Food nourishes life and helps us preserve traditions and build community. Cristina Quintero's cozy debut, The Only Way to Make Bread, illustrated in warm, comforting tones by Sarah Gonzales (Maribel's Year), portrays children experiencing both through food culture.
A large group of adults and children meet in a kitchen to bake, fry, steam, and grill a diverse range of breads for an afternoon picnic. Each type of bread is prepared by adults and children working together and involves much more than edible ingredients: specific cookware ("the pan can be heavy and round or tall and rectangular"), techniques ("maybe your dough is rolled into long strips and braided"), and textures ("some doughs like to bubble, some... are sticky and wet") are a few of the items noted in Quintero's direct text. The text and page turns mimic the easy-to-follow steps one would read in an actual recipe: "Get out your best wooden spoon or use your hands and knead it all together."
Quintero, a first-generation Colombian Canadian, aimed to "highlight the everyday joy that is created within immigrant communities" in this picture book. Gonzalez's mixed-media illustrations are dominated by an earthy palette in hues of green, brown, gold, and copper. The grainy depth of the colored-pencil shading creates a scrapbook aesthetic, like a vintage postcard collection. Backmatter includes helpful descriptions of bread types such as Jamaican Hardo and Indian Puri, as well as recipes for arepas and pandesal. The art, combined with Quintero's graceful text, results in a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the ordinary, love-filled lives of individuals from various cultures. --Rachel Werner, author and teaching artist at Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and The Loft Literary Center