posted on 27 Nov 2020

Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street: A Collection of Recipes to Share by Felicita Sala

It is often said that nothing brings people together in harmony more effectively than the sharing food and Falicita Sala’s debut picture book for young readers proves the point perfectly.

The book is partly a biography of the inhabitants of the multi-occupied 10 Pomegranate Street and part cookbook for children (and plenty of adults too). On each generous, large format page we are introduced to one of the building’s residents as they are in their kitchens preparing for lunchtime.

Sala gives us a group of tenants from all around the world and this allows us to get the sights, smells and flavours of their native foodstuffs – some familiar and some exotic and probably new to younger children.

It’s pretty much impossible to go through the book without drooling on one page or another as the main drawing shows us the preparation and an adjoining page gives us the (usually) simple recipe that readers will be able to have a stab at recreating. And, of course, the focus is on fresh and healthy ingredients – well, it is until we get to the delicious sweets and puddings!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies ……ummmmmmmmmmmm…..If these don’t unleash the hidden Homer Simpson in your soul then nothing will.

And, delightfully, at the end of all this scrumptiousness the resident cooks and their children make their way to the big round table in the back garden and share their food together:

“Pull up a chair and grab a plate! Everybody’s welcome at 10 Pomegranate Street.”

Sala is a philosophy graduate from the University of Western Australia but now lives in Italy and makes her living as a self-taught children’s book illustrator with several awards to her name. It feels to me that her illustration style owes quite a lot to the children’s books of the 1970s and this gives them something of a retro feel but the use of colour and perspective bring a sort of intimacy to the drawings that’s entirely appropriate to the subject matter.

The book itself is a lovely thing: published by Scribble, an imprint of Scribe Publications in 2019 you should be able to order the book from your local independent bookseller if they haven’t got a copy in stock. If you have to go to the internet you should be able to find copies at around £12.

 

Terry Potter

November 2020