If it had not been for the specific and at times rather virulent controversies surrounding this book (especially with regard to the illustrations accompanying the plantation scene), I would probably not have read Emily Jenkins' and Sophie Blackall's (author and illustrator respectively) A Fine Dessert all that critically. However, the controversy mentioned above has made me approach it with a much more analytical mindset than I probably would with most picture books and as a result, I have found...

Such a wonderful book about food through history...specifically blackberry fool.

I've thought and thought about this book, especially what rating to give it. I've taken the easy way out by not rating the book. As most who read children's literature professionally know by now, A Fine Dessert has received critical praise; it's one of the New York Times best picture books for 2015. However, the book has also received a great deal of criticism, mostly academic and grassroots, for the depiction of an enslaved slave mother and daughter in this historical look at cooking and family...

Four different time periods, four different parents making blackberry fool with their children. I appreciate the attention to detail and accuracy. Also, now I want to try this, although I wouldn't normally consider myself a big blackberry fan.Addendum: (30 September, 2015) White privilege means not having to think about whether or not I approve of the decision to depict smiling slaves. I'll ponder what Elisa wroteLibrary copy

This book is freaking awesome. A parent and child make blackberry fool in 1710, 1810, 1910 and 2010. It's so minimal and so much.The text by Emily Jenkins (Toys Go Out, and as E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks) shows you the different lives of the dessert-makers -- how they get the cream, the tools they use to whip it, how long it takes, how they keep the bowl cold. The illustrations from Ivy & Bean/Baby Tree/kickass subway poster artist Sophie Blackall let you examin...

One recipe is made during four different centuries and though the recipe stays the same the times do not. Clever way to teach history, that. The illustrations are gorgeous. Delicious even.

I looked at this book and thought, "Oh, this is going to be boring."Big mistake. Actually, this was an amazing book.It's about four different families in four different centuries making blackberry fool.FIRST, we have a white family in 1710 England. A mother, a little girl, and a baby, picking blackberries for blackberry fool.SECOND, we have a black mother and daughter in 1810 Charleston, picking blackberries for blackberry fool on their master's plantation.THIRD, we have a white mother, little g...

When I first read this book, I knew the depiction of slavery was not ok. Since then, I've read many responses to it, from African Americans, that get at what is wrong with it. In particular is one comment from an African American mom who said that when she looks at the page, she thinks of what that mom is doing... getting her daughter ready for a life of slavery. Most of the people who like the book are liking it without the stories of ancestors and what they went through... A Fine Dessert is no...

How many of us have family recipes that have endured through generations? No doubt, many of them are on display during holiday dinners and family get togethers. Have you ever thought about how preparation methods, kitchen appliances, and family dynamics have changed over the many years that these recipes have been in your family. Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall have taken one recipe -- Blackberry Fool -- and told us a story that is for all of us, not just children. The books begins in 1710 and...

I went and tracked down this book because all the award talk and crazy twitter rants going on about this book. I just sighed and said before I go on Twitter warfare let me read the book. After reading it, I definitely went DARNIT! I'm going to be a buzzkill. I read the blog post of the illustrator, the comments, posts, and reviews of the pros and cons---and decided, I will happily be a buzzkill. I've talked to co-workers about the book itself and their opinion---you could easily gloss over it

It's just blackberries, sugar, and whipped cream.How can there be a whole book about it?Well, the book isn't quite about the dessert. I mean, it is, of course, but it's also about how this particular treat has endured through time (from 1710 to 2010) and across two countries (England and the U.S.) and about how, traditionally, this was a mother/daughter undertaking (though, now, fathers and sons can make it, too), and the importance of savoring the sweetness of something you worked to make, the

What a cool way to talk about history with kids. The same dessert is prepared four times, in four different centuries, in four different places. Roughly the same process is used, but other aspects change. Many of the differences are subtle. In the first, a mother and daughter prepare it and serve it to the males in the family before they eat themselves. At the end, the parent/child combination print a recipe off the internet (it's 2010, not 2015 - now, I think we'd just prop up a tablet or phone...

This book is a perfect example of "Diversity" gone wrong. Social history? Fresh fruit? Whipped cream? Sugar? Vanilla? Lovely illustrations? What's not to like? The fact that the author, probably in an attempt to condemn racism, has inadvertently allowed very subtle racism to creep into the story, so subtle that it may escape the notice of many. My objections may differ slightly from those of leading critics, but I agree with the friend who rated it less than okay. Does it not strike people as od...

This deliciously descriptive picture book relates how four different families over the cross of four centuries prepare a yummy blackberry fool. The book begins in 1710 in Lyme, England, and ends in 2010 in San Diego, California. Following each step of preparing the dessert over four different centuries allows readers to note the differences in the way food was prepared as well as considering gender roles, slavery, and even the meals that were typically served to families in those years. I loved

The whole family will read all these Goodreads Children's Illustrated book nominees for 2015 and rate all of them. This is a great book about eating blackberry fool in four different centuries: 1710, 1810, 1910, and 2010. It is simply told and reflects deep research on food and kitchens and clothes and customs across history. The artwork is elegant and the different ways whipped cream has been made over the ages, that's just interesting, and was interesting to the whole family. The endpapers are...

On the surface, this is a warm and sweet book about how parents and children have made blackberry fool together throughout the ages. Probe a little deeper, and it's a book that can lead to many conversations with children. Some families will want to talk about who is making the food and serving it--the role of women and slaves. Others will notice the way preparing and storing food has changed. There has been much debate about the depiction of the 19th century slave family this book (see this NY

Follow one recipe through the centuries in this exceptional picture book! Starting over 300 years ago in England, the book starts with a mother and daughter out picking blackberries. Once home, the mother skims cream from the milk from their cow and whips it with a bundle of twigs for 15 minutes until she has whipped cream. That is combined with squashed and strained blackberries mixed with sugar to create blackberry fool. The fool then needs to be cooled, so they head to the hillside to chill i...

How many of us have family recipes that have endured through generations? No doubt, many of them are on display during holiday dinners and family get togethers. Have you ever thought about how preparation methods, kitchen appliances, and family dynamics have changed over the many years that these recipes have been in your family. Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall have taken one recipe -- Blackberry Fool -- and told us a story that is for all of us, not just children. The books begins in 1710 and...

Jenkins traces social and technological changes across four centuries and demonstrates these through the preparation of a simple dessert. This delightfully illustrated picture book begins in England in 1710, with a mother and daughter milking a cow to produce their own cream, utilizing a handmade straw whisk to whip it, and picking berries to make a Blackberry Fool, a recipe that we see replicated next in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1810, there are stark differences. Foremost, readers are int...

I was very impressed with this tale - four families, four centuries, one delicious treat says it all. The narrative is engaging and just repetitive enough to keep the attention of younger children. And the illustrations are marvelous, weaving the commonalities and differences of these four families throughout the ages. The details are amazing. I understand the discomfort with the depiction of a slave family - not sure that it shouldn't have been included, as it is a part of our history that shou...