Pasta! (Felice Arena, illus by Beatrice Cerrochi, Affirm)
Pasta! is a delightfully bright picture book celebrating the world’s favourite food: pasta. Inviting even from the title page, which features a tabby cat sitting in front of an open door, Pasta! depicts many types of pasta. What stands out about this title is that it’s not just a counting book or A-to-Z of the dish—the children are actively involved with food, and perhaps controversially, playing with it. One child uses fettuccine to create a new hairstyle, a cat knocks gnocchi off the table, and a small group of kids make a silly face on the floor with several types of pasta. This builds to a large shared meal, with a clear message that pasta is for everyone! With a fun rhythm (though occasionally clunky with English sounds next to Italian) Pasta! could be read or perhaps sung quickly—almost as a dare to see how fast you could get naming pasta—or savoured slowly, pointing at the details of each shape and how they’re prepared. Cerrochi’s illustrations are enticing, with many close ups on faces anticipating the delicious food they’re about to eat. Pasta! will pair well with conversations around foods, flavours, nutrition, cooking, culture, and community. For readers aged two and up who enjoyed titles such as Off To the Market and Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Clare Millar is a Melbourne-based bookseller, and books editor of The Big Issue. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
