Everybody Cooks Rice

by Norah Dooley, Peter J. Thornton

In this multicultural picture book, Carrie goes from one neighbor's house to the next looking for her brother, who is late for dinner. She discovers that although each family is from a different country, everyone makes a rice dish at dinnertime. Readers will enjoy trying the simple recipes that correspond to each family's unique rice dish.

Genres: Picture Books, Food, Cultural, Childrens, Fiction, Cooking, Family

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Bean · Rating 1 out of 5]

A white child travels through her multicultural block, tasting rice dishes from the kitchens of her light-skinned POC neighbors. Though she does rate many of the offerings as “delicious”, she narrates, “[Tam, a Vietnamese neighbor] was busy making the garlicky, fishy sauce, called NUOC CHAM. She let me try it on some rice... It tasted... interesting.” (How many of us Black and brown folks have heard their white classmates make similar condescending commentary about our lunches in the school cafeteria?)

Combined with illustrations that inexplicably depict vignettes such as a stereotypically East Asian fan alongside the narrator’s Chinese neighbor’s rice plate, this book let me down. I like the concept, but would much rather read an #OwnVoices book about Black and brown peoples’ foods and food cultures — or opt for a revised edition, that doesn’t center a white gaze on “other” cultures.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not all that often begin my own reviews by becoming frustrated with the musings of others, of strangers, but sorry, I am (and with no real feelings of either contrition or guilt either) doing precisely this with regard to Everybody Cooks Rice (1991). For the main protagonist of Everybody Cooks Rice, for Carrie, she is (at least for me) not just some generic white skinned American child as she is featured by Norah Dooley's words and Peter J. Thornton's illustrations making her way through her multicultural neighbourhood and sampling diverse rice dishes from different countries (and as I have unfortunately read in a number of reviews for Everybody Cooks Rice). Because no, since in Everybody Cooks Rice, Carrie is textually described by Dooley as in fact being Italian American on her mother's side, she is of course (well, at least in my not so humble opinion) not just some random American girl with white skin, she is someone with a specific cultural tradition and an ethnic background Carrie also specifically points out in Everybody Cooks Rice and is obviously proud of. And frankly, as a German Canadian, I do find it rather ridiculous how Carrie is for those nameless reviewers alluded to above simply Caucasian and generic, and not to mention that in Everybody Cooks Rice, Carrie and her family are obviously very good friends with their neighbours who hail from many different cultures and traditions and obviously also vice versa as well (but equally so and ha, ha, ha, well, the only individuals actually making a fuss are those reviewers intent on seeing something racist or at least potentially racially problematic in Everybody Cooks Rice and mainly I suppose because authors Norah Dooley and main protagonist Carrie are both light skinned).

Furthermore, since Carrie in Everybody Cooks Rice is described and shown (both textually and equally so illustratively) as being on very friendly terms with all of the neighbourhood families she visits, whose rice dishes she samples (see above) and that she is also eagerly tasting and eating everything being cooked, being offered, I am indeed having huge issues understanding why Carrie is supposedly condescending and being potentially ethnically intolerant (according to negative reviews) when she describes nuoc cham (Vietnamese fish sauce) as tasting interesting. I mean, I have actually had many traditional German dishes that use offal, that are made with blood, bone marrow, brains, heart, kidneys, sweetbreads etc. called much much worse than them being interesting (speaking from personal experience regarding the food I used to bring to school for lunch, that liver and blood sausage sandwiches and soup with marrowbone dumplings were just another reason to twit me for my German background) and I have also called different ethnic dishes I have tried over the years as being interesting tasting (as well as many American, Canadian, Italian, Russian, Polish and German dishes I might add) and that there is for me nothing at all inherently ethnically problematic or potential negative regarding using an adjective like interesting to describe how food, how meals taste (and ethnicity notwithstanding), that the adjective interesting is not somehow negative or judgmental.

