How to Eat Fried Worms, by Thomas Rockwell, in print since 1973 and recently turned into a movie, is one of the 100 most challenged books in the United States, because it supposedly encourages “inappropriate behavior.” But how inappropriate really is eating fried worms? Well, that depends on your culinary preferences and where you are from. Whereas How to Eat Fried Worms shows how many expressions of disgust one can come up with when confronted with the idea or reality of eating slimy, crawly things, Men Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects, by the authors of Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, shows a wealth of primitive and contemporary insect-eating habits and recipes from thirteen different countries.

The fact that I recently found fried grasshoppers and Mexican maguey worms on the shelves of a food shop in San Francisco might be a sign that the western aversion to insects as food may be movig away from the usual ick! yuck! ugh!, though. But whether or not bug-eating becomes popular here and whether or not I’ll ever try insect cookery myself, I am getting the message: “respect the preferences of “others’ palates.”

Check out this list of insect snacks from around the world. And to teach young ones how ‘yum!’ and ‘yuck!’ sound in other languages, Linda Sue Park, Sue Rama and Julia Durango‘s Yum! Yuck! A Book of People Sounds is recommended.

A recent e-newsletter from Kane/Miller, the wonderful, small, independent publisher of books that (in their own words) “will make children say both ‘wow, that’s just like me’ and also ‘wow, that’s different’” has called my attention to a fascinating online photo gallery of images from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio (Ten Speed Press, 2005). The book, “a unique photographic study of global nutrition” shows portraits of 30 families, in 24 countries, surrounded by a week’s worth of groceries:

On the banks of Mali’s Niger River, Soumana Natomo and his family gather for a communal dinner of millet porridge with tamarind juice… In the USA, the Ronayne-Caven family enjoys corndogs-on-a-stick with a tossed green salad.

Utterly insightful and educational, its potential for curriculum tie-ins is great: the rich photos and essays will help students compare, contrast, and make generalizations about our “hungry planet” when learning about world cultures, international economic and political conditions, the process of globalization, and more…

Author and storyteller Norah Dooley‘s four-part series of “Everybody” books, illustrated by Peter Thornton, explores the similarities between different cultures through food. The titles in the series, published by Carolrhoda/Lerner are: Everybody Cooks Rice, Everybody Bakes Bread, Everybody Serves Soup and Everybody Brings Noodles. Widely read in homes, libraries and schools throughout the United States, these stories follow young Carrie as she discovers a strong sense of community – and the role food plays in bringing her and her neighbors together – while going around her multiethnic inner-city neighborhood in search of something else (her brother, a rolling pin, a gift for her mom). The neighborhood featured is the author’s own: “Most of the characters in the Everybody Bakes Bread and Everybody Cooks Rice series are based on my friends and their families. The mutual affection and respect we have for one another is, to me, the most important ‘ingredient’ in these books.” Recipes are included at the end of each title.

Oakland Public Library “Children’s Room” librarian, Nina Lindsay, published an article last year at School Library Journal called “Bringing Home the World: A librarian puts forth a shopping list for international literature” (SLJ 2/1/2006), where she talks about the need for more children’s international literature in translation on publisher’s catalogs and in everyone’s bookshelves. She encourages one’s bookshelf to be like a food-rich refrigerator, packed with a variety of goodies: “Our reading lives should be like this: varied, changing, exciting – foreign.” I love when a librarian can mix children’s books with food for thought…

Read her article and then go ahead and add some new, foreign flavors to your children’s bookshelf. And feel free to look through our refrigerator for ideas.

As managing editor of the PaperTigers website, I should start my journey into bloghood by expressing infinite amounts of gratitude and appreciation to all writers, illustrators, publishers, librarians, teachers, parents, readers, bloggers: all weavers of the essential threads in the colorful quilt of children’s and young adult literature. We couldn’t have a thriving kidlit and ya lit scene if it weren’t for all their–and your!–contributions.

This reminds me of the ‘Stone Soup’ tale… Whatever the version, we all know the idea behind it: stones make good soup, but carrots and potatoes make it so much better! Jon J. Muth’s retelling, set in China, is my all-time favorite. Muth says of his work as a writer/illustrator: “I am interested in that ‘third thing’ that happens when you connect words and pictures.” So here is where I put my stone into the pot, interested in that ‘third thing’ that happens when you add your offerings to it… Welcome to the melting pot (or should I say “posts”?). May our shared meal prove to be enjoyable.