Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2001)

Starred Review Here's a clever introduction to the renowned nineteenth-century cook who invented recipes with precise measurements. Marcia enjoys being her mother's helper, so she's hurt and resentful when Mother hires a young woman named Fannie Farmer to prepare meals. Although she tries, Marcia can't resist Fannie's delectable dishes. Besides, cooking Fannie's way seems like fun, and with Fannie's guidance Marcia proudly achieves culinary success of her own. Aptly divided into courses (Fourth Course: The Egg Disaster), the book's lively, descriptive prose conveys Marcia's frustrations and joys as she fries, bakes, and measures her way to triumph. Helpful kitchen tips from early editions of the real Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cookbook abound in dialogue and appear in Fannie's Hints, cleverly framed and hung like pictures on the walls of Marcia's home. The collage artwork is exceptional--elegant as well as whimsical. Carpenter brings together original pen-and-ink artwork and engravings, all washed in watercolor, to create a houseful of expressive characters and abundant, often witty details that capture aspects of Victorian life and excess. A recipe for Fannie's griddlecakes and some background on Farmer round out this delightfully humorous story about cooking and personal achievement.

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

"Prepared to perfection and served up with style, this historical nugget imagines an interlude in the life of cookbook pioneer Fannie Farmer," said <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW in our Best Books citation. "Carpenter's irreverent illustrations spoof Victorian decorum." Ages 4-9. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2001)

Gr 1-3 Fannie Farmer is often cited as the creator of the modern recipe. She worked as a mother's helper for the Shaw family in Boston and this fictionalized account, told through the eyes of the young Marcia Shaw, follows her tenure with them. The illustrations are a combination of 19th-century engravings and etchings and the illustrator's own drawings that were combined and manipulated with a computer and then water colored. This technique gives a sense of the time period while allowing wit and humor to be interwoven in the story (young Marcia balances a cake on her head before putting it in the oven, and the proper Mrs. Shaw can be seen licking her plate clean). The playful nature of both the illustrations and the text is appealing, and serves to draw readers into the story. The short biographical sketch, "More about Fannie Farmer," helps to round out the account, and a recipe for griddle cakes, which play a significant role in the tale, is included. In a time of celebrity chefs on television, this is a whimsical look back to when it all began. Genevieve Ceraldi, New York Public Library

Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2001)

When young Marcia Shaw declares that "cookery is magic," family cook Fannie, calling cooking "an art and science that anyone can learn," decides to write down her instructions for success in the kitchen. Hopkinson's clever narrative is presented as seven courses-cum-chapters. Carpenter blends nineteenth-century etchings and engravings with her own zestful illustrations.

Kirkus Reviews

Hopkinson ( Band of Angels , 1998, etc.) documents domestic history in the making, using real people and fleshing out a true, little-known episode. Young Marcia Shaw, considering herself quite competent at household tasks, is considerably annoyed when her expectant mother announces the arrival of a mother's helper named Fannie Farmer. Not only can Miss Farmer really cook, however, she turns out to be a patient teacher, guiding Marcia past one culinary disaster after another by writing down step-by-step directions, and in the process inventing the modern recipe. For the pictures, Carpenter has transferred, colored, and seamlessly added details to actual 19th-century illustrations, sometimes to hilarious effect: in one scene, for instance, after Marcia is sent to the kitchen to order more biscuits, her supposedly prim and proper mother can be seen through the doorway enthusiastically licking her plate. The tale is presented in episodic "Courses," framed quotes from Miss Farmer's now-famous cookbook hang on the wall in many scenes, and an afterword (plus a recipe) follows the triumphant conclusion, in which Marcia proudly navigates a recipe to make an enormous Golden Cake all on her own. Delicious! (Picture book. 7-10)