The Garbage Pail Kids Cookbook

Gross has never been so tasty with this illustrated children’s cookbook from Topps and the Garbage Pail Kids brand, featuring more than 35 zany, kid-friendly recipes and an introduction by R.L. Stine

Learn to cook and eat like a real Garbage Pail Kid with more than 35 delicious—and mostly healthy—recipes from Elisabeth Weinberg, a New York City–based chef and Chopped champion, and her husband, Matt Stine. Young chefs will have fun making and eating recipes from Nasty Nick's Garlic Snots to Rob Slob's Garbage Pail Slaw and Adam Bomb's Blender Blasters! This easy-to-follow book also features a section of science experiments, an introduction by R.L. Stine, full-color illustrations by celebrated Garbage Pail Kids artist Joe Simko, and plenty of outrageous humor that is guaranteed to appeal to every generation of Garbage Pail Kids fans.

Gr 2-6-Weinberg and Stine tie together 1980s nostalgia and gross-out humor in this cookbook. The book offers only two pages of preliminary information before getting right to the gross stuff. Divided into sections by course, such as Lose-Your-Lunch Lunches and Stomach-Turning Sides, the recipe names and illustrations are sure to disgust readers. Recipes each contain the name of a Garbage Pail Kid, an illustration of their collector's sticker, and a brief blurb about their background and connection to the recipe. The recipes are mainly simple, with most requiring two-to-seven steps. There are no photos of the finished product; instead, the Garbage Pail Kids showcase an illustration of the end-product, often in a less-than-appetizing way. The book concludes with a section called Brainy Janie's Food Science Lab, which includes experimental recipes like Leaky Lindsay's Edible Slime. VERDICT Purchase for collections where the new Garbage Pail Kids series or gross-out books are popular.α(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Elisabeth Weinberg is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, an executive chef, and owner of Miss Elisabeth’s Catering in New York City. Matt Stine is a Tony Award–winning music producer and, along with his wife, Elisabeth, is the author of the children’s book Little Chef, illustrated by Paige Keiser. Joe Simko is an artist known for his happy-horror style. He is one of the premiere Garbage Pail Kids illustrators for the Topps Company and lives in New York City with his wife, son, dog, and many, many boxes of cereal. R.L. Stine has more than 400 million English-language books in print, plus international editions in 32 languages, making him one of the most popular children’s authors of all time. The Topps Company, Inc., originator of Garbage Pail Kids (GPK), Mars Attacks, and Bazooka Joe brands, was founded in 1938 and is the preeminent creator and marketer of physical and digital trading cards, entertainment products, and distinctive confectionery. Check out GPK via social media: #garbagepailkids, facebook.com/GarbagePailKids, garbagepailkids.com.