Non-Fiction Monday: Pizza and Pasta

I think this will Pasta and Pizza theme will be a fun, different theme - something that everyone will likely appreciate! Have fun with it!

Rotner, Shelley and Julia Pemberton Hellums.
Hold the Anchovies!: A Book about Pizza.
1996.
Orchard Books.
Guided Reading Level: I
Review copy borrowed from local library.

Little ears will easily absorb all this information about pizza! The books walks children step-by-step through the process of making pizza... from collecting the grains to make the dough, to growing the tomatoes (for sauce) and peppers (for toppings) to the oven's roll in browning and crisping the final product!

Learning/Reading Activity:

• This book would make for a perfect sequencing activity if you're looking to check out your child(ren)'s comprehension skills but have trouble holding their interest with other books. A fun pizza sequencing activity can be downloaded here.
  

Thomson, Peggy.
Siggy's Spaghetti Works.
1993.
Tambourine Books.
Guided Reading Level: P
Review copy borrowed from local library.

This book is so chuck full of information about how to make pasta, readers will soon be begging you to try it out at home! The illustrations, walking readers through Siggy's Spaghetti factory seem almost life-like... you can almost imagine yourself touring the factory! Not only is the process of making pasta demonstrated, Siggy's Spaghetti Works goes into great detail about how the different pastas are formed (ABC's, macaronis, spaghetti, etc). Siggy shares how pasta is colored and flavored and also shares with readers information about how pasta first came to be!

I must warn you though, while this is an incredible story detailing the "life" of pasta, it is a lengthy read and will take some time. It might be best to read this to yourself first and figure out how to break it up over the course of two or three readings so kids don't lose interest! However, it's very worthwhile, especially to introduce this pasta and pizza theme!

Learning/Reading Activities:

• Purchase a cheap pasta maker and make an afternoon of it with the kids! Amazon.com has several different models for under $30, one of which can be purchased here!
• Family Fun has a very simple, homemade pasta recipe that doesn't even require the use of a pasta maker! The recipe can be found here.
• Here are two other recipes for making homemade pasta using a pasta machine - one using eggs and one not using eggs. Both look very simple!
  

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!