The 20 Best Cookbooks For Kids Who Like To Cook

This bright and colorful cookbook by celeb chef Duff Goldman will help kids and adults alike create what Duff does best: delicious sweet treats. There are dessert pizzas, unicorn cupcakes, and thoughtful baking lessons and fun facts throughout. 

A map at the beginning of this American Girl cookbook acts at the table of contents, laying out which dishes will be spotlighted and from which countries. The recipes span the globe, and each one has a short description about its history or ingredients.

Edna Lewis was a prominent Black chef who championed the South's regional cuisine, fresh ingredients, and farm-to-table before it was cool. Illustrations along with stories and songs about Edna and food guide kids through this book. Plus, there are five special recipes sprinkled throughout.

This collection of recipes was inspired by all the young cooks who've appeared on Masterchef Junior...and it's meant to inspire all the young cooks who haven't. In addition to the 100 recipes, there are tips and timeless pieces of advice sprinkled throughout.

It's not that all the recipes in this book are easy to make, but at the very least they'll get Harry Potter-loving young ones interested in being in the kitchen. Recipes include Knickerbocker Glories and Rock Cakes.

This cookbook is packed with recipes from Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi. Since she's also a MasterChef Junior judge, she knows exactly which recipes to suggest so that kids have fun baking in the kitchen. These include things like Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes and Choco Crunch Cookies. YUM. 

Cool African Cooking is one of many installments in the Cool World Cooking series of children's cookbooks. The recipes (like chapati flatbread) are all kid-tested and include step-by-step instructions and pronunciation guides.

All the recipes in The Forest Feast for Kids are vegetarian, and they're all beautifully illustrated. The watercolor pictures aren't unlike what you'd find in a fairy tale book—they're just accompanying instructions to make pizza and smoothies instead of stories about princesses and castles.

There is no better way to start cooking Italian food with your little one than with this book right here. Pizza Margherita, rigatoni with meatballs, focaccia bread—you name it. This book's got it.

Your young ones will want to eat nearly every recipe in our just-launched cookbook. There are good chunk of easy to make recipes, too. Flip right to the Unicorn Bark, Grilled Cheese Dippers, and Cheeseburger Cups.

You could send your kid to cooking school or just buy them this book. It's chock-full of simple recipes, tips, and important food education—like the difference between bittersweet and milk chocolate chips. And the kid reviews on the back cover are hilarious. "It's 98% good. The tomato sauce is really yummy," said 11-year-old Rebecca.

Admittedly, this cookbook doesn't really have anything to do with the American Girl dolls. But if the logo gets your kid interested in cooking, who really cares? Every recipe has a picture—important for newbies—and reviewers say preteens can easily prepare the grub by themselves.

For the fairy tale obsessed kiddos, there's this: Every recipe is inspired by a classic children's story, like Goldilocks and the Three Pears, Cinnarella, and Plumbelina. Cute, no?

This is a bit more of a cookbook to use with your children instead of straight-up hand to them. There are boxes of tasks that kids can do to help meal prep, plus conversation starters for the dinner table. Because "How was school today?" gets old.

From The Everything Series comes this kid-friendly cookbook. The authors didn't try to dumb down grown-up food; they just gave kids what they want—mac and cheese, s'mores, pancakes, French fries. There are 30 food-themed puzzles within the pages of the book, too.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Kids love gross things, and this book has plenty of them. Well, they're actually delicious things—chocolate, cheese sticks—masquerading as gross ones—dirt, mice. The warning on the back tells you all you need to know, though: "Vomit Warning: Not Suitable For Boring Grown-Ups!"

Near every recipe name on the table of contents, there's the country it comes from, too. The intro of all the recipes serves as a littly history and culture lesson, too. You'll spot foods from France, Italy, China, and Mexico—so your kids will have a little more knowledge about the pizza and orange chicken they love so much.

Sometimes the classics just work.