What’s Cooking?: Ready-to-Read Level 2

Gr 1-3–Three short chapters take readers around the world on a culinary adventure, introducing them to foods and sharing information about the origins of some specialty ingredients. Well-known favorites, like pasta, are highlighted, as well as foods that many Western readers may not have tried. Pronunciations are given for less familiar words, like cuisine, and a glossary defining these terms is included. Full-color, digitally rendered illustrations depict a multigenerational cast of characters with an array of skin tones. This is a fairly text-heavy early reader, appropriate for soon-to-be fully independent readers on the cusp of making the transition to chapter books. The sentences are longer than early readers geared towards the younger crowd, and the vocabulary is more advanced as well. This book will be popular with aspiring young chefs and would be fun to read with an adult before trying some of the foods presented.