The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time

Film and TV producer David (An Inconvenient Truth) enlists more than 50 child-care experts, writers, celebrities, activists, musicians, and chefs—including Nora Ephron, Maya Angelou, Judge Judy, Michael Pollan, Sheryl Crow, and Alice Waters—in support of family mealtime rituals. Mother of two girls, David presents a grab bag of child-friendly ideas from her trial-and-error experiments before and after divorcing actor Larry David: creative table settings; quick weekday meals and leftovers; cooking with kids; table games; reading selections and discussion topics; and ways for divorced parents to establish food traditions. For the recipes, Uhrenholdt draws on her Danish heritage and global flavors. It may take effort to entice young children with artichokes and edamame, most will likely enjoy composting and gardening; while teens may balk at table games, David knows how to snag an audience with viable alternatives to enemies of health and togetherness (TV, computers, cellphones, factory farm–produced foods, soda, plastics, etc.). She tempers her earnest tone with whimsical flourishes (poetry, quotes) and nostalgic reminiscences from contributors. Parents willing to adjust busy schedules to raise healthy, conscious, and confident children will find David's ideas practical and enjoyable, her passion irresistible. (Nov.)