My Chocolate Year: A Novel with 12 Recipes by Charlotte Herman with Illustrations by LeUyen Pham

Synopsis: Dorrie Meyers is determined to win her fifth grade Sweet Semester baking and essay contest,  but Dorrie doesn't know how to bake and has no idea what to write.  Then her immigrant cousin, Victor, arrives in America, bringing with him the solutions to both of Dorrie's problems.

Review: My Chocolate Year is a sweet homage to food and how it brings families together.  It's September, 1945 in Chicago.  World War II has just ended, and the fifth grade has just begun for chocolate-lover Dorrie Meyers.  Dorrie is particularly excited about this school year because her class will participate in the Sweet Semester baking and essay contest.  The winners will get their picture in the paper.  Dorrie really wants to win, but first she's going to have to learn to bake and figure out what she'll write in the essay.

Dorrie works hard to create a yummy chocolate treat.  She wants to be just like Ruth Wakefield, the woman who invented chocolate chip cookies.  First, she tries to create chocolate covered gum.  As you can imagine, the gum melts in the heated chocolate.  Next she attempts nut clusters, but accidentally uses a laxative bar instead of a chocolate bar.  Then she settles on chocolate carmel apples, but another classmate is making taffy apples.  Dorrie is disappointed that she can't come up with anything good to make.  Both her Mom and Bubbie are excellent bakers.  What's she going to do?

Then cousin Victor arrives.  Victor is 16 and the only surviving member of his immediate family.  Victor's family owned a bakery in Lithuania, and it is he who teaches Dorrie how to make the chocolate peppermint sticks she makes for the contest.  His story also provides Dorrie with the idea for her essay.

My Chocolate Year is a charming story of food, family and world history.  While at moments a bit sappy, it provides kids with some very basic details of the holocaust without being too horrific.  Add in some interesting little historical tidbits like calling the refrigerator the Frigidaire and the creation of the silver penny due to a copper shortage, and you have a solid story that provides many jumping points for discussions of World War II.  The inclusion of the various recipes is also a nice touch.  For many children, their first sense of their family history comes by what food is served at the dinner table.  Not to mention, I can't wait to make the chocolate nut torte on page 131.  I'm off to the grocery for supplies.

If you like this novel, you might also enjoy A Year Down Yonder and A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck.