Published by Harry N. Abrams

Summary:  A group of volunteers comes together to provide a community dinner, working with the food that they have on hand to make chili, bread, salad, and apple crumble.  The pace quickens as someone shouts “Fifteen minutes!”, and the early birds start to arrive.  Finally, it’s dinnertime, and the volunteers bring the food to the waiting crowd.  Everyone sits down to share a meal and some time together.  As the guests trickle out, one of the kids loudly announces the obvious: “OK, time to clean up!”  Includes an author’s note about her experiences volunteering in a similar small kitchen weekly to prepare a community meal, and endpapers that outline how to prepare vegetable soup and apple crumble.  48 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  The bouncy rhyming text and colorful, comic-inspired illustrations by Caldecott honoree Tamaki have a ton of kid appeal and an inspiring message.  Pair it up with Harlem Grown for a community service-themed story hour.

Cons:  Some of the rhyming words (hot/start/bought) were a little loose.

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