Black-Eyed Peas and Hoghead Cheese
A Story of Food, Family, and Freedom
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A little girl helping her grandmother prepare a holiday meal learns about the origins of soul food in this powerful picture book that celebrates African American cuisine and identity from an award-winning author.
Know what I like most about Grandma’s kitchen?
More than jambalaya? More than sweet potato pie? Even more than pralines?
Grandma’s stories! Every meal Grandma cooks comes with a story.
What will today’s story be?
While visiting her grandma in Louisiana, nine-year-old Frances is excited to help prepare the New Year’s Day meal. She listens as Grandma tells stories—dating back to the Atlantic Slave Trade—about the food for their feast. Through these stories, Frances learns not only about the ingredients and the dishes they are making but about her ancestors and their history as well.
A celebration of the stories that connect us, this picture book urges us to think about the foods we eat and why we eat them. This book was inspired by the author's own childhood and includes her family's very own recipe for pralines in the back!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Food serves as a vehicle for history in Armand's exploration of African American culinary traditions. Young Frances likes helping her Creole grandmother cook New Year's Day dinner, because "every meal... comes with a story" linked to their African ancestors. As the two prepare black-eyed peas, hoghead cheese, turnip greens, and pralines, Grandma details how the history of chattel slavery influenced cookery—making the most of what they had, enslaved people created dishes such as jambalaya and gumbo—and fed into tradition: "These foods remind us that we are here and we are free because of the hard work and sacrifices of our ancestors." Walthall's illustrations shift with the times: historic depictions are starker in watercolor-washed line drawings, while contemporary scenes at Grandma's house appear painterly in rich hues. Sidebars and endnotes provide additional historic context. Ages 4–8.
