A fascinating picture book in which four families, in four different cities, over four centuries, make the same delicious dessert: blackberry fool. This richly detailed book ingeniously shows how food, technology, and even families have changed throughout American history. In 1710, a girl and her mother in Lyme, England, prepare a blackberry fool, picking wild blackberries and beating cream from their cow with a bundle of twigs. The same dessert is prepared by an enslaved girl and her mother in 1810 in Charleston, South Carolina; by a mother and daughter in 1910 in Boston; and finally by a boy and his father in present-day San Diego. Kids and parents alike will delight in discovering the differences in daily life over the course of four centuries. Includes a recipe for blackberry fool and notes from the author and illustrator about their research.

 

This book has been graded for interest at 4-8 years.

There are 44 pages in this book. This book was published 2015 by Schwartz & Wade Books .

Emily Jenkins writes books for both adults and children. She has a doctorate in English literature from Columbia and reviews children's books for The New York Times . She teaches a course in writing for children at New York University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Rukhsana Khan lives in Toronto, Canada. Sophie Blackall lives in Brooklyn, New York.