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Youth Education
The Vegetarian Society
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WA14 4QG
If you would like to review a book, please
e-mail your review to education@vegsoc.org, with your name and age.
The views expressed in these reviews are not necessarily those of The
Vegetarian Society.
Please NB: We cannot guarantee to review all of the
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are sent to
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Reviews in this section:
'Katie's Cool Cookbook' by Katie Spencer
'Your Food' by Sally Hewitt
The Vegan Society Interactive CD Rom
'So what do you eat?' by Liz Cook
'Vegetarian Nosh 4 Students' by Joy
May
'Youth Market-
Chickens versus Television' by Barry Tighe
'You Can Save The Planet – A
Day In The Life Of Your Carbon Footprint' by Rich Hough
'Katie’s Cool Cookbook' by Katie Spencer
‘Katie’s Cool Cookbook’ is a very cool recipe book! Katie, aged 10, lives in Yorkshire and clearly shares her parents’ love of cooking. After being asked numerous times for her Mum’s recipes, she decided to put some together in a book for everyone to share. I luckily received a copy from Jamie, and I have to say that it is a great book. The instructions are easy to follow and are accompanied by Katie’s own drawings, the layout is simple, as well as being very well presented. After a short introduction including some shocking facts about the benefits of vegetarianism and veganism, there is a table of contents including recipes divided into two sections: ‘Super Savouries’, including Celeriac and Orange soup, Vegan Yorkshire Puddings and Bean Burgers, and ‘Dazzling Desserts’, including Chocolate Treats, Rice Pudding and Gingerbread people. It was after school and I was craving something sweet, so I decided to make the Oaty Cookies. Here is the recipe straight from the book:
Ingredients:
6oz self raising flour
3oz porridge oats
2oz brown sugar
1tsp ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4oz margarine
1tbsp golden syrup
Makes 22, oven temperature 180°C, 350°F, Gas Mark 4
Mix all the dry ingredients
Melt butter and syrup (don’t boil)
Mix well
Mould mixture into balls (squash down slightly)
Place on greased tray and bake for 8 minutes.
Cool on a cooling tray.
I really enjoyed making these cookies. They were very simple to make, had a nice texture and tasted great. I don’t know if I used the right amount of bicarbonate of soda as they tasted a little fizzy, but this was balanced well by the sugar and gave an overall taste that wasn’t too sweet, with a hint of ginger. I decided to experiment on a few and found that they work very well when you add raisins, but you could really use any dried fruit (I think that apricots would also be nice).
Overall I found this recipe fun, easy to follow and I look forward to trying out more of the recipes from Katie’s brilliant little book.
Reviewed by Lanikai Krishnadasan Torrens
To order a copy of this booklet (£2.50 including postage and packaging) telephone 01964 562676 or email veggiekate@tiscali.co.uk
As part of the Green Team series, ‘Your Food’ by Sally Hewitt is aimed at children aged 7-11 and offers a comprehensive guide to, well, food! Rather than focusing simply on recipes and healthy eating, this book widens its perspective by charting global food journeys as it considers where our food comes from and how far it has travelled. The Green Team’s aim is ‘to make sure you eat food that has been properly prepared and is good for the world around you as well as tasty to eat. ’
The subject of food is rather vast, so this book works hard to break down key terms and labels into a more digestible form for its young readers - there’s even a glossary. ‘Your Food’ invites school children to find out whether their school lunches are good for the planet (i.e. fair-trade, organic, local, seasonal and eco-packaged). It also cleverly connects schools in the UK with those around the globe to show how different school children grow and eat ‘green’ food. There are examples of a healthy school tuck shop in the Shetlands; school meals in Ghana; and school gardens, compost heaps and veg patches in France, South Africa and the U.S. The emphasis is mainly on growing and eating vegetables and grains, so there’s zero meat content –although no mention of vegetarianism either.
