Joshua Lurie's "History Is Delicious" promises to be a delectable journey through the history of cuisine and culture around the world. With the aim of making history engaging and informative for children, this book touches upon various cultures, dishes, and even includes some recipes. However, despite its noble intentions, the book falls short in its execution by employing language that is often too complex for its target audience and relying on uninformed stereotypes.

One of the glaring issues with "History Is Delicious" is its language, which is often unsuitable for a children's book. While it's important to introduce young readers to the rich tapestry of global cuisine, the book fails to do so in an age-appropriate manner. For instance, the book implies that the only silverware in Asia is chopsticks, and the only food worth mentioning in Africa is coffee. Such generalizations not only misinform but also perpetuate stereotypes that are far from the truth. These misleading and oversimplified statements do a disservice to young readers, failing to offer them a nuanced understanding of the diverse cultures and cuisines of the world.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I am so into food and the origins and this book was very interesting to me. I will definitely recommend to others.

"History is Delicious" by Joshua Lurie is an engaging look at food from around the world and is a great way to introduce young readers to different cultures. I particularly appreciated the representation of different parts of the world. Rather than treating each country/area as a monolith, Long offers information on the cuisine of the different regions, which illustrates how food can vary across the continent..

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

I really liked this! It was informative and the illustrations were really nice. This is a really good book if you are wanting to introduce yourself to new meals from around the world.

A history book about food, written for kids, so it’s easy to read and learn about new things.
This is a well-written and researched book. It exposes kids to information that can expand their knowledge historically and culinarily. I hope that every kid that reads this book has an adult in their life that will help them to find and taste the foods they learn about and want to experience for themselves. If you have a child in your world who is incredibly curious or adventurous I recommend getting this book for them. And even as adults, there is a lot in it for us to learn too.

History can be a chore for children but History is Delicious makes learning history fun. The brightly colored illustrations bring the food to life and embrace the reader. The connection to food in each region was done in a very simple and understandable way. Many readers will pour over where food originated from and want to experience a diverse range after reading this book.

Really entertaining and informative, I loved the Honest History magazine and this was a nice extension of that.

As I said about "History Is Inventive", I wish this book had existed back when I was a young historian! It's refreshing to have the layers peeled back on history, specifically in this case the history of food. I'm hoping this trend continues and follows into school curriculums. Recommended!

More like a snippets of foods around the world, which consist of so many dishes altogether, praises for the author who tried to highlight foods rarely talked about, like Asians and Middle Eastern, also South American. Merely reading this book made me lick my lips a lot of times.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Love this book! the artwork is adorable and colorful in the perfect way, i love how it introduces different cultures and food too! want to buy for sure!

I love the concept, and there’s a lot of info here to digest (pun totally intended, sorry) and I did learn a lot about culinary traditions and foods from around the world. On the other hand, all that information means that the book is pretty text-heavy, so it’s definitely skewed for older kids. The layout of this book was a little funky and made it a little difficult to follow. I did like that the sections were color coded and the bright illustrations were really nice.

I’m so grateful to NetGalley and Honest History for the opportunity to read and review History is Delicious.

⭐⭐⭐

This book was okay. It's delightfully colorful and eye-catching and filled with interesting information about foods from around the world. That said, it seemed a bit "wordy" for a children’s book. I don't think this would hold a child's interest for long. 🤷🏻‍♀️ However, it held this adults' attention, so it get's an extra star for that!

**ARC Via NetGalley**

A fun graphic history of food! I loved the images and all the snippets of information. Very informative, and the recipes are going to be super fun to try out!

This isn’t an in-depth look at world cuisine and to pretend it is would be unfair. This book is a basic young person’s guide to foods of the world, with some basic recipes thrown in.

I thought the text was clear, concise and easy to read for a variety of age ranges - I have no doubt my students would find this an engaging piece of non-fiction to place in the book corner.

The layout, however, I struggled with. It was very helpfully divided by location but there were general interest sections thrown into the mix that seemed confusing to me so I have no doubt a younger reader would also struggle to make sense about why the section on Europe begins with a “dining dos and don’t” page featuring… Costa Rica.
The one thing you can’t do when teaching children a global subject is make them confused about geography.

I would rate it higher but I strongly feel the layout really lets this book down and I know my students would struggle to understand.

History is Delicious by Joshua Lurie is such a unique children's book that teaches young readers about food history. I had not seen a children's book like this before, and I think it is very educational and well written.

I don't rate books that I DNF unless they are hurtful or problematic, which I find this book to be, especially considering it's supposed to be a children's book. I got through most of this and then skimmed the rest, but yuck.

The first issue I have, and the least troublesome, is that the layout of this book is terrible. Right after we jump into the Americas section, there's a huge sub-section on Table Settings Around the World. Like what? Out of nowhere. That's just one example, but there are countless times the formatting doesn't make sense.

The second I have, also not a huge issue, is that this book doesn't even feel like a children's book. It's riddled with huge paragraphs with complex words and meanings. I could grasp middle grade, but no way this is a children's book.

The third I have is with the huge amount of misinformation in here. After noticing a few problematic and questionable remarks made in this book, I decided to see if I was alone in thinking how inappropriate this book is. I was definitely not alone. There are plenty of reviews that highlight the issues in this book and so I'd highly recommend looking at the other 1-star reviews. I don't want to just repeat everything they've already said, but I will give some examples that made me do a triple take. These are actual notes I took while reading this book.

-"We're connected through migration patterns and trade routes, along with historical factors such as colonization that have not always been positive." ???!?????? Need I even say more?? What the actual fuck?

-What cutlery do they use in Asia? This guy took in all the countries in our largest, and extremely diverse, continent and literally just said "Chopsticks." Bruh.

-India is one of the most diverse countries in the entire world and that's expressed in the food there so so so much. And he goes with chaat, dosas, samosa, and biryani?? At this rate, I'm surprised he didn't literally put butter chicken on there.

-Africa exists, first of all. Secondly, all the African food I've ever tried in my life has been life-changing so the fact the only time Africa is discussed is a small section on Ethiopian coffee and Egyptian food (but under the Middle East section) is beyond me. Disgusting.

Thank you NetGalley and Honestly History for an advanced reader copy. All opinions and thoughts are very clearly my own.

History is enjoying a rare moment in the sun due to the controversy surrounding teaching the 1619 Project and critical race theory in American schools. Often considered one of the most dry subjects in school it rarely receives the attention it deserves and has increasingly been marginalized in primary and secondary education. In the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or Nation’s Report Card, American students scored lower on assessments of their knowledge of U.S. history compared to 2014.

The renewed interest in history is leading many education innovators and curriculum developers to begin publishing more history-focused materials. The Honest History franchise is dedicated to developing materials that help students “explore the past and re-discover stories of people, just like us, who changed the world.” There is an Honest History magazine and on August 10 the company will launch a series of history books entitled “History is…” The first two titles are History is Inventive and History is Delicious.

History is Inventive chronicles groundbreaking inventions developed throughout time. It begins with ancient innovations like surgeries and moves through various epochs in world history to more contemporary inventions like televisions, computers, and wi-fi. Readers can also learn about how to obtain a patent and other invention related topics. History is Delicious is a fun title that explores the cuisine and eating customs on different continents across the world. This includes the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The book also covers more generalized food topics like popular spices.

While neither of these books focuses on U.S. history alone, they would make a fun addition to any educational environment. They would be an excellent compliment to studies of world history as the content spans the globe in both books. Educators can read the books aloud in a homeschool or classroom while students enjoy the beautiful illustrations. The books are also very substantive and have a significant reading component for independent readers. At approximately 80 pages they would not make up the spine of a curriculum, but could be a great supplement.

This review is based on an advanced review copy. Visit the Honest History website linked above to find out more about the franchise and new titles.

I loved the idea of this book, and it does have a lot of good info. The book is split into sections called America's, Europe, Coffee Break (covers coffee and condiments), Asia, and the Middle East.
The book does talk about food traditions, utensils, ingredients, and history of dishes. Some of the pages have great illustrations, but others are lacking and are long pages of text. I wish there were more illustrations or even photos of some of the lesser known dishes, especially since this is a book geared towards children. I think it would be best for older elementary or middle school students, but with pages full of text they might struggle to stay interested. The book is under 100 pages, so I felt it could have been longer by adding more illustrations or pictures and still been a reasonably sized book.
I also wished there were more recipes - there was just one each at the end of sections.

I requested a copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.

How gorgeous and such fun! I love food and I love learning and even though I am an adult, this was a great book to read for me as I feel very lacking in the history department.

The book is super colourful and gorgeous with easy to read fonts and recipes.

I do think young people would love it and learn from it for both information and cooking.

#HistoryIsDelicious #NetGalley

I really enjoyed History is Delicious; despite being familiar with many of the dishes, I learned a lot more through its infographic style.. I liked the Dinning Do's and Don'ts, breakdown of generally popular dishes. There aren't as many recipes as I thought there would be, but overall I enjoyed the book very much.