Salma the Syrian Chef

Salma the Syrian Chef is a wonderful picture book that is an absolute delight!

These are the types of books I needed when I was little. Reading the same old picture books over and over got boring, but books like THESE would have had me thrilled and excited. As an adult, I can appreciate them even more. Diversity in children's literature is a must these days! I'm so glad to see a book like this out and about!

Salma lives in Vancouver (Yay! Canada!) but previously lived in Syrian. Her Father will be coming to Canada soon, but for now it's just her and her Mama. Salma wants to make Mama happy, and she knows just the way! She could make some Syrian food for Mama. With a little help from her friends, Salma sets herself on a mission to brighten up her Mama's day because she can't fix the bigger problems.

My heart is SINGING. This book is so sweet and such a wonderful tale. I can't talk highly enough about this book! It has to find a bigger audience because it is just so lovely! The heart and soul within this book is just magical. I highly recommend this book, in fact, I can't recommend it enough! Adults and children alike will love this sweet story.

This story is for a bit older group - at least grade ones. This book has a wonderful little plot and tells a beautiful story. It's not just pretty pictures and simple words. There's excellent sentence structure and a really well thought out plot. I applaud Danny Ramadan, I'm impressed!

Five out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Annick Press Ltd. for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Friends at a welcome center help Salma, a Syrian refugee, prepare foul shami, a dish that is meant to ease her mother’s sadness and remind her of home.. Young readers will have an opportunity to empathize with a contemporary problem explained in a simple way that is appropriate for this audience. The cheerful illustrations convey resilience without minimizing the hardships for children facing this tragic situation.

Review copy: Digital ARC via Netgalley

This is a sweet story. A young girl and her mother have come to a new country and they're dealing with the emotional toll of being apart from her father and adjusting to their circumstances. Salma gets the idea to cheer up her mother by cooking something that they used to eat in Syria. The people around Salma help her with this project, but there are many trials along the way.

The story and illustrations show the frustrations and some of the sadness, but not in such a way as to overwhelm young readers. Readers can see that the people around us are what truly make a home.

Recommendation: This is a great addition to any library (home or otherwise) especially for those wanting to increase their representation of immigrants. It's also simply a nice book for those who enjoy picture books centered around food.

I requested this book to read to my kids primarily because they have been super interested in cooking lately. I thought it would be nice for them to learn about another young chef who likes to cook, and even more intrigued by the ideas of a Syrian chef, where a lot of the ingredients they would not have heard before. I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. Not only do you learn about a Syrian dish and what goes into making it, but you also learn about the difficulty in coming to a new country when you had to leave your own. This was a perspective that I wasn't anticipating, but ended up being great discussion for my children and myself. Definitely recommend this for any kids aged Kindergarten and higher.

We first meet Salma staring out her window at the rain as she tries to pronounce ‘Vancouver.’ Her entertaining struggles to get the word correct reflect the authentic challenges faced by new immigrants, refugees, and all of us trying to learn a new language. (You don't want to hear me butcher Korean.)

Salma and her mother live in an apartment in a Welcome Center in Vancouver, Canada. Life is hard, especially for Mama. Not only does she have to look after Salma, she is trying to find work and learn English. Both of them miss Papa back in Syria. Mama hardly laughs anymore, so Salma tries to cheer her up, but no matter what she does, ‘all she gets is Mama’s sad smile, full of love but empty of joy.”

At the Welcome Center daycare, Salma “draws her home back in Damascus: a yellow house with a garden surrounding it like a necklace.” While drawing she comes up with an idea for how to cheer her mother up.

If you have ever been out of the country for a while, you will know what it is to miss the flavours of home. Everyone at the center, adults and children alike, miss special food from their own cultures. For Salma, it is ‘foul shami.’ With the help of adults, she gets a recipe from the internet, goes shopping for ingredients, and proceeds to prepare her mother’s favourite dish. When it is nearly done she realizes she is missing sumac, the final ingredient. Thankfully another adult, Granny Donya, comes to the rescue. Unfortunately, there are more near disasters before it all comes together.

When presented with the final dish, Salma’s mother reminds her, and us, that home is much more than food or place, it’s about being with people you love.

Salma the Syrian Chef is a story about being forced to leave a land you love. It's about what we miss when we are away from our roots, and reminds us to be thankful for the diverse, multicultural communities we live in now.

Both the author and illustrator live here in Vancouver. A sense of place is integral to the book. It is a delight to see this city I call home presented, yet at the same time, I am conscious of Salma and others, aching for their far away places they call home. Anna Bron's vibrant art pulls all of this together. Just as Salma's Syrian culture frames her experiences in her new country, Anna Bron's Syrian style borders frame the illustrations and words in this book. They are stunning. In some places the text and illustrations are separated by additional borders. While admiring them, my fingers itched to get hold of some fabric and start making a quilt.

I wish I could tell you how Anna Bron creates her art but my ARC doesn't provide any details and I couldn't find anything in my internet search. However, I encourage you to go check out her website to see more of her work. I hope you can carve out time to watch her animated short films. Just Wow!

Danny Ramadan's gorgeous writing is full of swoonworthy lines. If you are looking for mentor text that highlights metaphor, look no further than this: "Salma's heart aches like a tiny fire in her chest when she thinks of Papa. She wonders if Mama's heart is burning too." After reading this, I plan to track down a copy of Danny Ramadan's first novel, The Clothesline Swing. It won all kinds of awards. I can hardly wait to get started.

I have two minor quibbles with this book. First, the text is smallish for a picture book, but that might be just because I am basing this on a digital ARC. Second, there is no recipe for foul shami in it and I can't find one online! If you are like me, you will want to make it as soon as you finish reading.