France's Book Shop

Click on the author's name below to read the information I have to share about the books, and to find links to recipes from the book, and the author's website if it is available.
When you get to the information segment, if you click on the book's cover or on the title link, you will get to a site which sells the book (when I have found an on-line retailer). Clicking on the link does not oblige you to buy the book, and often you may find other information about the book, like reviews from customers.

Annabel Karmel
      ~ "First Meals" a.k.a. "Feeding Your Baby & Toddler: The Complete Cookbook"
      ~ "Quick Children's Meals"
Louise Lambert-Lagacé
      ~ "Feeding Your Baby : From Conception to Age Two"
      ~ "Feeding Your Child : From Infancy to Six Years Old"
Vicki Lansky
      ~ "Feed Me I'm Yours"
Sara Lewis
      ~ "What to Feed your Toddler"
Lois Smith
      ~ "Baby Eats!"
Lisa Flaxman and Aviva Goldfarb
      ~ "Peanut Butter Stew and Couscous, Too" (Quick, Healthy, Delicious Meals that Grown-Ups and Kids Love)
Victoria Genest
      ~ "Food for Little Fingers"
Jan Brink and Melinda Ramm
      ~ "S.N.A.C.K.S.: Speedy, Nutritious and Cheap Kids' Snacks"

Other titles will be added, soon, such as "Pretend Soup" from Mollie Katzen which I just received.

Old books I found at used book stores (to be reviewed eventually):

Recipes for Healthier Children by Edith Redman (Gage Publishing, Toronto 1976)
Natural Baby Food Cookbook by Margaret Elizabeth Kenda and Phyllis S. Williams (Avon Books New York - 1972)


Changes/Updates: August 11 (2001)


As you can tell, this page is a bit of a review page and also a bit of a bookstore. By buying a book via the links on this page I will receive a small percentage of your purchase. It's not a whole lot but every bit helps and maybe one day I can make enough to cover the shipping cost of another recipe book.

I hope my reviews, and the ones you can read elsewhere, will help you make a wise choice. When you go to Amazon.com, you can click on the book title link, you will then get to the book's main page where, near the bottom of the page, you can read reviews from other customers. Your local library is also a place where you might find the book you think you want and be able to borrow it for a few weeks to make up your mind as to whether or not you want to buy it.


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Annabel Karmel

Click here to order this book or to read Amazon.com's reviews First Meals
a.k.a. "Feeding Your Baby & Toddler: The Complete Cookbook"

I think this book is great, it has good food and beautiful presentation ideas. Although I think some of the presentation ideas would work better on older toddlers (2.5 yrs +) I think it is important to make mealtime a fun time.
There are samples of a few of the more elaborate recipes on her website where you can also order the U.K. version of the book "Feeding Your Baby & Toddler: The Complete Cookbook".

Sample recipes found in France's Kitchenette:
Yoghurt Pancakes, Caramelised Chicken Breasts good for the whole family, Crunchy Chicken Fingers, and Tasty Meatballs.

Quick Children's Meals

There are two delicious recipes sampled from this book on this site. This book is aimed for older children. A great breakfast Apple and All-Bran Muffin, and a tasty lunch or snack Pumpkin Rissoles

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Louise Lambert-Lagacé

Feeding Your Baby : From Conception to Age TwoFor more information, or to order this book, click here
Comment nourrir son enfant, du lait maternel au repas complet

Feeding Your Child : From Infancy to Six Years Old
La Sage Bouffe de 2 à 6 ans

I received both these book as presents. I own the French versions and the links under the French titles lead to the French editor (by French I mean French-Canadian although her book have been published in many countries). I have yet to find an on-line retailer for the English versions of the books, which may be out of print. I will pursue my research.

Sample recipe from the first title:
Apple and Prune Sauce which my daughters absolutely adore to this day.

Sample recipes from the second title:
For more information, or to order this book Breakfast Peanut Butter Squares and Iron Rich Mini Meat Loaves
Louise Lambert-Lagacé's books have recipes but also talks about general nutritional needs/problems and many issues that arise when dealing with and raising children. I often refer to her books when people ask me for advice or when I need some myself!!

Another book of hers I hope to receive as a present soon (Mom, this is a hint!) is La nouvelle boîte à lunch, which she co-wrote with Louise Desaulniers. Excerpts from the book used to be available while she was doing a segment on a radio show. The archives are no longer available.

Sample recipe I managed to get my hands on:
Date Cookies/Biscuits aux dattes.

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Vicky Lansky

Feed Me I'm Yours Click here to order this book or to read reviews from Amazon.com customers

A very useful and fun book which started as a fanzine.

