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A review by nicolemhewitt
Recipe for Disaster by Aimee Lucido
5.0
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Recipe for Disaster is actually a mostly-prose novel with some poetry and recipes mixed in (often the poems are also in the form of recipes). The result meant that it was a bit hard to judge next to the other Cybils verse novels - but, still, the combination is both fun and effective! The story centers around Hannah, who has always considered herself Jewish(ish) but doesn't quite know what that means for herself. Her father isn't Jewish. Her mother was raised Jewish but has since left the faith, but Hannah's grandmother insists that being Jewish is passed down through mothers, so that makes Hannah Jewish anyway. Hannah herself doesn't know exactly what to think. But when her best friend has a bat-mitvah, Hannah decides she wants to have one too--much to the surprise of some and the dismay of others. The book explores many of the prejudices from both inside and outside the Jewish faith and the ways in which we judge each other. I actually loved that Hannah not only found herself on the receiving end of that prejudice, but she found herself making her own judgments as well. It shows how easily we can fall into these sorts of traps. And the theme of jealousy is something that any middle grade reader can relate to from time-to-time. So, I recommend this book for just about any middle grade reader!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for Cybil’s judging purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
Recipe for Disaster is actually a mostly-prose novel with some poetry and recipes mixed in (often the poems are also in the form of recipes). The result meant that it was a bit hard to judge next to the other Cybils verse novels - but, still, the combination is both fun and effective! The story centers around Hannah, who has always considered herself Jewish(ish) but doesn't quite know what that means for herself. Her father isn't Jewish. Her mother was raised Jewish but has since left the faith, but Hannah's grandmother insists that being Jewish is passed down through mothers, so that makes Hannah Jewish anyway. Hannah herself doesn't know exactly what to think. But when her best friend has a bat-mitvah, Hannah decides she wants to have one too--much to the surprise of some and the dismay of others. The book explores many of the prejudices from both inside and outside the Jewish faith and the ways in which we judge each other. I actually loved that Hannah not only found herself on the receiving end of that prejudice, but she found herself making her own judgments as well. It shows how easily we can fall into these sorts of traps. And the theme of jealousy is something that any middle grade reader can relate to from time-to-time. So, I recommend this book for just about any middle grade reader!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for Cybil’s judging purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***