Food in children's literature

The importance of literature to children seems to be sadly deteriorating due to new types of entertainment such as the internet, games consoles and television. It's probably safe to say that the average modern day child would not choose to read a book over the other endless forms of media based entertainment they have at their fingertips. There are some interesting blogs available which focus on young children and their development.

Trevor Cairney's blog 'Literacy, Families and Learning' provides personal tips to parents and teachers on early developments. This post focuses on the importance of early reading: 

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/early%20reading

In my opinion, my generation was the last that really valued literature as a day to day pass time over other forms of entertainment. Social networking and Playstation were available when I was young, but not to the scale at which they dominate children's lives today.

Now, back to the matter in hand. One of the ingredients (excuse the pun.) I enjoyed stumbling across most within my children's books was, of course, FOOD. So many of my beloved reads as a child featured weird and wonderful foods, and scenes of children devouring food together, that just made me want to be inside that book even more.

A few favourites...

Paddington Bear and his 'elevenses'. And the fact that he carried marmalade in his suitcase, just in case, which made me love him even more.




(Of course) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Just the whole book.

 

Turkish Delight in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Never has a food, that made me feel so tempted within literature, turned out to taste so utterly foul.

Bruce Bogtrotter devouring the enormous chocolate cake in Matilda. It was a triumphant and decadent scene in both the book and the film adaptation,  and both equally made me salivate for gooey, spongey, scrumptious chocolate cake.

 The food described so imaginatively within these books made me want to taste it more than anybody else could. Immersing myself in the worlds these books created made me feel immersed in the descriptions of taste, texture and vibrant colour. My love of Paddington Bear (and the teddy I had helped a bit) helped the decision that I would only eat marmalade on my toast for about three years. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory just made me want to create wonderful concoctions. And Turkish Delight just made me feel sick.

All I remember before the age of 11 was sitting under my bunk bed reading endless Roald Dahl, or hiding under my covers after bedtime with a torch so I could find out what happened in the next chapter of the latest Jacqueline Wilson book. As children's enjoyment of simple entertainment like this seems to be dying out, I thought this entry a fine opportunity to celebrate the classic and timeless children's books- and here are a handful to maybe jog somebodies childhood literary memory. 

  

So many of these books evoked imagination and discovery inside the children that read them, and made the worlds within them seem places which must to be discovered. Many children's books did this with food. The descriptions and the images made children want to smell, taste, touch and create.