My younger child was a reluctant reader, so I tried different strategies to get her to read. Her sister was willing to read anything I put in front of her, but she was choosy. I got a boxful of books from the library each week but they were not engaging her. However, she did gravitate towards my cookbook collection, especially the ones written for children and the themed ones based on beloved children's books, such as Babe, Little House on the Prairie, and the Boxcar Children. So, I started with cookbooks and expanded to books about geography, culture, and religion.
According to Jill Ross, proprietor of The Cookbook Stall at the Reading Terminal Market, children's cookbooks have become more popular than ever and there is now a boom in cookbooks marketed to teens. She recommends the series by Meghan and Jill Carle, sisters who wrote their first cookbook when they were still in high school. Readers followed them through college and their newest title is The First Real Kitchen Cookbook: 100 Recipes and Tips for New Cooks. Another author she recommends for teens is Rozanne Gold, an award-winning chef who made her reputation with the general public with her pioneering three-ingredient cookbooks. Her teen title, Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs was given a rave review by the New York Times when it was published in 2009.
I've mourned daily the closure of Borders, as there is not another general-interest bookstore in my neighborhood. Ross, however, says that her direct competitor is not Borders, but Amazon, when people come to browse in her stop but then order through the Internet instead.
The trend in cookbook sales, according to Ross, is the farm-to-table concept. People are more interested in where their food comes from. Local produce is the new catchword. Some of her customers are members of a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) and they want to learn how to prepare the unusual vegetables they receive through their share.
Ross's personal favorite titles are books by Heidi Swanson (whose newest title is: Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen) because she's a vegetarian. However, she also loves the River Cottage cookbooks by the British chef, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, because they're so lovingly written and they've helped her learn how to prepare meat for others. She also adores the reference books by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, whose newest title is The Food Lover's Guide to Wine.
The Cookbook Stall is open at the Reading Terminal Market from Monday to Saturday from 10 - 5 and Sundays from 11 - 3. If you have a particular title in mind, you may contact the proprietor at thecookbookstall@hotmail.com or 215-923-3170. Discounted parking is available for up to 2 hours for just $4.00 in the 12th & Filbert Street garage.
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