My local library has a version that is bound with a plastic spiraly thing (don't know what they are called). Seems like the new version, available from Amazon.com is in paperback format. That book was one of the first ones I took out of the library to get an idea of what on earth I could feed my daughters! To this day her recipe for French toast is the one I make. I also used some of her tricks to make rusks for teething, and they are part of the Teething Rusk Ideas page and tried her Teething Biscuit recipe, while I am of the opinion it has too much sugar, some other Moms I know say that they are really hard, and last a long time (which is absolutely true) and that baby doesn't get that much sugar since it's over a long period of time. If you make them try to use a cute cookie cutter like a heart which is easy for baby to hold and doesn't present too many risks of being swallowed whole. Feed Me I'm Yours also has lots of craft recipes, fun recipes such as jello fingers, and is very good value for money.

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Sara Lewis

What to Feed your Toddler Sara Lewis - no online retailer found yet

I bought it second hand and my daughters love looking at it, which I hope will one day incite them to try new things!!! Cute presentation ideas, the recipes are quite simple to make too. I especially love the cat puffed pasty idea where Lewis uses a cat shaped cookie cutter and stamps out two cat shapes (5" tall) then cuts out a hole out of one of the cat's tummies and places the cat with the hole on top of the cat without a hole. Bakes the pastry which puffs with a hole in the tummy in which you can put white sauce and veggies and "protein of your choice" (i.e. tofu or chicken or fish!). The recipes in this book are simple and made with ingredients which are pretty easy to find (except for Promite in some parts of the world!)
Sara Lewis is also the author of bugdet cooking books and a book on freezing which I will expand on eventually!

No retailer site found yet.

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Lois Smith

Baby Eats!

Baby Eats! has one major drawback and that is that it does not have a table of contents, as a Mom of twins, in a rush most of the time when they are little, I did not have the patience to flip through the pages in hopes of finding a recipe I vaguely remembered seeing.
I think some of the ingredients in some of the recipes put me off at the beginning. It might have been the 10 cups or so of flour to make a bisquik type mix for pancakes and other things. I think at the time, my hormones couldn't understand where I would store such a big quantity of food! I'm sure mothers out there completely understand this feeling!
My daughter Véronique chewed a corner of the book when she was little, she really liked it!
I have to take another look at the book, perhaps include a few more recipes on the site.
I did however love her "Fruit Mole" where she boils, in very little water, some sweet fruit (dates, raisins) and purees it to add sweetness to foods, toast, pancakes. A good alternative to jams!


No retailer site found yet, no cover art available.

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Aviva Goldfarb and Lisa Flaxman

Peanut Butter Stew and Couscous Too
(Quick, Healthy, Delicious Meals that Grown-Ups and Kids Love)

Click here to order this book or to visit the website I discovered Aviva Goldfarb's book "Peanut Butter Stew and Couscous, Too" when she was a guest in a chat on BabyCenter. She seems to have good food ideas. The book is mostly vegetarian. She has a sample recipe on her site, and lots of tips for picky children. I don't own that book but I'm looking forward to try (and share with you) the few recipes I have gotten my hands on.

Website: Peanut Butter Press

Sample recipe: Cheerio Chicken

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Victoria Genest

Food For Little Fingers Click here to order this book

I don't have this book but it sounds like one I would have loved to get my hands on. I am on the lookout for a copy. I thought it was worth mentioning here because the only recipe I know of from this book, is brilliant. I can't imagine other ones not being as interesting.

Sample recipe: Baby Jigglers

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Jan Brink and Melinda Ramm

S.N.A.C.K.S.: Speedy, Nutritious and Cheap Kids' Snacks S.N.A.C.K.S. - Out of print, perhaps available from ABE

I bought this one used from Advanced Book Exchange which got shipped to me from a bookstore in Jacksonville, Illinois (USA) called "The Absent-Minded Professor". I mention it here because the service from that particular bookstore was quick and friendly. They sent me US$2 (which is worth about Aus$4) back with a handwritten note since the postage that had been charged to my credit card was more than what it should have been. I also had my book in 7 days flat, from the USA to Australia! Oh, yes, ABE does ship to countries other than Canada and the US which is a big plus!

Anyway, now about the book, well, it is out of print and it does have recipes using raw eggs. You may want to wait until your child is much older to make the recipes requiring raw eggs because of the health risks involved. Other than that, it does offer a wide variety of types of snacks, all made without added salt, using honey instead of any type of sugar, and generally fairly wholesome. It claims all snacks can be prepared in a short period of time, although some do need cooking, refrigerating, or freezing. All in all, it's a handy book to have around, I don't regret having bought it, even though, with the exchange rate and the shipping cost (don't forget, I'm in Australia), it cost me a pretty penny!

Sample Recipes: Pumpkin Munchkins and Pumpkin Puffs. (more to be added soon)

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