Pizza, Pickles, and Apple Pie
By David Rickert
Middle grade non-fiction illustrated book with a blend of history, pop culture, and science
Astra House, October 31, 2023; 128 pages
Subrights Info
- Translation rights available via Astra House
- UK/ANZ rights available via Astra House
- Film/TV rights available via Janna Co.
- Merchandising and commercial rights available via Janna Co.
How did a pizza become a pizza? Is a pickle really a cucumber in disguise? Explore fascinating food history, nutrition, and American culture through this middle-grade graphic-format nonfiction book for kids that answers oft-asked questions about the foods we love, explaining how they came to be.
Whether it’s pizza and pickles or sushi and salad, there’s a story behind all of our favorite foods. From breakfast to dinner, this book explores popular foods from our history, and explains their origins. Young readers will travel back in time—sometimes thousands of years—to cultures all over the globe to learn how and why foods were discovered. They’ll also meet key people from food history along the way, including the inventor of breakfast cereal and the creator of salad dressing. The science behind unhealthy foods is also explored in this fascinating book, which includes projects and activities for both the classroom and home.
Reviews
“A broader perspective for readers who think no further than cupboards and fridges when asked where their food comes from.”
“Pizza, Pickles, and Apple Pie is a breezy, brief, illustrated history of many of today’s popular foods. Told in comic format, this engrossing piece of nonfiction for middle graders(…)will readily lend itself to multicultural food discussions, related classroom cooking projects, and food-sharing activities. Young readers will enjoy the cartoonish digital illustrations featuring tons of food, multicultural characters, and a cartoonish Thomas Jefferson chowing down on his beloved waffles.”
Awards and Accolades
- Excellence in Graphic Literature Award 2024 Finalist (middle-grade non-fiction)
This book might appeal to fans of Pass the Pandowdy, Please: Chewing On History With Famous Folks and Their Fabulous Foods by Abigail Ewing Zelz and Eric Zelz, How Did That Get In My Lunchbox? The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth and Lucia Gaggiotti, What’s On Your Plate? Exploring the World of Food by Whitney Stewart and Christiane Engel, Random Illustrated Facts: A Collection of Curious, Weird, and Totally Not Boring Things to Know by Mike Lowery, and How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You’re Grown Up by Catherine Newman.
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Author Bio
David Rickert grew up in Columbus, Ohio surrounded by stacks of MAD Magazines, Calvin and Hobbes collections, and Walt Disney comics. He spent most of my free time learning about sable hair brushes and Bristol board so he could pursue a career drawing a comic strip in the style of Sergio Aragonés or Bill Watterson. After receiving a teaching degree and spending a few years in the classroom, the itch to create comics resurfaced. He headed back to the drawing board (literally) to create educational comics, selling them on the TeachersPayTeachers marketplace. His ambition is to use artwork to teach kids about the world they live in. He also wants his work to appeal to kids like his dyslexic nephew Ben, who learned to read from graphic novels. And, in the end, he hopes that children have as much fun reading his work as he has creating them. Visit David at http://davidrickert.com.
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