10 Best Young Adult Books with Delicious Food Themes
Hey there, fellow Bibliophile! Are you the kind of reader who savors every word of a description, allowing the flavors of each scene to tenderly caress your taste buds? Do you believe in the magic spell that a scrumptious meal can cast within the pages of a good book? And are you by any chance a "Young Adult" genre enthusiast? If your answer is a resounding "Yes" to all these questions, then buckle up! You are about to embark on a lip-smacking journey through a selection of the top ten Young Adult novels with delightful food themes. Prepare to be swept away by tantalizing culinary descriptions, plots tangled with gastronomical adventures, and characters who find solace (and often, a spark of inspiration) in the delectable world of food. So grab yourself a cup of hot cocoa or perhaps a bowl of popcorn, because this going to be a feast of well-cooked words and sumptuous sentences. And who knows? You might just end up getting inspired to whip up your own delicious dishes. After all, food and books share the same soul – they both feed our hearts and minds. Let's jump right in, shall we? Bon Appétit, fellow bookworms!
『When Dimple Met Rishi』
The inspiration for the Netflix original series Mismatched! A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) Everyone is talking about this New York Times bestselling rom-com that Mindy Kaling called “utterly charming!” Eleanor & Park meets Bollywood in this hilarious and heartfelt novel about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage. Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right? Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not? Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
Author | Sandhya Menon |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
Release Date | Feb 09, 2021 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Truth About Twinkie Pie』
In this quirky, heartwarming coming-of-age novel, two sisters have their lives changed after winning a national cooking contest that takes them to a new town filled with new adventures—and challenges. Take two sisters making it on their own: brainy twelve-year-old GiGi and junior-high-dropout-turned-hairstylist DiDi. Add a million dollars in prize money from a national cooking contest and a move from the trailer parks of South Carolina to the North Shore of Long Island. Mix in a fancy new school, a first crush, new friends and enemies, and a generous sprinkling of family secrets. That's the recipe for The Truth About Twinkie Pie, a voice-driven middle-grade debut about the true meaning of family and friendship.
Author | Kat Yeh |
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Price | $6.99 |
Publisher | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
Release Date | Jan 27, 2015 |
Source | Google Books |
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Price | unknown |
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Source | Google Books |
『The Cupcake Queen』
When Penny moves to Hog's Hollow from New York City, her life changes drastically. Penny's mom now runs a cupcake bakery, and Penny is stuck helping out. But that isn't the worst of it. Not only did she leave her friends back home, but her dad stayed behind too. And then there's Charity, resident mean girl who's out to get Penny. With all this, Penny still finds some things to like: Tally and Blake...and Marcus - the cute, quiet boy who runs on the beach every night. But just when Penny begins to accept her new life, she's forced to make a choice that will change everything.
Author | Heather Hepler |
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Price | $8.99 |
Publisher | Penguin |
Release Date | Sep 17, 2009 |
Source | Google Books |
『Anna and the French Kiss』
Anna had everything figured out – she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere... Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Étienne St. Clair, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he's taken – and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for?
Author | Stephanie Perkins |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Usborne Publishing Ltd |
Release Date | Dec 16, 2013 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie』
Winner of the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger A delightfully dark English mystery, featuring precocious young sleuth Flavia de Luce and her eccentric family. The summer of 1950 hasn’t offered up anything out of the ordinary for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle explorations around the village, keeping tabs on her neighbours, relentless battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and brewing up poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has claimed for her own. But then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his dying breath. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.” Did the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime — even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past. A thoroughly entertaining romp of a novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is inventive and quick-witted, with tongue-in-cheek humour that transcends the macabre seriousness of its subject.
