Nonfiction Monday: Awesome Inventions You Use Everyday: Fun Food Inventions by Nadia Higgins

I picked up a whole stack of random nonfiction as I'm getting ready to do a major overhaul of the juvenile nonfiction. This is pretty random - it's one title from a set of books about everyday inventions.

After a quick introduction, the book jumps straight into the invention and evolution of a number of fun or funny foods. Some, like ketchup, talk about the slow changes over time in a recipe. Others, like bubble gum, were created by accident. Creations like the doughnut hole, are legends that nobody quite knows the truth of while microwave dinners required lots of different inventions and experimentation.

Each story is told in one page, while the facing page has a photograph of the inventor and/or the food. A few extra fun facts are sprinkled around the edges. Back matter includes a glossary, some books and websites for further information (these are really random, ranging from cookbooks to websites about food myths, to a book on how ice cream is made) brief index and a handful of source notes.

Verdict: This is really not what I was looking for. There was no clear differentiation between fact and fiction and the limited source notes make me skeptical of the history of the different foods. The cover isn't very attractive - something with photographs and less eye-searing color would have been better I think. I wanted something more factual.

ISBN: 9781467710916; Published 2014 by Lerner; Borrowed from another library in my consortium