Food is far more than just fuel for the body. The choices we make are shaped—consciously or not—by our upbringing, budget, locale, self-image, personal ethics, social aspirations, health concerns, and more. Which foods we regard as “weird” or “undesirable” is an especially emotional topic: The abundance of picture books reminding kids not to bully others over what they eat demonstrates how painful it can be when people reject your family’s food. Conversely, food can forge profound bonds between people; we show affection and preserve cultural identity by sharing meals. American kids from non-European families know all too well the uncomfortable contradictions of growing up in a society that might love (and monetize) their communities’ cuisine but not fully embrace them as people. Others keenly feel the loss of food traditions through dietary assimilation. Teens crave honest, complex stories like the ones below that explore the meaningful role food plays in our lives.
Hangry Hearts by Jennifer Chen (Wednesday Books, March 18) will leave readers salivating with its luscious descriptions of Taiwanese and Korean food. Julie Wu and Randall Hur, whose families have been estranged since their grandmothers’ fusion restaurant went up in flames (literally), must collaborate on a school project. Love blossoms between Julie and Randall (who’s trans) as they work to save the local elementary school’s Garden of Eating.
The protagonist of Eliza, From Scratch (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, May 13) by Sophia Lee is distraught when she’s placed in Culinary Arts instead of AP Physics. She meets the cute but annoying Thai American foodie Wesley Ruengsomboon, whose influence gets her to re-examine her values—and reconsider her feelings for him. Learning to follow her late Korean grandmother’s recipes, described in mouthwatering detail, connects Eliza with her mom, who shares the memories they evoke.
Editor and contributor Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee) pulls together a dazzling array of Indigenous authors for the anthology Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories (Heartdrum, August 26). Centering around Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In, a mystical community space that appears to those who need it, this is a diverse and deeply emotional collection of interconnected stories, poems, and other entries. As well as fry bread, the truck serves sweetgrass tea, cornbread, NDN tacos, bison burgers, pashofa, and more.
Lemons and Lies by Alexis Castellanos (Bloomsbury, September 16), a stand-alone companion to Guava and Grudges (2024), is a sweet romance with nuanced family dynamics, delicious Cuban food, and even a recipe for coquito French toast. Valeria’s family runs Morales Bakery, which goes viral on social media. Valeria is failing Algebra II and struggling with her long-absent mother’s return. A fake-dating bargain with her classmate and tutor, Gage Magnussen, helps them both—and leads to real feelings.
The Nebraska teen protagonist of the heartfelt K-Jane by Lydia Kang (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, October 21) is wrestling with identity and authenticity: Her white best friends are continually enthusing over K-drama, K-pop, and K-beauty. Jane, who’s third-generation Korean American, seeks to remedy her woeful lack of cultural knowledge by starting a vlog that’s meant to be private and launching on a crash course in Korean cooking and the heritage she feels disconnected from.
Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.