Now I do think that there should be more narrational meat (with a bit of a food pun definitely intended here) regarding Everybody Cooks Rice, that there could be more done by Norah Dooley to textually showcase and expand on the different cultures and traditions being described in Everybody Cooks Rice (and that Carrie's own Italian American background is unfortunately just a bit of an afterthought and as such also a tad annoying). But yes, both Dooley's words and Peter J. Thornton's colourful artwork (although I do find his images a bit dated, sometimes a trifle stereotypical and also visually gaudy but emotionally stagnant) do a decently good job highlighting seven different rice dishes from around the world and with the recipes at the back of Everybody Cooks Rice for Barbadian black-eyed peas and rice, Puerto Rican turmeric rice with pigeon peas, Vietnamese fried rice with nuoc cham, Indian biryani, Chinese tofu and vegetables, Haitian rice and beans and Italian risi e bisi both appreciated and also making Everybody Cooks Rice not just a multicultural food-themed story but also a very nicely international cookbook (although personally, I also wish that rice pudding, that rice used as a dessert recipes would also appear in Everybody Cooks Rice and that Norah Dooley really in my opinion misses an opportunity to show how rice is not just used for savoury but also for and in many sweet dishes).

Three stars in general for Everybody Cooks Rice, but because I do really enjoy the general concept and set-up of and for Everybody Cooks Rice and that am really really massively annoyed at how negative some of the reviews are (and for me rather unjustifiably so), I will be upping my star rating for Everybody Cooks Rice to four stars, to also recommend the book but that Everybody Bakes Bread and Everybody Serves Soup are definitely better than Everybody Cooks Rice (and that I have not yet read Everybody Brings Noodles).

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storytelling is a tad bland -- the little girl goes from neighbor's house to neighbor's house looking for her little brother and he's always just been and gone. Of course, everyone happens to be cooking dinner and happens to be cooking rice dishes ;-) But, since I love learning about different cultures, it interested me. Some of the families are immigrant families and it mentions about them working late, having multiple jobs, older children pitching in to help support the family, etc. I appreciate that the little girl is friends with all of them and that the message is trying to show that we have not only differences but similarities. The illustrations are not quite my cup of tea and rather '90s in style, but nothing that detracted too much.

I liked the recipes at the back of the book. Most of them look delicious and most can be made vegetarian:

Black-Eyed Peas and Rice (Barbados)

Turmeric Rice with Pigeon Peas (Puerto Rico)

Fried Rice with Nuoc Cham (Vietnam)

Biryani (India)

Tofu and Vegetables (China)

Rice and Beans (Haiti)

Risi e Bisi (Italy)

I was still left wanting more. There was so much room to highlight the different cultures and I felt the information was just very superficial and not at all evocative of the differences, aside from how the people looked and the variations on the rice recipes. For a similar idea but more satisfying story, try Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little girl visits many of her neighbors in search for her brother and discovers that everybody cooks rice. A fun story and the best part - recipes are provided at the end of the book to turn the book reading into an experience!

Ages: 4 - 8

#geography #global #culture #food

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[Joanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the idea of the book , it presents the idea to children that we are all different yet the same. I'm sure the book's author had good intentions, but i found too many stereotypes in the story . For example, the main character visits a Haitian women's home and the women's husband is not home because he works two jobs often gets home very late; obviously this family has to be in bad financial standing because it later reveals that the children come home from their work break to enjoy a bowl of rice with their mother and main character. So, they all have to work to help with the income and there are several associations with Haiti and Poverty. The story is about the way different cultures make rice, so i was confused as to why those details were added in. Another association to poverty was the Diaz family, when the main character visits them she finds the children are cooking because there mom works late. The book does not mention anything about a father figure, so i'm guessing that implies that the father figure is missing in their lives. Again, i like the idea of how you can introduce differences of culture to children in a creative way, however, it is important to be cautious of certain stereotypes and how it could affect readers.

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read to K and M for the Cedar Rapids winter reading challenge. Cute, nice illustrations. Also includes recipes. Not a good idea to read without food.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books that presents both a learning opportunity and a chance to enjoy a story thrown together. Unfortunately as much as it could have been a winner I felt that the actual story itself fell through in so many places for the reader who may truly be interested in it.

