Books about Chocolate

Feb­ru­ary is Nation­al Choco­late Month, so how could we let it pass by with­out an homage to choco­late … in books? Far less cost­ly on the den­tal bill! “In 2009, more than 58 mil­lion pounds of choco­late were pur­chased and (like­ly) con­sumed in the days sur­round­ing Feb­ru­ary 14th — that’s about $345 mil­lion worth. (Kiri Tan­nen­baum, “8 Facts About Choco­late,” Del­ish) Were you a part of the nation­al sta­tis­tic? Here are a list of 12 books about choco­late to feed your craving.

Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake  

Bet­ty Bun­ny Loves Choco­late Cake 
writ­ten by Michael Kaplan
illus­trat­ed by Stephane Jorisch 
Dial Books, 2011

Bet­ty Bun­ny wants choco­late cake. Her moth­er wants her to learn patience. Bet­ty Bun­ny would rather have choco­late cake. This is a fun­ny, droll book about a spunky girl for whom wait­ing is a chal­lenge. The illus­tra­tions are filled with humor, too.

Candy Bomber

 

Can­dy Bomber: The Sto­ry of the Berlin Airlift’s “Choco­late Pilot”
writ­ten by Michael O. Tun­nell
Charles­bridge, 2010

When the Rus­sians main­tained a block­ade around West Berlin after World War II, US Air Force Lieu­tenant Gail S. Halvors­en arranged to have choco­late and gum dropped over the city by hand­ker­chief para­chutes.  Rus­sia want­ed to starve the peo­ple of West Berlin into accept­ing Com­mu­nist rule, but the Air Force con­tin­ued its sanc­tioned deliv­ery of food and goods for two years. Halvors­en would drop the can­dy for the kids of West Berlin with a wig­gle of his plane’s wings so they’d know it was him. A true sto­ry with a lot of pri­ma­ry documentation.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  

Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry
writ­ten by Roald Dahl
illus­trat­ed by Quentin Blake
Knopf, 1964

Inspired by his school­boy expe­ri­ences of choco­late mak­ers send­ing test pack­ages to the kids in exchange for their opin­ions along­side tours of the choco­late fac­to­ries with their elab­o­rate machin­ery, Roald Dahl cre­at­ed what might be the most famous book about can­dy, and choco­late in par­tic­u­lar, in the world. As chil­dren vie for a gold­en tick­et to enter the choco­late fac­to­ry, Char­lie Buck­et finds the fifth tick­et. Liv­ing in pover­ty, it’s quite a sight for him, espe­cial­ly when the oth­er four win­ners are eject­ed igno­min­ious­ly from the fac­to­ry, leav­ing Char­lie to inher­it from Willy Won­ka. This book cel­e­brat­ed its 50th Anniver­sary in 2015.

Chock Full of Chocolate  

Chock Full of Choco­late
writ­ten by Eliz­a­beth MacLeod
illus­trat­ed by Jane Brad­ford
Kids Can Press, 2005

A great way to talk about math and process and writ­ing instruc­tions, cook­books are appeal­ing to those kids who can’t get enough of the Food Net­work. This book has 45 recipes fea­tur­ing choco­late with easy-to-under­stand instruc­tions for dish­es such as S’more Gorp, Dirt Dessert, and Can­dy-Cov­ered Pizza.

Chocolate Fever  

Choco­late Fever
writ­ten by Robert Kim­mel Smith
illus­trat­ed by Gioia Fiammenghi
Cow­ard McCann, 1972

Hen­ry Green loves choco­late. He eats choco­late all the time in every form and shape. He’s so enam­ored of choco­late that he con­tracts Choco­late Fever. Hen­ry runs away from the doc­tor and straight into a zany adven­ture filled with humor and action. A good read-aloud.

Chocolate  

Choco­late: Sweet Sci­ence & Dark Secrets
of the World’s Favorite Treat
 

writ­ten by Kay Fry­den­borg
HMH Books for Young Read­ers, 2015

This book on choco­late for mid­dle grade read­ers cov­ers choco­late from its light to dark aspects, from the way it was dis­cov­ered to the slaves that were used to grow and har­vest it. This book address­es the his­to­ry, sci­ence, botany, envi­ron­ment, and human rights swirling around the world’s obses­sion with chocolate.

Chocolate Touch  

Choco­late Touch
writ­ten by Patrick Skene Catling
illus­trat­ed by Mar­got Apple
Harper­Collins, reis­sued in 2006

John Midas loves choco­late. He loves it so much that he′ll eat it any hour of any day. He doesn′t care if he ruins his appetite. After wan­der­ing into a can­dy store and buy­ing a piece of their best choco­late, John finds out that there might just be such a thing as too much choco­late. This take on the leg­end of King Midas is writ­ten with humor and action. First pub­lished in 1952, this is a charm­ing story.

Chocolate War  

Choco­late War
writ­ten by Robert Cormi­er
Pan­theon Books, 1974

In this clas­sic young adult nov­el, Jer­ry Renault is a fresh­man at Trin­i­ty who refus­es to engage in the school’s annu­al fundrais­er: sell­ing choco­late. Broth­er Leon, Archie Costel­lo, the Vig­ils (the school gang) all play a part in this psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller. Cormier’s writ­ing is game-changing.

Milton Hershey  

Mil­ton Her­shey: Young Choco­lati­er
(Child­hood of Famous Amer­i­cans series)
writ­ten by M.M. Eboch
illus­trat­ed by Meryl Hen­der­son
Aladdin, 2008

As a young boy, Her­shey had to drop out of school to help sup­port his fam­i­ly. He was a go-get­ter. Work­ing in an ice cream par­lor gave him ideas about sweets and sell­ing choco­late to the pub­lic. He start­ed his own busi­ness, work long and hard to per­fect the choco­late his com­pa­ny sells to this day, and learned a good deal about eco­nom­ics, mar­ket­ing, and run­ning a com­pa­ny. An inter­est­ing biog­ra­phy for young readers.

No Monkeys, No Chocolate  

No Mon­keys, No Choco­late
writ­ten by Melis­sa Stew­art and Allen Young
illus­trat­ed by Nicole Wong
Charles­bridge, 2013

A good look at the ecosys­tem and inter­de­pen­dence of a choco­late tree and the live­ly mon­keys that chew on its pods as they swing through the jun­gle, dis­trib­ut­ing seeds. Read­ers look at the one tree’s life cycle, exam­in­ing the flo­ra, fau­na, ani­mals, and insects that con­tribute to the mak­ing of cacao. Two book­worms on each page com­ment on the infor­ma­tion, mak­ing this infor­ma­tion even more accessible.

Smart About Chocolate  

Smart About Choco­late: a Sweet His­to­ry
writ­ten by San­dra Markle
illus­trat­ed by Charise Mer­i­cle Harp­er
Gros­set & Dun­lap, 2004

A book shar­ing many facts about the his­to­ry and mak­ing of choco­late, it’s short and engag­ing. Illus­trat­ed with car­toons and dia­logue bub­bles, pho­tos and charts, this is a good sur­vey of choco­late. Includes a recipe and sug­ges­tions for fur­ther reading.

This Books is Not Good For You  

This Book Is Not Good for You
writ­ten by pseu­do­ny­mous bosch
Lit­tle, Brown, 2010

In this third book in the series, Cass, Max-Ernest, and Yo-Yoji work to dis­cov­er the where­abouts of the leg­endary tun­ing fork so they can get Cass’s Mom back after she’s kid­napped by the evil dessert chef and choco­lati­er Señor Hugo. High adven­ture with a fun attitude.

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