Tomatoes for Neela

By Padma Lakshmi, Juana Martinez-Neal (Illustrator)

A young girl bridges distance with her grandmother through cooking and family recipes.

4.3/5 Goodreads · 1,004 ratings

40 pages· 1,033 words· Est. 8 min read-aloud

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Bookroo's summary

Neela loves cooking with her mother, capturing recipes in her notebook to feel closer to her grandmother in India. On a Saturday market trip, they gather tomatoes for a special sauce, learning about different varieties. As they cook, they find a way to share the love and flavors with her distant grandmother. This heartwarming tale celebrates family bonds and cultural connections through food.

From the publisher

Padma Lakshmi, bestselling author and host of Bravo’s Top Chef and Hulu’s Taste the Nation, and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal team up in this celebration of food and family. “Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of cooking with the women in my family. It is the foundation for all I have spent my life working on.” -Padma Lakshmi Neela loves cooking with her amma and writing down the recipes in her notebook. It makes her feel closer to her paati who lives far away in India. On Saturdays, Neela and Amma go to the green market and today they are buying tomatoes to make Paati’s famous sauce. But first, Neela needs to learn about all the different kinds of tomatoes they can pick from. And as Neela and Amma cook together, they find a way for Paati to share in both the love and the flavors of the day. Bestselling author and host of Bravo’s Top Chef and Hulu’s Taste the Nation Padma Lakshmi takes young readers on an intergenerational journey full of delicious flavors and fun food facts that celebrates a family’s treasured recipes. And Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal brings this circle of women to life with vivid detail and warmth. Tomatoes for Neela lovingly affirms how we can connect to other cultures, as well as to our own, through food.

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