The Road to Rice

Some foods are so ubiquitous that we may never wonder how they make their way onto our tables. For curious children, however, the delightful volumes in the Drive Thru series introduce common staples and provide an overview of their production. In each book, a boy or girl starts the informational narrative by offering to take the reader on a themed food truck and continues with a step-by-step look at how the food is made. While the children and food trucks are illustrated in bright, digital art, color photographs depict growing, harvesting, manufacturing, preparing, and enjoying of the food around the globe. The Road to Rice explains various kinds of rice, such as brown, jasmine, and basmati, and the types of environments most conducive to growing them. The Search for Salt emphasizes the importance of evaporation in salt production and why salt was used as a preservative before refrigeration. The Story of Sugar describes the environment needed to grow sugarcane and the lengthy process to turn it into refined sugar. The Tale of Tea relates how soil, picking tea leaves, and fermenting the leaves all affect tea, as well as myriad ways tea is consumed in different countries. Several titles include a map that shows the food’s spread or growth throughout the world. An enlightening, accessible glimpse at everyday edibles and STEM. —Angela Leeper