10 Food Books for Kids That Make Learning Delicious

Do you love great children’s books? I do.

What makes a book for children great?

A great children’s book has captivating pictures, a wonderful message, and words that are fun to read for adults and fun to listen to for children.

Great books for children about food have relatable themes and create fun opportunities for learning.

In this post, I will share 10 of my favorite food books for kids and how they enhance learning.

10 Food Books for Kids that make learning delicious:

Eating The Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

An alphabet book with vibrant watercolor collages. Children are introduced to dozens of fruits and vegetables starting with every letter of the alphabet. A glossary at the end shares pronunciations, origins, and many interesting fruit and veggie facts.

A to Z with Fruits and Veggies by Dani Lebovitz

A food alphabet book for emergent readers with fun illustrations and clever stories using alliteration of each featured letter.

Alphabet books about food teach letters, food identification, and more.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This classic story shares the transformation from tiny egg to caterpillar to butterfly while searching for something to eat – first one apple, then two pears, and so forth, counting and eating more and more, “but he was still hungry.” Eventually, he had a stomachache, but eating a nice green leaf made him feel better.

I enjoyed acting this story out with classrooms of children wearing a green sock with eyes (the caterpillar) on my hand over a brown sock, which hid a butterfly finger puppet to reveal at the end of the story. I created large poster-sized images of each food in the book with holes in the middle that allowed each student to “feed” the caterpillar by placing it over my sock puppet. The brown sock is rolled over the green one to create the cocoon/chrysalis. Both socks are removed with a flourish when the butterfly is revealed.

This book can generate lots of learning: counting; food identification; growth spurts make us very hungry; eating too much can give us tummy aches; fiber-rich leafy greens can give us relief; and caterpillars turn into butterflies.

Pancakes, Pancakes! By Eric Carle

Another classic by Eric Carle teaches children where each ingredient needed to make pancakes comes from and how to cook pancakes. Cooking with children is not only delicious, it also teaches science, social studies, math, and more.

The Teddy Bears’ Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy

This rhyming story, published in 1907, is less about food and more about gathering with family and friends to eat, play games, and “gaily gad about.” Food is fun. Food is connection. Food is celebration.

Use this story to discuss how fun it is to come together and celebrate with food.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

When Dr. Seuss’s publisher challenged him to write a story with no more than 50 unique words, this was the result. This well-loved story masterfully uses repetition to describe the lengths someone might go through to avoid eating something they don’t think they will like.

The moral of the story is if you try it, you might like it.

Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

Another classic story about someone refusing to try new foods, Frances only eats bread and jam. The story begins with Frances being offered a variety of food her family is eating, then continues with being offered only bread and jam when she won’t eat anything else. It doesn’t take long for Frances to realize she is tired of bread and jam and asks for spaghetti and meatballs like everyone else.

Readers learn that familiarity is fine, but variety is better.

I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

The theme of fussy eaters continues in this award-winning book about Charlie and his little sister, Lola. Put in charge of feeding Lola, Charlie convinces Lola to try orange twiglets from Jupiter (carrots), green drops from Greenland (peas), cloud fluff from Mount Fuji (mashed potatoes), and ocean nibbles from the supermarket (fish sticks). Lola surprises Charlie by asking for the moon-squirters (tomatoes).

How can trying new foods be an adventure?

Where Do Bananas Come From? By Dani Lebovitz

Not a story but a food encyclopedia of 52 different fruits – learn about nutrients, where fruits are grown, when they are in season, how they are picked, stored, and eaten. This book is for food explorers of all ages. You are guaranteed to learn something you don’t already know about fruit.

Where Does Broccoli Come From? By Dani Lebovitz

Published 2 years after the fruit version, this vegetable encyclopedia describes 102 different veggies. In addition to the information provided in the fruit book, this book describes how to prepare each vegetable – roasted beets, anyone?

 What are your favorite food books for children? There are so many, it’s hard to choose!

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island.” ~ Walt Disney

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