Always Home: A Culinary Memoir by Fanny Singer

Written by the daughter of Alice Waters, doyenne of Chez Panisse, a Californian restaurant that changed the thinking about food. Waters promoted the farm to table way of eating and is an activist for good food in schools. This memoir is a series of vignettes or glimpses of Fanny’s life growing up living above the shop. Reading it, you’ll feel jealous of not being surrounded by the beauty her mother was able to create, or eating the delicious meals of her girlhood. There’s even a chapter devoted to how her mother cut up fruit, and interspersed are recipes that remind her of people or situations, or even a feeling – but this is not a cookery book. It is more a hymn to the pleasures of life, with summers spent in the South of France and good friends equally passionate about food. From Fanny being swaddled in dish towels and set inside a huge salad bowl at the restaurant, to the dish that feels like home to Fanny and Alice, foodies will love the insights into what living in that extraordinary situation was like.

6/10

Do Grannies Have Green Fingers by Fransie Frandsen

In this delightful book, Alexander overhears his mum saying his granny has ‘green fingers’, after she wins yet another gardening award. Intrigued, he keeps a look out for other examples of green fingers and along the way notices some other colours (such as his red-faced neighbour when Tinster the dog buries a bone in the next-door garden). The illustrations are the real treat. Collages from Frandsen, made of photographs and illustrations, provide brilliantly fun and engaging visual narration. As they’re layered, there’s the chance to spot new and amusing items during future reads. Text is kept simple and is positioned on different parts of the page, helping to keep things interesting for young minds. A short reference to recycling, lots of potential to spot and name different colours, and a trigger to talk about what common phrases mean (green fingers, or green with envy) all allow for plenty of fun ways to learn. This book will doubtless keep both parent and child amused and entertained with its quirky originality.

7/10