A Spoonful of Time

Gr 3-6–Maya juggles school, friends, and helping her busy mother to care for her aging grandmother who suffers from memory issues. But one summer day, Maya’s grandmother, whom she calls Halmunee, teaches her how to make a traditional Korean dessert, and Maya discovers a hidden family talent: women in her family can time travel to the past through memories associated with food. As Maya and her grandmother experiment with recipes and memories, the two become close and Maya learns there may be other family secrets that her mother never told her. This is a sweet story about food and family that is enriched by the addition of several recipes sprinkled in between the chapters. Through Maya’s trips to the past with her grandmother, she learns about her Korean heritage and connects to her larger family outside of her mom and grandmother, which helps assuage her occasional loneliness. Readers will root for Maya as she slowly navigates her tense relationship with her mother and learns her powers, and while these plot threads are thoroughly explored, there are several that remain frustratingly unresolved.