Chaat and Sweets

by Amy Wilson Sanger

The 7th book in Tricycle's World Snacks series introduces toddlers to Indian snack foods known as chaat. Scrumptious treats like bhel puri (rice puff salad), tandoori chicken, and sweet coconut cham-cham, look good enough to eat in Wilson Sanger's gorgeous collage art, while her trademark bouncy text will please little ears.

 World Snacks books have sold more than 160,000 copies. Includes punctuation guide and glossary of Indian terms used in the book.

Genres: Picture Books, India, Food, Childrens

20 pages, Board Book

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Tayler K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spotted this at the library and had to pick it up. Our area isn't the most diverse (though there does seem to be a good bit of Indian people a couple towns over) so honestly I was surprised to see this book at all, and the bright colors were very eye-catching. The papercraft/collage art style was cute. This would be great for an Indian child to read (representation, ftw) or to introduce multicultural foods.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute! And it made me hungry. I thought the art was exceptional, and it did a great job of introducing kids (and me!) to foods they would probably never otherwise experience. And if it ended up increasing the traffic at the local Indian restaurant, well, that's not such a bad thing! Side note: The trick to doing this one as a read-aloud is to act really, really hungry and say Mmmmm...a lot. the kids get right into it!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great one! Especially the art.

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amy Wilson Sanger gives young readers a taste of international cuisine with her World Snacks series. Fun rhyming text is paired with mixed media illustrations. Each book either has a pronunciation guide or a description of each food that's talked about. These books are great to include in a library with a focus on different cultures.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of this book but I smell cultural appropriation

[Twos Bothell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations of this book are amazing. It introduces a variety of foods from India culture, which many students in my twos class have called favorite items. There is even definitions on the back with pronunciation and that is very helpful. The only part I was unsure of is the end with a picture of a god. Our school doesn’t usually add anything religious to its curriculum, and the book doesn’t say who it is or anything, it’s just the image, and thanking India. We are curious about the author, who has no information we could find, and hope that it is from an authentic source. She has many different cultures of food books listed as hers.

[Nisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite my high rating, my son still does not enjoy this book. While I think the art is clever, he finds it quite boring. I think it's because none of the food have faces and there isn't really a storyline. Anyway, I still stand by my rating, because it is still cute and a nice introduction to ethnic foods. How often do word primers have non-Western foods featured?

I find that the tissue paper collage style artwork is a bit unappealing, just because Indian food isn't pretty begin with, but, the text and writing style is quite fun and flows smoothly. I am Hindu and I have no problems with the Hindu god featured on the last page, but I can see some people finding that strange, especially since this book is marketed to encourage diversity in FOOD.

Overall, it's cute and colorful, so I recommend it to those who want to introduce something different to your children.