A Fine Dessert

A Fine Dessert
By Emily Jenkins
Illustrated by Sophisticated Black all
Bluebonnet Award

This book is about a blackberry fool recipe and how it has been enjoyed throughout four centuries by different people.  First, in 1710 the recipe is prepare by a mother and her daughter.  They pick the blueberries and skim the cream from the milk.  They prepare the recipe and they an joy it.  Later, in 1810 a slave woman and her daughter prepare the same recipe for their masters the method is a little different but the outcome was the same.  In 1910 in Boston, Massachusetts, a mother and her daughter buy the ingredients to make the same recipe from a recipe book.  Once again  the method is a little different but the delicious outcome of satisfaction is the same.  And finally in 2010, in San Diego, California, a man and his son go to the grocery store and buy all the ingredients to make blackberry fool.  In this case the dad looks up the recipe in the Internet and he cooks it together with his son.  Four hundred years apart, with many variations in customs and society, people made the same recipe.

I would use this book in in many class because it shows the way in which culture has changed throughout the centuries.  I would use this book in  a social studies lesson. This book is appropriate for First through Third grade.