Author | Alan Bradley |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Doubleday Canada |
Release Date | May 29, 2009 |
Source | Google Books |
『A Taste for Love』
For fans of Jenny Han, Jane Austen, and The Great British Baking Show, A Taste for Love, is a delicious rom com about first love, familial expectations, and making the perfect bao. To her friends, high school senior Liza Yang is nearly perfect. Smart, kind, and pretty, she dreams big and never shies away from a challenge. But to her mom, Liza is anything but. Compared to her older sister Jeannie, Liza is stubborn, rebellious, and worst of all, determined to push back against all of Mrs. Yang's traditional values, especially when it comes to dating. The one thing mother and daughter do agree on is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang is the owner of Houston's popular Yin & Yang Bakery. With college just around the corner, Liza agrees to help out at the bakery's annual junior competition to prove to her mom that she's more than her rebellious tendencies once and for all. But when Liza arrives on the first day of the bake-off, she realizes there's a catch: all of the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has handpicked for Liza to date. The bachelorette situation Liza has found herself in is made even worse when she happens to be grudgingly attracted to one of the contestants; the stoic, impenetrable, annoyingly hot James Wong. As she battles against her feelings for James, and for her mother's approval, Liza begins to realize there's no tried and true recipe for love.
Author | Jennifer Yen |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Penguin |
Release Date | Jan 11, 2022 |
Source | Google Books |
『With the Fire on High』
From the New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award–winning title The Poet X comes a dazzling novel in prose about a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to feed the soul that keeps her fire burning bright. Winner of the California Young Reader Medal! Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago’s life has been about making the tough decisions—doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it’s not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free. Plus don't miss Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land!
Author | Elizabeth Acevedo |
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Price | $13.99 |
Publisher | HarperCollins |
Release Date | May 07, 2019 |
Source | Google Books |
『Love & Olives』
A New York Times Bestseller From the New York Times bestselling author of Love & Gelato comes a Mamma Mia!–inspired tale about a teen girl finding romance while trying to connect with her absent father in beautiful Santorini, Greece. Liv Varanakis doesn’t have a lot of fond memories of her father, which makes sense—he fled to Greece when she was only eight. What Liv does remember, though, is their shared love for Greek myths and the lost city of Atlantis. So when Liv suddenly receives a postcard from her father explaining that National Geographic is funding a documentary about his theories on Atlantis—and will she fly out to Greece and help?—Liv jumps at the opportunity. But when she arrives to gorgeous Santorini, things are a little…awkward. There are so many questions, so many emotions that flood to the surface after seeing her father for the first time in years. And yet Liv doesn’t want their past to get in the way of a possible reconciliation. She also definitely doesn’t want Theo—her father’s charismatic so-called “protégé”—to witness her struggle. And that means diving into all that Santorini has to offer—the beautiful sunsets, the turquoise water, the hidden caves, and the delicious cuisine. But not everything on the Greek island is as perfect as it seems. Because as Liv slowly begins to discover, her father may not have invited her to Greece for Atlantis, but for something much more important.
Author | Jenna Evans Welch |
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Price | $10.99 |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Release Date | Nov 10, 2020 |
Source | Google Books |
『To All the Boys I've Loved Before』
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is now a major motion picture on Netflix and the inspiration for the spin-off series XO, Kitty—now streaming on Netflix! A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) Lara Jean’s love life gets complicated in this New York Times bestselling “lovely, lighthearted romance” (School Library Journal) from the bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series. What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once? Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
Author | Jenny Han |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
Release Date | Jul 10, 2018 |
Source | Google Books |
So, there you have it, folks! Our hand-picked selections of scrumptiously delightful novels and comics that will not only feed your literary appetite, but also tickle your taste buds. These brilliant young adult reads are sure to whisk you into a flavorsome world of culinary adventures, where the art of cooking and baking intertwines effortlessly with heartwarming, gripping, and humorous narratives. From amateur chefs taking on enormous baking challenges to out-of-this-world recipes that lead to the most unexpected turns, each book on this list is like a full-course meal, satisfying and mesmerizing all at once. This fun mix of epicurean-themed plots, compelling characters, and mouthwatering descriptions is what makes each of these tomes an exciting and gastronomical reading ride. So, whether you're a young adult or simply young at heart, don't hesitate to cozy up with one of these books - and perhaps a snack - because they're bound to make you ravenous for more. Happy reading (and eating)! Here's hoping these books add a pinch of spice to your reading life.
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