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Summary
Summary
Stone Age people invented the first knives...and also the first spoons.In the Middle Ages the first books of manners told readers to wipe their greasy fingers on the tablecloth. And in 1669 King Louis XIV ordered that table knives should have rounded ends because there'd been too many stabbings.InWhat You Never Knew About Fingers, Forks, & Chopsticks,Patricia Lauber and John Manders serve up a hilarious and informative look at how ways of eating and manners have changed through the ages. This well-researched tour of social history makes the subject of how we eat more fascinating and fun than you ever imagined it could be.
Author Notes
Patricia Lauber was born in New York City and graduated from Wellesley College. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 125 children's books including the Around-the-House History series, the Clarence the TV Dog series, and contributions to the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series. Volcano: Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens received a Newbery Honor in 1986. In 1983, she received The Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for her overall contribution to children's nonfiction literature. Besides being an author, she was also an editor of Junior Scholastic and editor-in-chief of Science World. She died on March 12, 2010 at the age of 86.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Lauber has produced a delicious blend of humor and fascinating facts in this historical and, at times, hilarious tour through the rules and tools of eating. From the Stone Age to modern times, all over the globe, the discovery and fine-tuning of utensils that help us slice, jab, and scoop our food are vividly described and depicted. The lively, linear drawings incorporate amusing asides in dialogue balloons that will entertain readers as the text enlightens them about the subject. There are brief instructions on how to use chopsticks; rules of etiquette in the Middle Ages; some modern table-manner tips; and acknowledgments that, at various times and in different cultures, the tool of choice may well be the fingers. James Giblin's From Hand to Mouth (Crowell, 1987) covers similar information in greater detail and in a more serious, though also entertaining, manner. With its amusing visuals, Lauber's book may be the perfect springboard to pique children's interest in this topic. With both books in hand, students will be able to explore fully this rich and satisfying aspect of social history.-Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lauber (Painters of the Caves) chronicles the development of eating implements and dining habits in this entertaining book. In one of the running jokes, people across time make fun of others with different eating habits: late Stone Age people with flint knives mock their predecessors by saying, "We very refined. Use knives, eat like humans." Likewise, 16th-century French ladies snicker at those who use the newly introduced fork ("And the food kept falling off. Tee hee," quips one). The book is packed with information; according to one custom, for instance, a medieval knight and a lady would share a trencher (a thick slice of stale bread used as a plate) and a glass at banquets. Kids will delight in the medieval etiquette guides that advise wiping fingers on the tablecloth and throwing bones on the floor. Manders's (The Dragon's Scales) artwork, which uses an old technique of layering colored glazes, gets all the period details right while giving off a cartoonish airÄjust the right complement for the text's breezy tone. This amusing, enlightening and child-pleasingly yucky book gives kids a rich sense of history, as well as a new perspective on their p's and q's. Ages 6-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Quirky facts and social history trace human methods of eating and the evolution of table manners from the Stone Age to the present. The straightforward tone of the text contrasts and highlights the exaggeration and goofy humor of the watercolor cartoons. Some pictures speculate on the unknown (how chopsticks were invented); some have dialogue-balloon commentary; all amuse. From HORN BOOK Spring 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This tour through time of varied eating tools is both fun and fascinating. Starting with the Stone Age, which took finger food to extremes until rudimentary knives were born, Lauber (Painters of the Caves, 1998, etc.) travels through the metallic ages (copper, bronze, iron), Middle Ages, Renaissance, and modern times, laying out the evolution of knife, fork, and spoon, the introduction of chopsticks, and the refinement of eating with the fingers. She explains'always with an infusion of humor'the origins and changes in etiquette, and the design tinkerings in flatware (including Louis XIV's stipulation that knives be made with rounded ends to cut down on the number of stabbings at the table). Manders's madcap artwork belies a rigorous and elegant technique of underpainting, dyes and washes; he gives a comic touch to such important historical moments as when it was proper to eat peas with the knife. (bibliography) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-11)
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-5. Like James Giblin's From Hand to Mouth (1987), this view of social history through food utensils and table manners is both informative and hilarious. The simple words make you think about what you take for granted ("The first step in eating is to bring food to your mouth . . . . Each society has rules about the proper way to eat. Fingers have always been with us. But chopsticks, forks, knives and spoons have not."). Manders' wonderfully garish cartoon vignettes on every page extend the gross and the pretentious. From the development of Stone Age knives, to the table etiquette in ancient China and Rome, to the invention of the three-pronged fork, we get to see both the utility and the arbitrariness of what different cultures (including our own) consider refined manners. When did knives get rounded ends? How do people eat with chopsticks? Why did it take so long for forks to catch on? Why do Americans use forks like spoons? Read aloud from the Middle Ages' book of etiquette ("Do not put your face in your food, snort, or smack your lips while eating. . . . Do not lick your greasy fingers or wipe them on your coat. Wipe them on the tablecloth"). Then, at the end, there's the double-page spread of table manners for today's "very refined" people, with a final scene of a messy present-day cookout. Children can laugh at the visceral comedy; they may also think about how their own customs appear to foreigners. --Hazel Rochman