Sandor Katz and the Tiny Wild
Sandor Katz and the Tiny Wild
Written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin & June Jo Lee
Illustrated by Julie Wilson
Afterward by Sandor Katz
Age Range: 6 - 12 years
Grades: 1 - 6
Hardcover: $19.95, ISBN 978-0998047713, eISBN 978-0998047737
Pages: 32 pages
Publication Date: June 2022
Order from Bookshop, Amazon, or Purchase from your local bookstore!
Audiobook available via Live Oak Media
PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHY OF THE "FERMENTATION REVIVALIST," FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF CHEF ROY CHOI AND THE STREET FOOD REMIX.
Sandor Katz’s love of fermented food started with kosher dill pickles he ate as a New York City kid. As an adult, he left the busy city and moved to a queer community in the mountains of Tennessee. There, his friends grew their own food, cooked and ate together, and sometimes danced in drag when the work was done. One day, the cabbages were all, ALL ready to be harvested. What to do? Sandor tried to make sauerkraut. Delicious! He kept experimenting, finding old recipes, combining old ideas to make something new. Then, he shared what he learned in bestselling books, in classes, and with a growing group of friends around the world.
Written by award-winning authors Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee, Sandor Katz and the Tiny Wild folds timely themes of ecology, community-building, and resilience into a lively biography that closes with a hands-on recipe: just chop, salt, pack, and wait for tiny, wild, invisible microbes to turn raw ingredients into zingy, zangy foods that we love. Sandor believes that making fermented foods connects all, ALL of us on planet Earth—people, plants, and The Tiny Wild. Won't you join Sandor’s crew and share your own dash of dazzle with the world?
About the Author
Jacqueline Brigs Martin is the author of many award-winning children's books, including SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY, winner of the Caldecott Medal. CHEF ROY CHOI AND THE STREET FOOD REMIX, which she co-authored with June Jo Lee, along with SANDOR KATZ AND THE TINY WILD, is part of her award-winning "Food Heroes" series, which also includes FARMER WILL ALLEN AND THE GROWING TABLE and ALICE WATERS AND THE TRIP TO DELICIOUS, all published by READERS to EATERS. She lives in Mount Vernon, Iowa. jacquelinebriggsmartin.com
June Jo Lee is a food ethnographer, studying how America eats. She’s a national speaker on food trends and consults with organizations such as Google Foods. She co-founded READERS to EATERS, a publisher promoting food literacy through stories about our diverse food cultures. She also co-authored, with Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix, a 2018 Sibert Award Honor Book for Most Distinguished Information Book. She lives in San Francisco. foodethnographer.com
Julie Wilson has created billboards in Times Square in New York and the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles; murals at Coney Island; graphics for Central Park SummerStage, restaurants, a church, and a toy store; and many editorial illustrations for magazines and newspapers. Her artwork has been heavily influenced by TV cartoons and Pop Art. This is her first picture book. She lives in Santa Monica, California, where she works in a garage with the big door open, the sun shining in, and music or old movies playing in the background. juliewilsonillustration.com
Sandor Katz is the bestselling author of many books including THE ART OF FERMENTATION, which won a James Beard Foundation Book Award in 2013. Through his writing and workshops, Sandor shares his love for the transformative power of microbes to make delicious fermented foods. He lives in Middle Tennessee.
Editorial Reviews
“Best Picture-Book Biographies of 2022” —Kirkus Reviews
"Best Children's Books of the Year 2023"— Bank Street College of Education, Children's Book Committee
"Entertainingly depicted... Bon appétit!" —"Starred" review, Booklist
"Colorful, stylized art and playful, accessible text draw in readers, beginning with the endpapers’ beautiful cabbages. First, Katz is shown in his world-renowned fermentation school in Walnut Ridge, Tennessee, where his kitchen lies inside a house with a “crickety-crockety porch.” Next, readers learn of his boyhood in New York City, where he grows up loving fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kosher dill pickles. As a young man, Katz watches friends dying of AIDS and then learns that he is HIV-positive. He decides that the best way to take better care of himself is to leave his beloved city and “join a community of queer folks” in rural Tennessee. When their farm is overpopulated with ready-to-harvest cabbage, Katz is inspired to try his hand at sauerkraut. Soon, he combines that recipe with Korean kimchi spices and creates something that he dubs “kraut-chi.” A dazzling double-page spread shows him and his living partners at table as they dub him “Sandorkraut.” Katz markets his product and eventually travels the world, teaching, learning, and writing about fermented foods. The simple instructions—'chop, salt, squeeze, pack, and wait'—become the foundation for an accessible, six-step recipe at the end. Fermentation definitions are deftly sprinkled throughout the pages. Inspiring and 'kraut-chi-licious.'" —Kirkus Reviews
"A triumphant celebration of food and community." —Kirkus Reviews, "Children's Books that Celebrate Queer Identity"
"Martin and Lee incorporate quotes from Katz throughout their energetic, onomatopoeic text... Making her picture book debut, Julie Wilson's casual, enthusiastic, earth-toned illustrations suit the subject and Katz's effervescent personality. The entertainment value here is rivaled by expansive backmatter including an afterword by Katz addressing readers, a visual guide to kraut-making, long author and illustrator notes (including ethnographic research) and additional resources.
A fizzy and informative celebration of fermentation that enthusiastically supports curious experimentation and food literacy." —Shelf Awareness
"A new picture book about food fermentation evangelist Sandor Katz is the queer biography I didn’t know I needed—full of flavor inspiration and community…Martin and Lee’s text is a delight echoing the snap crunch and fizz of fermenting foods. Julie Wilson’s illustrations are colorful and casual reflecting the vibe of the farm community and Katz himself. Katz’ queerness is not a focus of the story but is nevertheless clear as is the queerness of his community—a lovely example of how not to make every queer person’s biography 'about' them being queer but nevertheless to make their queerness visible." —Mombian, GLAAD Media Award-winning blog for LGBTQ parents
Award & Honors to Jacquline Briggs Martin & June Jo Lee’s Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix:
Robert F. Sibert Award Honor for Most Distinguished Informational Book, 2018
Notable Children's Book, American Library Association
Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children 2018, National Council of Teachers of English
Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2018, National Council for the Social Studies
Winner, FOCAL Award 2019 for Best Children's Book with California Content, Los Angeles Public Library
"Outstanding Merit," Best Children's Book of the Year 2018, Bank Street College of Education's Children's Book Committee
Junior Library Guild Selection
"CCBC Choices,” Cooperative Children's Book Center
Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List, 2018-2019
Rhode Island Children's Book Award nominee, 2019
Finalist, INDIES Book of the Year Award 2017, Forward Review
“Starred” review, School Library Journal
“Starred” review, Publishers Weekly