Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls

Rating:
Summary: Still the best cookbook for kids
Review: I still have this cookbook in my collection 40 years after receiving it, and I still use it every time I make meatloaf. This book is a good basic book that covers nutrition and real meal preparation, not just snacks, even though there are a lot of fun things too. And the color pictures are glorious! I remember cheese dreams-yum! I think I will get another copy as my old one is pretty tattered. Come to think of it, I might get this for my first-born's first apartment-makes a better starter cookbook than most!!!

Rating:
Summary: Little people like to cook too!!
Review: My daughter loves to cook and it was a challenge for me to find a cookbook that she could work from. I was thrilled when I came across this book. She loves it and cooks from it every week...who knows, maybe we'll have a four-star chef in the family one day. I'm so thankful for this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Cook Book For Kids!!
Review: My Great-Aunt Pauline gave me this book way back in the 1960's and I still have the book. I still use the book every once in awhile to get a new recipe, but mostly I look at it to bring back memories of when me and my brother used to fight over what new recipe we were gonna try next. My 2 sons, aged 14 & 21 think that the pictures are goofy. My 21 yr. old has cooked a few recipes from the book, he loves to cook and is going to Culinary Arts school. (I think this cookbook helped him to decide to be a chef.) I still love the book. It is the most treasured book that I have! It is by far the best cookbook you could get for a child..

Rating:
Summary: Creating a stir
Review: Nirvana for the pre-EZ Bake Oven set. But even in the name of unadulterated mid-century nostalgia, was it really necessary to reprint the racially-offensive recipe for "Ole Black Joe," a breakfast abomination in which a wrinkled prune is dolled up to resemble the face of an elderly Afro-American man? Really bad taste in more ways than one!!!

Rating:
Summary: My First Cookbook
Review: This was my first cookbook; and, although its condition is worn and the cover is duct taped together, I still planned to pass it on to my daugthers. What fun, what memories, what an excellent first cookbook. With the reissue, I have purchased two, one for each of my kids! A memory and an heirloom!

Rating:
Summary: gr8 book, why pull the race card???
Review: What a great book that's available again. Why did a previous reviewer have to pull the race card, just take the format and appreciate it for what is was 46 yrs. ago, and move on, be thankful for where we are today. I can't wait for my children to open this up on xmas morn, and we make a meal once a week together. Enjoy, I know my family will!!!

Rating:
Summary: Cookbook Heaven for Kids
Review: When I was a little girl, I used this cookbook a lot. I won a fair contest with the exciting Castle Cake, and at the age of 12 made the Barbie Cake for my little sister's birthday. The directions are very easy and the pictures are great. My own children now love the recipes and enjoy making their own Bunny salad that look like little bunnies. A family favorite.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful kids' cookbook, very retro.
Review: While I realize it's not an exact copy of the original, it is a wonderful look at food from the 50s and 60s. I got it because of my fascination with food history and wasn't disappointed.

50s food was garish and a bit twee, but there's still a lot here that will sound appealing to modern readers. I just made the Hot Fudge Pudding (a baked chocolate bread-style pudding) that was without question one of the strangest things I've ever cooked, but it was absolutely delicious--made the entire cookbook worth the buy, just that recipe right there. I've made flourless chocolate torte and STILL think this was the weirdest dessert I've ever made.

Nothing here is outside a kid's abilities; it's all just following directions. There's some chopping and oven use, but none of the talking-down that other children's cookbooks employ ("get an adult to turn the oven on" being the most irritating example of this, and all absent from this book). Recipes tend toward the simple--chili, soup, biscuits, cakes, cookies, salads, breakfasts--with a concentration on making the food appealing to kids.

I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars because most of it's arranging food, with no actual cooking. Page after page of imaginative ways to put fruit on cereal and make shapes out of salad parts isn't my idea of cooking. I'd rather have had more actual recipes. But that's my own preference. As a snapshot of another era, this is a fantastic little book and I wouldn't hesitate to suggest someone buy it as a gift. I'm not sure how much actual kids would enjoy it, but adults and food wonks should love it, and introducing it to a child as "This is how I ate when I was your age" should work well. And do try the Hot Fudge Pudding thing; if that doesn't convert them, nothing will.