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Batter Up Kids: Sensational Snacks: Healthy Eats from the Premier Children's Cooking School

by Barbara Beery

Gibbs Smith, 64 pp., $19.95

Following Batter Up Kids: Delicious Desserts, Austin author Barbara Beery has hit another homer with Batter Up Kids: Sensational Snacks. Beery, who has run a popular kids' cooking school here since 1991, clearly knows what she's about. I'm usually underwhelmed by cookbooks for children, but this exception definitely got my cooking juices flowing. These recipes are for real food using real ingredients and, frequently, real cooking techniques to create appetizing snacks, both sweet and savory, that children (and adults) actually would want to eat. (I could easily see grownups and children making a couple of the dips, some Luau Lemonade Floats or fruity Rainbow Milks, and then settling down en famille to watch a good movie.)

Be aware that cooking from this book is not a kid-only endeavor; it encompasses what an educator friend calls "directed activities." On the first page, Beery says "Ask a grown-up to be your chef's assistant." Knives, ovens, and sauté pans make frequent appearances, and some of the recipes include as many as 12 ingredients. The ideal audience for most of the recipes is the 10-to-12 set, who can read well, follow directions, and perform basic kitchen tasks like measuring and stirring. There are, however, a few yummy "dishes" that even little ones can do with assistance.

Physically, this book has everything to love. Its oversized hardcover surrounds an internal spiral binding that, mercifully, allows it to lay flat when open. Each recipe is on the left page, accompanied by a gorgeous full-page illustration on the right. A pocket at the back of the book contains a child-size white chef's apron, offering yet another project possibility: It's just begging to be personalized with fabric markers.