Writer: Winsome Bingham / Illustrator: C.G.Esperanza / HC / Abrams
You can buy Soul Food Sunday here.
20th April 2022 (Released 14th September 2021)
The Pitch: Granny teaches her grandson to cook the family meal in this loving celebration of food, traditions, and gathering together at the table
On Sundays, everyone gathers at Granny’s for Soul Food.
But today, I don’t go to the backyard or the great room.
I follow Granny instead.
“You’re a big boy now,” Granny says. “Time for you to learn.”
At Granny’s, Sunday isn’t Sunday without a big family gathering over a lovingly prepared meal. Old enough now, our narrator is finally invited to help cook the dishes for the first time: He joins Granny in grating the cheese, cleaning the greens, and priming the meat for Roscoe Ray’s grill. But just when Granny says they’re finished, her grandson makes his own contribution, sweetening this Sunday gathering―and the many more to come. Evocatively written and vividly illustrated, this mouthwatering story is a warm celebration of tradition and coming together at a table filled with love and delicious food.
One of the things that unite all cultures is food. It forms the backbone of how we often learn about people, it's unique in its execution and preparation in every country, it provides a way of teaching not just the history of cultures but on a micro-level, families too. It's the centre, the beating heart not just of our lives, but everyone's life. The one ingredient that makes everyone's existence taste good. That tradition of family or friends gathering to eat is never more keenly expressed than on a Sunday. Monday to Friday, you worked or went to school. Saturday was your time. Sundays were for food and family. Being a working-class British family for me, it was a Sunday roast. For Bingham and Esperanza, Soul Food Sunday.
Allow me a quick diversion to the end here: when I closed the last page of this book, the thought that struck me was what a welcoming story it was. You're being invited into a family with this. Into a tradition. The story of a young man being given his first lesson in cooking for the whole family is a peek into a lovely, open moment, but an intensely private one at the same time. You get the sense of someone opening up to you, telling you a treasured memory from childhood, making you family. Aimed at a younger audience it is, of course, simply told. And is all the better for it. The book is a step by step, broad guide in food prep, as it ignores the most boring part of any meal – waiting for it to cook. What Soul Food Sunday shows us, rightly, is that all the fun, all the anticipation, all the traditions, all the love... are all in the prep. It's a love language all its own. One that manages to be about both the journey (the prep) and the destination (just how good this is going to taste).
Bingham creates an evocative snapshot of a loving, caring black family. This is a book of positive energy, from the smiles on everyone's faces as they get to see family members once more to the way Granny talks to her Grandson, telling him how well he's doing at every step. It's beautiful to see and read. She uses repeating, almost poetic patterns of language, so the book almost becomes a song. You really feel the Grandson's anticipation and excitement on this day, not being one where he goes to play with the other kids, but where he learns something new and gets to peek behind the curtain. We share that excitement, too. Esperanza creates a gorgeous, painterly feel to the story. Adults and kids come alive in his realistic, yet expressionist images What he brings home is the vibrancy, the colour, the energy of a family gathering. The kitchen is a quiet, warm space whilst everything outside that is loving, fun, chaotic and noisy. Anyone who has been home on a Sunday for dinner or lunch knows this is a truism and Esperanza captures the truth in his living, breathing art. If you're looking to get your kids, nephews, nieces or grandkids into cooking and all the shared traditions it brings, then you may want to start with this book. Spending a Sunday afternoon reading this with them sounds like time well-spent.
