NIKI NAKAYAMA: A CHEF’S TALE IN 13 BITES: ACTIVITY KIT
Best Users: Educators, Public Librarians, School Librarians, Home Learning
Best Audience: Children Grades 03-06
ABOUT THE KIT
Here are some recipes for reader engagement. While the kit contains individual self-directed activity sheets, we hope our ideas inspire your own delicious lesson plans.The activities include:
13 Bites: Telling Your Story
ELA Activity
Like the staged, connected, (and absolutely delicious) courses of the Japanese storytelling meal kaiseki, the authors tell Niki Nakayama’s story in 13 parts or “bites.” This writing activity invites readers of the biography to become writers of their own story. Invite your readers to choose 13 objects, meals, books, or people as the anchors
for writing their own biography.
Kaiseki: Food & Memory
STEAM Activity
Food is often connected to memory. Niki Nakayama discovered that kaiseki or a storytelling feast was
designed to evoke memories. The tastes and smells remind the eater of something from their past.Can you use this picture book biography to build a STEM lesson on the five senses?
Asakusa to Takasaki: Mapping Food
Geography Activity
On the “Bite 5” spread in Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites, illustrator Yuko Jones uses a pictorial map to depict Niki’s eating tour of Japan. Can you use this image as the stepping off point for a local geography lesson?
Inventing Dishes & Making Menus
ELA & Math Activity
Young Niki invented her own dishes like Wonton Pizza. She now invents new kaiseki dishes every night to serve her guests at her award-winning restaurant. Can your readers invent 13 dishes they would like to serve at an imagined restaurant?
Each Dish a Work of Art
Art Activity
Yuko Jones’ illustrations open many doors to exploring Niki’s story through art. The artistry of Japanese food presentation alone could launch several projects. Art educator Kelly McConnell offers up these ideas for creating a food sculpture from paper.
Nihongo & Other Languages
Non-English Language Activity
To explore how Americans of all backgrounds retain and integrate the non-English words for food and family, consider having your readers partner with a person in their classroom, home, or community to learn six words about food and sharing meals together. A provided template allows the pair to collaboratively create language flash cards. Cards could be combined for a whole global eating deck!
Kuyashii! vs. Your Hopes & Dreams
Social Emotional Learning Activity
In Japanese, there’s a word for the defeated feeling that happens when people put you down or say you can’t do something: kuyashii. Every reader will recognize Niki’s frustration with kuyashii or being told her culinary dreams were not attainable or sustainable. Child therapist LCSW Bonnie Thomas explores these frustrations and offers readers strategies for self-supporting their dreams with affirmations and
an ongoing dream board.
Wonton Pizza Recipe
Cooking Activity
Young Niki liked to “imagine…explore …and invent!” Download and share one of her very first recipes. What recipe will your reader chefs invent?
DOWNLOAD Niki Nakayama: Classroom Activities (PDF)
Images © Yuko Jones
ABOUT THE BOOK
Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites
By Jamie Michalak
By Debbi Michiko Florence
Illustrated by Yuko Jones
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13: 9780374313876
Age Range: 4 – 12 Years
Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites is a picture book biography that tells the story of the powerhouse female Japanese-American chef and her rise to fame.
As both a child and adult, Niki Nakayama faced many naysayers in her pursuit of haute cuisine. Using the structure of a traditional kaiseki meal, the authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Jamie Michalak playfully detail Niki’s hunger for success in thirteen “bites” — from wonton wrappers she used to make pizza as a kid to yuzu-tomatillo sauce in her own upscale Los Angeles Michelin-starred restaurant, n/naka.
To anyone who tells her a woman can’t be a master chef, Niki lets her food do the talking. And oh, does it talk! Niki was featured on the first season of Netflix’s culinary documentary series Chef’s Table. Niki is currently a featured teacher on MasterClass.
A smart, strong woman with star power, Niki is only just getting started — like the young readers who will devour this book, featuring illustrations by Yuko Jones!
Not only does this book make a “silly, rollicking” read aloud for baby and toddler story time, but it offers opportunities for remote or in-person healthy eating and art activities. From singing along to finger painting to healthy snacks to eating tips, here is a whole menu of delicious (sticky) hands-on activities for families.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
“Art, storytelling, and food work together on so many levels in this beautiful tale about master chef Niki Nakayama’s life.”
—Booklist, starred review“Mixed media and digital art by Jones make each vignette atmospheric, with varying angles and insets, toothsome details, and watercolor washes.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Well-chosen details in this picture book biography chart a young chef’s development as she forges her own path using food to tell her story…This empowering picture book biography is both lively and thoughtful, and a strong choice for primary grade readers who enjoy exploring culture through food.” —School Library Journal
