Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up Hardcover – September 1, 2005

I got Salad People and Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up for my four-year-old niece for Christmas, along with a child's pink apron and chef's hat. They were a hit! She really likes to help in the kitchen and I looked at a lot of childrens' cooking books before deciding on these. Other books required the child to be a reader already or had lots of recipes for desserts and sweets and such. These books seemed to have healthier recipes in them than some of the others on the market.The layout for these books is this: each recipe is four pages long. The first two pages are for the adult involved to read. The second two pages are simply drawn step-by-step visual instructions for the child to follow. Mollie Katzen does the artwork in these books and it's very charming.M. Katzen has another book for children, Honest Pretzels: And 64 Other Amazing Recipes for Cooks Ages 8 & Up, which I think is for a little older crowd...I look forward to getting that one for my niece when she's ready for it.

All the recipes in this unique, kid friendly cookbook are done two times, once in words for adult helpers and once in fun pictures for kids, so they can "read" the recipes themselves.I gave this to Adam, 4 years old, and he loves the recipes! He also loves just sitting down and "reading" the recipes which he can do since they are all in pictures. And the illustrations are great.The receipes are healthy and kid approved. They were developled by Molly Katzen and a pre-school teacher who cooks with her class alot. So recipes can be done at home or in school. It also teaches kids about healthy eating, whole foods and making eating and cooking fun.

I bought this book for my kids as a Christmas present. All 3 of them, ages 1, 4, and 7 have enjoyed making (and eating!) the several recipes that we have tried so far. What I love about this book is that the picture recipes are easy to follow for kids, the recipes use "real" food ingredients, and I have been pleasantly surprised at how good the the recipes taste! The recipes call for a reasonable amount of ingredients that are easy to find at most grocery stores and are not too expensive. Mollie Katzen has created a simple yet thorough cookbook for kids. I have seen them begin to develop a real joy for cooking and trying new foods with this book. I have no complaints and will buy her other books too. Wonderful book.

I bought this book for my almost 5 year-old son. He loves it! He frequently looks through it to find new recipes to try. He likes that he can follow the pictures and figure out what to do without me telling him what to do.The things I like... There are unique recipes that I wouldn't think of like almond-miso dipping sauce and the honey-mango lassi, which is a favorite. Also, the book is very easy to adapt for children of all ages. For a younger child you can do the measuring and just have them pour and press buttons on blenders, etc. I have found that my son can do a lot more than I've allowed him to do. I've always micro-managed him in the past, but now I let him do the measuring and figuring out the next step. Using this cookbook with him has been really fun for me. I tend to not be very patient and kind of controlling in the kitchen, but I've really tried to just have fun when we cook together now. I've learned a lot of tips from this book that has helped me with that.I've been telling all my friends with kids about this book. I think it's really great, and I'm excited about trying Mollie's other cookbooks!

This book is a lovely preschool cookbook. Picture and simple instructions guide the young to creative, fun recipes for kid friendly foods.

My 3.5 year old loves to eat and loves to cook. She had another small cookbook with mostly desserts, so I wanted to get her one with healthy meals. Also, our home is vegetarian. I was a little skeptical when I first looked at this book, thinking the food didn't seem too exciting. But for a small child, it seems perfect--they are simple recipes, and the results are simple, but they are things she can really understand and do a lot of herself. The step by step pictures are perfect, and she takes this book out almost every day. I'm planning to get her the other book by Katzen.

I love this book, as well as Pretend Soup. My 3.5 year old daughter and 1.5 year old son come together and harmoniously, enthusiastically work together to pour and place ingredients. They love smelling things and identifying what different foods are. My daughter will sit at her little table for 15 minutes at a time just looking at all the recipes, trying to name which foods are in the pictures and then asking if we can make that particular concoction. It has brought a lot of joy into our home. I feel great about the type of foods they're eating (and yes, they are much more likely to eat their salads when they make the food themselves). And best thing is that my kids aren't bored, they're not asking to watch TV. It really brings us together.And i'm learning a lot too.

I have four granddaughters under the age of seven. I read an article on line about cooking with kids and this book was mentioned as a good one. I agree. The first day the book was in our home my youngest granddaughter (age 3 and quite the kitchen helper) picked out several recipes to try. I love the way the book is set up - words for adults and pictures for the non readers. I purchased Pretend Soup at the same time and both are wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!