Book Review: "Hungry Monkey"

Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's 

Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater

by Matthew Amster-Burton

Goodreads Summary: Hungry Monkey is the story of one man’s coming to realize that kids don’t need puree in a jar or special menus at restaurants and that raising an adventurous eater is about exposure, invention, and patience. A restaurant critic and food writer, now a stay-at-home dad, Amster-Burton writes of the highs and lows of teaching your child about food—the high of rediscovering how something tastes for the first time through a child’s unedited reaction, the low of thinking you have a precocious vegetable fiend on your hands only to discover that a child’s preferences change from day to day. Sharing in his culinary capers is little Iris, a budding gourmand and a zippy critic herself, who makes huge sandwiches, gobbles up hot chilis, and even helps around the kitchen sometimes.

Review:  Part of my job responsibilities is to monitor the Parenting Collection at my library branch, so when new Parenting books come in, I leaf through them very quickly to ensure that they are right for the collection.  While going through a stack of books one day, I happened upon this one.  I'm not a parent (yet), but both my husband and I love to eat, so imagine my curiosity when I saw this book.  I was instantly hooked - one of the biggest fears my husband and I have about our future kids is that they're going to be picky eaters and we'll have to give up all the yummy and sometimes strange foods that we love.

At first, I really enjoyed Amster-Burton's stories about his young daughter, Iris, and her forays into the world of eating.  They were humorous, and had some ideas that I thought might really work with molding a small child into one that is willing to eat whatever the adult would want to try.  But then we hit Chapter 10, which is about 100 pages into the book.  At this point, Iris has hit her picky eating stage, and Amster-Burton, unfortunately, has run out of tips and advice for us.  Instead, he turns the second half of the book into a forum for him to talk about food and the things he has tried; Iris is only a secondary character for the rest of the book.

Another point of criticism is that Amster-Burton does not have a regular day job like most people.  He's a writer and therefore has ample amount of time throughout the day to make stuff like empanadas for a preschool snack or duck ragu for dinner.  While it was fun to read, it wasn't very realistic for most parents.  I did like his recipes that are scattered throughout the book; in fact, I made his Thai salad dressing tonight for dinner and it was amazing.  

Ultimately, if you're a foodie who happens to like kids, then this is a great book for you.  But if you're a parent looking for advice, try elsewhere.

Overall Rating: 3/5