What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street?: Recipes for Kids From Around the World

If one visits a large apartment building in any good-sized city in this country, he or she will find people of many nationalities and from a variety of cultures. The building at 10 Garden Street is one such building. This sweet picture book/cookbook takes readers on a journey through such a building by visiting fifteen families, each one cooking a special dish from their culture including Sole Meuniére, Coconut Dahl, Oyakodon, Baba Ganoush, Strawberry Crumble, and other lovely dishes. Each spread in the book has an illustration of the person or people that live in the apartment, their backgrounds, and cultural details. The facing page has a recipe for the dish the person or family is cooking up. The recipe is illustrated with all the ingredients needed, and the full instructions are included. These recipes are all being cooked for a building party with all the residents to share their cultures with each other. Author and illustrator Felicita Sala tells a simple story of each family in only a few words, but the details in her muted, stylized illustrations help fill in the gaps. Unfortunately, the story isn’t very strong.