First of all the story is kind of long so I would recommend it for the older elementary crowd while at the same time recommending that an adult be around to help enunciate some of the more foreign words. For those who don't live in such a multicultural neighborhood there may also be some trouble for the reader to be able to grasp some of the nuances of the foods used.

At the same time the telling of the story itself is rather a bland telling and isn't anything truly memorable. With the characters as flat as the tone of the story there really isn't anything memorable to be had from this story.

For those who are more interested in trying various ethnic dishes there are plenty of recipes in the back. Otherwise another no-go book for me....

[Carolyn at Bloomers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carrie goes house to house looking for her brother Anthony and sees what everyone is making for dinner. We see a lot of diversity, and yet commonality. Everyone cooks rice, in many different ways. The differences are celebrated. What I really appreciate in this book is how ethnically diverse her neighborhood is and how close knit they are as neighbors.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are somewhat dated, but the theme is terrific. And look at all the wonderful recipes, all of which are doable! I'm so glad that this was digitized and is now available at libraries on Libby/Overdrive.

[Noah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked it quite a bit it was very good read it two times

[Blessy Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading challenges are always fun!
The latest one was to read a children's book that incorporated diversity as a central theme. I don't usually read children's books and therefore, I had not much of an idea on what I was supposed to read. After some google searching, I narrowed it down to Norah Dooley's Everybody Cooks Rice. It's a fairly simple book that shows a girl from an Italian family exploring the many similarities in cooking cultures (in this case, rice), shared by ethnically diverse families settled in her neighborhood. Though the book tries to look for commonalities between cultures, it also feels highly superficial. The only thing you learn at the end is that for some fortuitous reason, everyone is cooking rice that day! I guess what I'm trying to say is that the book plays so safe with the diversity theme that I wondered if it could have any discernible impact on encouraging children to be more accepting individuals.
I also liked the illustrations but i felt that the illustrator, Peter J. Thornton, does not make a more committed effort in distinguishing various characters in terms of their facial expressions and skin color. In fact, the illustrations look utterly bland. One actually misses the wild colorful beauty of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.
Children's books are not usually my cup of tea but still an occasional stroll into this genre isn't too bad either. Mostly because they are a huge break from those big 600 pages of endless writing!
#childrensbook #norahdooley #peterjthornton #quickreads #everybodycooksrice #readinglist2019 #readingchallenge2019

[Brandi Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story talks about a diverse neighborhood. Carrie’s mother asks her to go find her little brother because dinner is almost ready. The little brother is a “mooch” who is always tasting the neighbors’ dinner, so Carrie goes door to door looking for him. Along the way, she too tried their dinners. Neighbors are from Barbados, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, India, China, Haiti, and Italy. The main character tastes all their neighbors’ food and comments on how delicious all the dishes are. There are many differences between all their cultures, but all of their meals include rice. The story mentions the different spices and vegetables each culture uses. It also mentions different things like Tiffin carries used by the Indian family and the wok and chopsticks used by the Chinese family. The book also exclaims that the Haitian mother speaks 3 different languages French, English and Creole! I do wish the story would have celebrated the cultural differences a little more in depth. The illustrations were okay, but not particularly exciting. I wish there was more variety in the skin tones. Overall not a bad book, but I think it could have been better executed by highlight the differences along with the similarities.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far, this is one of my favorite children's books. I adore how the author depicts so much when speaking about the different types of families that live in the neighborhood. From the spices to words in other languages, to the countries where everyone is from. The best part though is how the author describes how their food brings everyone together. Everyone had different family situations, with some parents being at home, to some working late while the children cook, to some bringing their parents leftovers, and to some children coming home from their own jobs. No matter what the situation, though, these families are connected by their culture and the food that they eat. Even better, every family in the neighborhood is connected because of their love for each other and one common food- rice!
The realistic art style in this book is also amazing, the colors come in a wide variety and are bright. It gives the reader a feeling of happiness when reading. The people in the book all look different because they are all from different places. I think that is a beautiful part of this book as well.

