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La Cucina Degli Ingredienti Magici (2011)

by Jael McHenry(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

8863800707 (ISBN13: 9788863800708)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Corbaccio

review 1: The novel "The Kitchen Daughter", told a unique story about an early adult that suffers from a medical condition. I appreciate how well the main character, Ginny is. She has an awkward persona but when we see things through her view, we can relate to them. The story takes a weird turn when the book starts mentioning ghosts appearing due to cooking, this is what annoyed me the most throughout the novel. Mostly because the story had an interesting plot and could have been better off without the whole ghost concept. The main character, Ginny is, at first, very shy, antisocial, and stubborn. At the end of the book she is more involved with her family, is dealing with her shyness, and is also visiting a doctor about her condition. Throughout the story, Ginny depends on her... more "Normal Book", to deal with herself and her unique personality but when she starts to realize that she cannot be the same, she starts bettering herself. The death of her friend, David, also sparks motivates her. I think the central conflict is Ginny vs. herself. She has to overcome many of her flawed characteristics and prove to herself that they do not label her. In my opinion, the theme of this book is, there is no such thing as normal. This theme fits Ginny more than the other characters because she is a very unique individual who is surrounded by people she views are "normal", and wonders if she is not like them, would she be labeled as something bad. The author supported the theme of normality because she contributed many aspects of it throughout the story. For example, she included the main character to have an item that centered around the idea of 'normal', which was the "Normal Book". I myself agree with it because everyone has something they consider normal but other people would disagree. The author used amazing details when describing how the main character cooked. Cooking was a major part of Ginny's life and it was her obsession. When in an awkward conversation with someone or in an awkward situation Ginny would think of food. The thought of food calmed Ginny and allowed her to return to "normal". "The rich, wet texture of melting chocolate. The way good aged goat cheese coats your tongue. The silky feel of pasta dough when it's been pressed and rested just enough. How the scent of onions changes, over an hour, from raw to mellow, sharp to sweet, and all that even without tasting. The simplest magic: how heat transforms.” The author uses many details, imagery. Gives the reader a vivid imagine of what is happening in the story and that helps, in my opinion, because it causes the reader not to get easily bored with book. I would recommend this book to others because even though the story is not the best, it does have unexpected plot twists and a unique story.
review 2: Overall, I decided to give this book three out of five stars. I really appreciated the entire plot and the idea of this story! I thought that it was extremely creative. However, there were many points in the story that annoyed me. For example, there were numerous times when I was left with a statement or an event in the story that I had no clue what it meant or wondered what happens next? Like, what does "do not let her" mean? What happened to the house? Where does Ginny go? All these questions were left unanswered. This really irritated me having the story become opened ended... I would have much rather enjoyed a direct happy or sad ending. In addition, I reacted very surprised and confused when Ginny met with Evangeline. She was she was a crazy weird women that not only scared Ginny, but also scared me. The thought of a crazy bold nurse going belligerent would frighten me. Also, I was so surprised that David killed himself. It was all so sudden and random. I really want not expecting it.In this story, in main character is Ginny. The story starts off with Ginny who faces a difficult problem known as Asperger syndrome. Right away, when I think of someone with that condition, I immediately feel bad for that person. It must be really hard and difficult for them to talk to people and to make friends with others. I always think of someone who is left out in a group. Or someone who is not cool enough to be with the "cool" kids and is kicked out. I felt really bad for Ginny. However, I believe that Ginny begins to change throughout the story and she learns to become more and more social. I believe that she is able to improve her social interactions with others through a person she met by the name of David. David is the only character that seems to talk the most to Ginny in the story. He does whatever he can to make Ginny feel better and treats her like a real good friend. However, I believe that without the help of David to encourage her to be social, she would have never been able to pass the barricade that was blocking her from opening up. Thus, in this story, I believe that the central conflict is man vs self. Throughout the entire story, Ginny believes that she cannot make friends and that she will never be able to get comfortable with others. She believes that she is born this way and that she is looked down upon by her friends and family. She figures that she is helpless and is better off alone.I believe that the theme in this story is to be who you are. Again, in the story, Ginny was scared to open up to others. She was scared to become who she was. She was always the one who was left out, all because she thought that she was not able too. However, with time and practice, Ginny is able to live up to her goal and she is able to raise her and improve her social life. This theme contributes to me as a person because I seemed to learn to always be yourself. Never be someone you are not. Do not be afraid to join the Robotics Club or the Chess Club or the Trading Card Game Club. Do not be afraid to be who you are. I was always nervous to sign up for these clubs because I thought that I could lose my "cool" friends. I thought that less people would want to hang out with me if I spend time doing this that were dumb and nerdy. However, after reading this book, I seemed to have learned to just be yourself. Join the clubs and the sports that you like and enjoy. Who cares if you lose friends, you will just make more friends with common interests at those clubs. Likewise, I am a wrestler at Prospect High and I really enjoyed wrestling. I never did it before but I started as Freshman and I plan to do it all four seasons of my career. However, I tried to get my friends to join, but they would all laugh and make fun of me. They would think that I am gay just because I am touching other guys or that I liked to look dumb when I wore a tight singlet. However, I learned to enjoy wrestling and I do not mind if they laugh or make fun of me. They are just missing out on the fun sport. One motif that was constantly brought up in the story was the idea of advice. Throughout the entire book, Ginny would ask advice from all her friends and family. She whenever she had questions or needed advice, she would ask her family or her friends. David was always there to give her comfort in times were she struggled. David a big help in helping her getting comfortable with socializing with others. One writing style that the author uses is the style of adding food recipe pictures. In the beginning of chapters, the author would include recipe that would tease us about the up coming scene. The recipe would always get be excited because I knew something was going to happen and I knew that another ghost was going to be summoned into the story. For example, I was most excited from the quote, “Dad’s handwriting. Familiar, powerful words. Flour. Water. Cream of tartar. Salt. Oil. A recipe.Something that was his. Something I’d forgotten. That homemade Play-Doh recipe. Whether he made it up himself, whether he copied it out of a book, I have no idea. And it wasn’t in the kitchen because it hasn’t been needed there for nearly twenty years. So it went to the back of the closet, with the memories.It may not be food, but it’s a recipe. Something of his I can make.He might come. I can hardly breathe” (McHenry 189). This quote explains how Ginny is finally able to find her fathers cooking recipe! Finally, she can summon up her dad and uncover all the mysteries and the secrets. Finally, the story will clear up and it would all tie up together! Whenever I saw a recipe, I always got excited! I knew something was going to happen and someone was going to be uncovered! The recipes were all great uses of rising action! It always got me curious about what was going to happen next!I really would recommend this story to others. I feel that this idea of cooking up ghosts has lots of potential and it was portrayed very well. The idea of food and ghost seem to be an odd mix, but in this story, it all works out and it is quite interesting. Even though there might be times when this story may feel like nothing is happening, it quickly jumps into a new chapter and thrill is back on its feet again. Also, another reason why I would recommend this book is because it could relate to you. Ginny is just a normal teenage girl living her life. She just believes that she has a problem that she cannot deal with. Just like in my life and in many other teenage lives, we all think that we are always constantly having problems that we cannot deal with. However, just like Ginny overcomes her situation, we also learn to adapt and try our best to get over the wall. This is an amazing book all filled with food, ghost, and a comparable teenage life! Lastly, this is a book so maybe there is a theme that could be learned in the story that can see seen differently from the way I saw it. Everyone should definitely give this book a shot! less

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