for $9.34

(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)

My 3-year-old will LOVE this! Her favorite toy is her little wood kitchen with the little food, and her favorite it's too cold/rainy for the playground activity is actually cooking with her mom (me). This would be a great gift.

posted by cmcinnyc on January 15th 2009 at 10:04am
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that's really cute! my 4 yr old is really getting into helping in the kitchen.

posted by goodLife{eats} on January 15th 2009 at 1:06pm
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That is awesome! Another good cookbook for kids is Fanny at Chez Panisse, by Alice Waters. It's for older kids, but the recipes are simple and healthy, with sweet illustrations. I don't even have children and use it regularly.

posted by kitchenplay on January 15th 2009 at 1:43pm
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How fun! Unfortunately, my nieces don't have birthdays coming up for quite a while. I will have to keep this in mind though.

posted by Kalinda on January 15th 2009 at 1:49pm
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My 9 year old *still* loves this book. We take cooking classes at our local kitchen shop.

posted by grlwprls on January 15th 2009 at 7:23pm
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Anyone getting this book for a little boy? I'm only hearing about girls here....

posted by KrapArtist on January 15th 2009 at 7:44pm
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My nephews and niece will LOVE this! Anytime I go into the kitchen to cook something (even just to make coffee) they're right there, pulling up a stool to "help"

posted by Hannala on January 16th 2009 at 4:51am
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Great site, thanks alot for all the information, cooking with your kids is the best way to spend quality time with them. Would like to recommend the following site to help you get your kids interested in cooking :
http://www.bizymoms.com/kids_cooking/index.php

posted by JackieHandunge on May 17th 2009 at 10:08am
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