[Christopher Syers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never has a book made me so hungry! I had to pause in the middle of reading to cook some rice to tide myself over. I used this recipe -

- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 bunch cilantro, stems and leaves separated, both finely chopped
- 1 cup long-grain white rice, such as jasmine or basmati
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal), plus more to taste
- 1 large jalapeño, thinly sliced
- Juice of 1/2 lime, plus more to taste

- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil, then stir in the onion powder and cilantro stems until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the rice and stir until oil-slicked, just a few seconds.

- Add 1 cups water, raise the heat to high and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan and cook until all of the water is absorbed, 17 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the rice sit, covered, to steam for 10 more minutes.

- Fold in the salt, cilantro leaves, jalapeño and lime juice. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and lime juice as desired.

Delicious! Eric Kim never misses.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept of this story, there are many different families in the neighborhood but they all eat rice. It is a good book to explore the fact that there are many diverse families and we can connect somehow with one another. However, I can see how a lot of readers may see the unnecessary stereotypes. The illustrator, Peter Thornton says the characters and settings illustrated are based off of his actual neighborhood. So these are not stereotypes if they are true, but readers should also know that not every Haitian husband works two jobs and not every Chinese household has a panda stuffed animal. Each picture of the households show a nice kitchen, I did not see any representation of poor or rich, every one seemed to be equal! I really love the recipes in the back, this is a great idea so families can explore other culture's rice dishes. The paragraphs are fairly lengthy and children may lose interest if they are not engaged or connecting to the story.

[Jacqueline Caniglia & Shannen Nestor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This picture books contains aspects of diversity and multiculturalism surrounding how rice is cooked differently in different cultures. Carrie's little brother does not go home for dinner so she is sent to look in her neighbors houses for him. When she goes to ask her neighbors the whereabouts of her brother, she sees the different ways rice is being cooked due to the differences in culture.

This book is recommended for students in grades k-2. It is a great picture book to use to evoke conversations about diversity. It gives opportunities for students to make connections in ways their own families are different than everyone else's.

This story can be paired with any other picture book texts that relate to multiculturalism and diversity. The social justice concept of diversity can be discussed after reading and students can learn to celebrate and advocate for the differences in culture within their own classrooms!

[Ahnya Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Everybody Cooks Rice" is a realistic fiction book about a boy that goes around looking for his brother at different houses around the neighborhood. The story introduces detailed information about families from different nations. The book talks about cultural foods, family structures, and language.

I think that this book is really great because it doesn't lightly brush on topic of each culture, but goes into detail about the activities that are going on inside of the families that the main character is walking in on. All of the representations of cultures in this book are viewed positively and doesn't show any stereotypes. Not only is cultural diversity shown, but also diversity in family types.
This book allows for the readers to feel like their being immersed into a different culture at the turn of every page. The story is interesting and relatable to children who may come from diverse backgrounds. The characters are realistic and honestly displays many cultures.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really charming tale about a girl looking for her little brother. In the meantime, she visits seven different neighbor families, and observes that each of them have special ethnic rice dishes. She also notices but doesn’t emphasize that all of these immigrants are working, sometimes multiple jobs, and stay close to home. When the narrator finally returns home and finds her brother there, she discovers that her mother is also making a rice dish learned from her grandmother. Thus, the title of the book.

