Months ago I reviewed Fish Fry Friday, not knowing it was a sequel to Soul Food Sunday (2021). Soul Food Sunday is written by Winsome Bingham and illustrated by C. G. Esperanza, and this is quite a strong writer-illustrator pair. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought this was a single vision of this story.
Soul Food Sunday is a celebration of food and family, and the role food plays in family traditions. (Because this family is African American, as is soul food, this book is an African American celebration…but the core truths, of food, love, and family tradition, will be common in all healthy communities around the globe.
There’s a clear focus throughout: this extended family is getting ready for a soul food feast on Sunday. There’s also a developmental narrative: one of the boys in the family is old enough to help Granny in the kitchen, and he goes through a series of repeated tests and trials. He grates cheese until his hands ache, he rips greens until his arm aches…but he keeps going. He grows into his role as Granny’s helper, and together feed their family and continue their tradition.
For readers listening, there is a lot of small structure: “She rinses over and over. She rolls them together…” and so on.
For readers looking, there are vivid images that blend realism with some stylistic liberties, so individual images float like snapshots or memories across a page.
Good stuff for everyone. And a recipe for a LOT of mac ‘n’ cheese.