As the book explores different topics, useful tips, advice and mini-challenges are clearly laid out, which is really useful in guiding readers to work realistically towards sourcing, preparing and eating greener food. There are also some web links at the end, which may encourage further research. The lay-out of photos, colours and large text make ‘Your Food’ friendly, and accessible, while the hard back cover makes this a sturdy book – particularly ideal for the school library. Perhaps the Green Team may like to think about completing the series with a book about vegetarianism?
Reviewed by Michiko Fujii
The Vegan Society - Interactive CD-Rom
What Is It?
The Vegan Society has produced a CD-ROM to educate young people about
veganism. It explains what a vegan is, why people choose to go vegan
and how to become and stay vegan. I think it ’s fantastic!
What’s It Like?
The CD-ROM is voiced by legendary vegan poet and activist Benjamin
Zephaniah and it has seven sections. ANIMALS, PEOPLE and ENVIRONMENT
show just how much difference going vegan makes to animals, the environment
and starving people from Third World nations. FOOD, GOING VEGAN and HEALTH
explain vegan nutrition and the health benefits of a vegan diet and give
advice to help you turn vegan, including a guide to what meat and dairy
alternatives are available and where to find them and a really cool recipes
section. There’s also a PRESS FOR CHANGE section where you’ll
find PDF versions of all the Vegan Society’s leaflets to print
out and distribute amongst friends and family.
What’s Good About It?
It’s animated in a really cool cartoon style and Benjamin Zephaniah
narrates it really well. The music is good, too. The recipes sound really
tasty and it’s full of information. Each section has an introduction
too, which summaries everything, but you can skip it to get to the section
menu quickly if you’ve already watched it. I learnt some interesting
facts from it as well. Did you know that pigs dream? And that they see
in colour just like we do? There’s also a game on the disk (which
you’ll find by pressing the red button on the ‘About this CD’ page),
which I found quite addictive.
What’s Bad About It?
The introduction to the disk begins with “VEGAN for the people, VEGAN
for the animals…” and “Go Vegan” is repeated quite
a lot throughout the CD. When played over loud speakers, this can sound
quite forceful and some users may consider this a bit ‘preachy’ and
get the wrong impression of the Vegan Society, even though the actual information
is presented in a very reasonable way. There’s a lot to read too
and it’s written in quite small writing which may be difficult to
read if the CD is projected onto a screen, for a class to look at, for
example. I also found that there are quite a lot of sections, pages and
menus and I sometimes got a bit lost. Once you’ve used the CD once,
it shouldn ’t be a problem but it took me a while to find my way around.
How Do You Get It?
Contact the Vegan Society (www.vegansociety.com). The CD-ROM costs £5
but is free for schools. There’s also a range of activities which
teachers can use alongside the disk on the Vegan Society website.
Reviewed by Alex Mills.
And another review...
I was quite intrigued by the cover of the CD Rom, I assumed interactive meant some sort of fun game I was going to play whilst at the same time learn about veganism. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The introduction to the CD Rom was quite promising; it’s stylish and cool and sums up all the reasons for going vegan. However, there isn’t a game to play! The opening screen is instead a dictionary explanation of the word vegan and a page of writing (on the first trial of this CD Rom I became quickly bored with reading pages of information and didn’t make it much further than the title screen).
After clicking on a menu button the CD Rom took a long time to load and my computer appeared to have crashed. Not very encouraging. Each different menu button only leads to further pages of writing and although the information is interesting and very informative the presentation of it isn’t exciting or inviting enough. If people want to read information about veganism I believe they would rather do it from a book or magazine sitting comfortably in an armchair.
The background music for each section is the same tasteless and repetitive noise which I can’t believe anybody would enjoy, it is also quite distracting as you are attempting to read from the screen.
I did enjoy the recipes under the Food menu button though. The pictures and clearly labelled headings made them simple and easy to understand as well as appealing and very appetising.
Overall I was quite disappointed with this CD Rom, it wasn’t interactive in the way I thought it would be, it didn’t convince me to turn Vegan and I was very easily bored with ploughing through the pages of writing.
Reviewed by Jessie Fisher.
