Bread Lab!

It’s a sleepy Saturday morning for most people, but not for Iris, who has to feed her many pets before Aunt Mary arrives. Iris likes to call Aunt Mary “Plant Mary” because she is a plant scientist. Today Aunt Mary wants to experiment with making whole wheat sourdough bread from scratch! As the family kitchen transforms into a bread lab, Iris is surprised that bread needs only four ingredients—flour, water, salt and starter. She also learns about the invisible microbes that make the dough rise, and how flour comes from wheat grown by farmers. It all seems magical, but it’s really science. Kim Binczewski and Bethany Econopouly, plant researchers at The Bread Lab at Washington State University, Mount Vernon, make their picture-book debut with this mouth-watering story that captures the step-by-step process and delicious aromas, sensations, sights and sounds of bread-making. The playful art of Hayelin Choi, illustrator of Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious, crackle and pop