cover image Bread Lab!

Bread Lab!

Kim Binczewski and Bethany Econopouly, illus. by Hayelin Choi. Readers to Eaters, $18.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-9984366-0-9

When Iris’s Aunt Mary visits, she provides a sourdough bread–making tutorial. Mary explains the chemistry behind baking bread: a starter is “full of microbes—creatures so small you can see them only with a microscope,” she says. In Choi’s friendly digital art, microbes are rendered like anthropomorphic monsters, “happily gobbling up the food... and burping up bubbles.” Finally, the bread is ready to bake, then eat. Binczewski, managing director of the Bread Lab research center, and Econopouly, an agriculturalist, deliver a straightforward look at the science behind—and joys of—baking bread. A detailed recipe for sourdough bread concludes. Ages 6–10. [em](Sept.) [/em]