Jenifer Lang Cooks for Kids: 153 Recipes and Ideas for Good Food That Kids Love to Eat

In the midst of the expanding selection of cookbooks for children, culinarian Lang ( Larousse Gastronomique ) carves out an important niche. Not just a healthful treatise nor a compilation of recipes sweetly named, her compact book recognizes and addresses the everyday clash of wills between modern, health-conscious parents and their typically finicky, quirky kids. Accordingly, the book is full of infinitely practical food tips and feeding suggestions, from how to offer new foods to a baby (``at the beginning of a meal, when he is hungriest and more likely to accept a new taste'') to how to sneak vegetables into children's dishes. Most impressive are recipes devised by Lang to build variety into her own child's diet. These include variations on what she calls ``jelly building blocks'' (a sort of gourmet version of gelatin squares): avocado blocks, carrot blocks and chicken blocks. Also intriguing is Lang's concept of ``muffin meals'' (salmon; ham-on-rye), expanding children's food repertoire. Equally special are recipe variations that recognize the tastes of ``grownup kids.'' Further, the volume is dotted with suggestions and recipes from celebrity chefs--for one, Wolfgang Puck's Mousketeer's Pizza. (Sept.)