Included at the back pages is a basic recipe for rice, and then seven different recipes for rice dishes made in other countries: Barbados, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, India, China, Haiti, and Italy.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series. For 1991, it's really impressive. I could've done without the commentary about where everyone was (basically anyone who wasn't white was "working two jobs", "working late," working at their afterschool jobs, etc.) Something about every non-white person, essentially everyone except the protagonist and her family, there's some sort of commentary about them working so they can't all eat dinner at the same time, and it left a weird taste. I also wish there was some sort of backmatter about rice and where it came from, and how it came to be a part of so many different cuisines, since it's a plant (unlike the other books in the series: soup, noodles, bread), and isn't something that grows everywhere. I did appreciate the recipes, and for 1991, it really wasn't bad.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a little girl who goes around her neighborhood experiencing different cultures and foods while she looks for her little brother. The book goes through different families and what they are cooking for dinner. Each family is cooking with rice in a different way that shows how it can be used within different cultures such as, Vietnamese food, food from Barbados, Chinese food, Indian food, and other cultures as well. The book does a great job of showing how one ingredient can be used in many different ways and in many different cultures. The book does a good job of describing the different ways it is cooked and whether it is spicy, sweet, or salty. This book would be good to use in the classroom because children form all different cultures may relate to this book and think about the various ways that their family uses rice to cook. The book also would be good for students to see the similarities that can be found in culture and cooking, while also showing the beauty of the differences.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is adorable. It is about a little girl who goes looking for her brother, Anthony, and dinnertime and stops by each neighbors house. They all invite her inside and she is able to see that everyone cooks rice, just like her family. I love that this book portrays different cultures in a positive light. This book is not stereotypical and cultures are represented appropriately. The illustrations are colorful and accurate, and would be perfect for children. There is a nice plot, Carrie looking for her brother, and a lot goes on until then, holding children's interest. A variety of cultures and perspectives are included. I really enjoyed the story.

[Tiyahna Ridley-Padmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley is an illustrated children's book that tells the story of Carrie, a young Italian girl who is asked to fetch her dinner for brother. As she goes house to house looking for him, she visits her neighbours from Barbados, Vietnam, China, India and Haiti and is surprised to see that they are all cooking with rice. The end of the book concludes with a set of recipes containing rice from each of the cultures featured.

The idea behind the book is to demonstrate similarity through difference. Although each of Carrie's neighbours are culturally distinct and have their own way of cooking rice, they are still united in that they all cook rice. It's unclear what age group this book is for. It is set up as an illustrated book for younger children but there is quite a bit of text on each page that may not be particularly engaging for a younger audience.

[Madi Ekholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This picture book follows Carrie who has to go on the hunt for her younger brother since he is late for dinner. While doing so, she passes by a lot of houses and each one shows how the families are making rice but differently This book does a great job of showing a wide variety of cultures. I would read the book to my students then use a lesson to talk about different vocab words that the book uses or has good examples of. In this case culture, different customs, and how these terms relate to the students.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Fiction
Grade Level: Lower or Upper Elementary

I think that this book had a very important message. The main character was trying to find her brother in the neighborhood to bring him home for dinner. She encounters many diverse families, all of which were cooking the same meal for dinner. I think it was trying to convey that people might look different from one another, but we are all the same in some way. It was very interesting to learn about other cultures, but overall it was not very exciting. Therefore, I would only give this book 3 stars.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premise of this book: lots of cultures eat rice, but in different ways, and they're all fantastic. I, personally, got stuck because of my inability to cook rice. I know, right? I didn't grow up eating lots of rice (the Irish eat lots of meat and potatoes), and now about 50% of the time I make rice, I mess it up somehow. So, though the idea is cool, I just kept thinking about how I can't cook rice.

[Mrs. Ruigrok · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story about a young child going through the neighbourhood looking to find her brother. As she stops at each house, she discovers and shares what they are cooking...only to find out that they are having rice, in some way or another at each house in the neighbourhood...all of whom are from different cultural backgrounds. The book also includes recipes for each of the different kinds of rice.

[Karissa Teichman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody Cooks Rice is a great book for children because it targets the diverse classrooms. This is a great way to have children relate to one another, no matter what country they are from. Essentially, this book tries to convey the message that everyone cooks rice, no matter the country they are in. I loved this book because the students I work with all come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and this can make them unite as one and relate to one another.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the concept and message of this book...it's true! Rice is a food used all around the world, in many different cultures, cooked so many different ways. I also liked how they included the recipes they mentioned in the back of the book. This could potentially make reading this story all the more interactive!

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay this is actually so much fun. At first, I was worried that it was going to be too wordy, but it was actually really enjoyable and went really quickly. It really emphasized that there were SO many different cultures, and all of them cook and make rice in a different way. The descriptions that were used made me hungry, which is okay because there were recipes for everything in the end!

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A girl, in search of her little brother, goes to her diverse neighbors' houses and experiences their dinner preparations, which all include a rice recipe.

Includes all the recipes mentioned in the back.