Published by Boyds Mills Press
Summary: Who can resist a bowl of buttery, salty popcorn? It’s one of the top snacks in the U.S., this book tells us, with an annual consumption of four and a half billion gallons. If you’ve ever wondered how the popcorn gets to your movie theater, you’ll find some answers here, beginning in the Corn Belt, where over ninety million acres of corn are grown each year. You’ll learn about the different types of corn, how popcorn is processed, and what causes the hard kernels to explode into the light, fluffy snack. There’s a brief history of popcorn at the end, along with a list of books and websites for further research. 32 pages; ages 4-8.
Pros: The straightforward writing with kid-friendly explanations (“plants that stretch so tall that they could tickle the chin of a young giraffe”) and lots of photos showing a diverse group of kids make this a great nonfiction choice for preschool and early elementary ages.
Cons: I guess it’s unknowable, but I’ve always wondered how the first consumers of popcorn figured out that those hard kernels could pop. This book doesn’t offer any speculation on that.
