A Fine Dessert
Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
In this fascinating picture book, four families, in four different cities, over four centuries, make the same delicious dessert: blackberry fool. This richly detailed book ingeniously shows how food, technology, and even families have changed throughout American history.
In 1710, a girl and her mother in Lyme, England, prepare a blackberry fool, picking wild blackberries and beating cream from their cow with a bundle of twigs. The same dessert is prepared by a slave girl and her mother in 1810 in Charleston, South Carolina; by a mother and daughter in 1910 in Boston; and finally by a boy and his father in present-day San Diego.
Kids and parents alike will delight in discovering the differences in daily life over the course of four centuries.
Includes a recipe for blackberry fool and notes from the author and illustrator about their research.
From the Hardcover edition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this inventive culinary history, Jenkins (Water in the Park) traces a single dessert through the centuries as four families from 1710, 1810, 1910, and 2010, respectively puree blackberries and whip heavy cream to enjoy blackberry fool after dinner. "What a fine dessert!" each cook exclaims. Blackall's (The Baby Tree) scrupulously researched ink, watercolor, and blackberry juice (!) spreads document the dress, furnishings, and cooking methods of each family, and they repay close study and comparison; watching cream-whipping technology evolve is particularly enlightening. Unfortunately, an attempt at historical authenticity backfires as the 19th-century plantation family's blackberry fool is made for them by their slaves. The African-American cook and her daughter are not permitted to eat the dessert they've made; instead, they serve it to the white family, and the two are left to lick the bowl in a dark closet. The historical facts are not in dispute, but the disturbing injustices represented in this section of an otherwise upbeat account either require adult readers to present necessary background and context or worse to pass by them unquestioned. Ages 4 8.