“So, what do you eat?” – Liz Cook
This book is well presented and very practical (the cover is even washable plastic!). It has a fun and funky appearance; the recipes are hand written and the pictures are beautifully hand drawn – look out for the antics of the dog who is rather jolly. My daughter said the book reminds her of an old fashioned, warm and friendly kitchen.
Although I have only been vegan for 4 months I have been vegetarian for 18 years and I found the recipes to be really simple but occasionally rather stating the obvious. That said, my daughter (age 12) thought it perfect and could not wait to start cooking. The nutritional advice at the beginning of the book, and the nutrient wall chart at the back are brilliant.
I would not necessarily recommend this book to a seasoned old veggie such as myself, but would definitely get a copy for anybody recently converted or thinking about it but too scared to take the plunge. It’s also an ideal ‘gift’ to give to your family if you are vegetarian / vegan so that they are not afraid to cook for you when you visit.
For the nutritional advice alone I would suggest that every young person just starting out on his or her own, veggie or carnivorous, should have a copy.
Click here for more information on this book
Reviewed by Debbie Wilbur.
“Vegetarian Nosh 4 Students” by Joy May
This book is fantastic for students who are confident in the kitchen but lack imagination beyond pasta with sauce. The layout is straightforward with photos to demonstrate the finished product. Importantly, you do not need weighing scales for the recipes as it is all measured out in mugs or tablespoons. One of the most useful sections is the sample menus – being at university, it is difficult to predict when you will have time to cook, but the weekly meal-plans are very useful in controlling budget and diet. It provides a shopping list for all the ingredients you will need for that week, but I would advise using a sample menu every other week or so as you do not want to end up with a lot of excess ingredients that need using up. Be wary of some of the recipes as some are not that well explained, for example the bean burgers, and some necessitate the use of hand-blenders which most students would struggle to get hold of.
The best thing about the recipes is that most of them aren’t conventional meals but interesting ways of eating lots of healthy, basic ingredients together without too much effort, for example the cheesy rice slice. The soups and risottos are extremely easy to follow which is great for students like me who had never attempted them before. This book is a useful compromise between filling meals and easy recipes, which rescues students from kitchen disasters but also from ready meals. Unlike other vegetarian student cookbooks, it is not over-ambitious and gives some general kitchen advice that prevents accidents. One thing it does not mention, however, is that improvisation is one of the most important aspects for students – playing around with the recipes, using up what you have rather than being precise about measurements, methods and ingredients.
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Rosa Gilbert
“Youth Market- Chickens versus Television” by Barry Tighe.
The first book in the ‘Spawater Chronicles’ series, ‘Youth
Market’ is about a young couple, Joanna and Jady. Jady hates the
way television has been dumbed-down and devises a plan to improve it. Joanna,
meanwhile, hates battery farms and creates a website to increase awareness
of them.
There are lots of references to history and popular culture in the
book, which I enjoyed and it’s written in quite an accessible style.
It’s rather long, though, with no pictures and on the whole, a bit
dull. I also found the number of characters and the conversations they
had slightly confusing. It improves towards the end and is full of information
about battery farming, which is good but I probably won’t bother
to read the other books.
6 out of 10.
Reviewed by Alex Mills
For more information on this book click
here
“You Can Save The Planet – A Day In The Life Of Your Carbon Footprint ” by Rich Hough.
This book is aimed at young people. The everyday tips it suggests for
saving the planet are based around a normal day, including going to school
and getting ready to go out. They are simple and don't involve a lot of
effort, which is handy because teenagers, like me, are known for being
lazy.
It also emphasises that 10% of greenhouse gases and 25% of methane
emissions are produced by cattle and sheep which are bred for their meat
and that eating less meat will help save the environment.
This book makes it simple and easy to do your bit to help save the
planet. There’s also a diary in the back that helps you realise that
even the little things you do make a difference.
Reviewed by Jessie Fisher
For more information on this book click here
If you are thinking of buying any books please consider using Amazon.co.uk by using this link. The Vegetarian Society will receive 5% of the total order value of any books, music, videos or DVDs you purchase.