Ginnie and the Cooking Contest

Ginnie and Geneva #7

by Catherine Woolley

When Ginnie spots the newspaper headline announcing a juvenile cooking contest, she is immediately fired with enthusiasm and determination to win first prize, a trip to Washington, D. C. For weeks she pored over a multitude of cookbooks trying to find the ideal menu to submit and a superlative recipe to prepare the day of the contest. Although an experienced cook for her age, Ginnie begins to lose confidence as she samples her friends' mouth-watering dishes and cannot decide on her own entry. Even with her plans settled, Ginnie finds she has not allowed enough time to prepare her material. How she manages to enter the contest on time, and what happens then, makes a suspenseful climax to a warm, appealing story.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

A prolific writer of over eighty books, Catherine Woolley published so many children's books that her publisher recommended using a pen name for some of her works. Ms. Woolley's Ginnie Fellows series was and continues to be a reader favorite across generations.

Pen name: Jane Thayer.

Reviews

[Luisa Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I’ll just have to get the entire series! This was my second title and I thoroughly enjoyed it too.

I so appreciate that Woolley writes engaging storylines and knows how to keep her audience. The two books I’ve read are far from boring and have unexpected twists. They’re packed with some great life lessons too - for this book: keeping commitments, being careless, helping to raise money for a community center, procrastination and more.

Ginnie is a good character for your kids to learn from.

Ages: 8 - 14

Content Considerations: nothing to note as attitudes/bad habits are lessons and resolved well.

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[Kerith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember checking this out of the Thomas Jefferson branch of the Fairfax County library system NUMEROUS times. Proof positive that I was reading about food even when I was in grade school. This is a delightful story about an eleven-year-old girl who, bored one January day, discovers a county-wide cooking contest for girls her age (no boys allowed in the kitchen in those days, right?) is on that spring -- the prize is a trip to Washington, DC. Of course, this prize always gave me a chuckle, growing up near DC as I did. And Ginnie herself was only ten miles away from New York City. But I digress. The charm in the story lies in the friendships between Ginnie and her friends, her respect and care for the neighbors and little children, the kids' efforts to raise money for a community pool, and even the quirkiness of a pickle mine thrown in. A pickle mine? Yes, indeed.
Add to this all the FOOD - what a wonderful little snapshot of the sort of cooking going on in the mid-60s: chicken loaf, gelatin salads with odd ingredients, and homemade bread so very unusual and special. Oh, I love this book.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this book was written for younger readers than myself, but I still enjoyed rereading this book from my childhood. Ginnie is fun, and I love how responsible she is about her babysitting. It is a little hard to believe how good of a cook she is at her age, but not totally impossible.
A fun story.

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never was much of a Ginnie fan, but this one makes me hungry for 1960s cuisine - chicken loaf, souffles, gelatin salads! Of course, home-baked bread is the real star here. It's thanks to this book (and the Ginnie cookbook) that I first tried my hand at bread-baking. I haven't made any in awhile, but maybe it's time to add yeast to my shopping list.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felt like rereading this childhood favorite! This book foretold foodie culture decades before there was cable TV, much less an entire Food Network! The descriptions of the 50-60’s era recipes are amazing. What a sweet, nostalgic trip back in time!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another year, another Catherine Woolley book. These are like comfort food to me, and I throw one in when I get bored with what I'm currently reading. :)

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world where there can be so much trouble and stress sometimes I just like to read a author that I read when I was growing up. It takes my brain back to a simpler time when my problems were small and solvable and when I wasn't the one having to solve most of them, because my parents were there to be the guide.

I fell in love with Ginnie books by Catherine Woolley when I first read Ginnie's Babysitting Business. The book would be perfect gift for girls who are 10-12 and who are pretty sensible and well mannered and obedient. They are set in a time when most children came from 2 parent families, when most moms were full time homemakers, and while Ginnie has little troubles, everything works out just fine in the end.

If you want just a nice pleasant, peaceful book to read, that will lift your spirits because everything works out in the end this is one like that.

If you are like me and like pairing reading with aromatherapy (essential oils) I would pair this book with doTERRA's Citrus Bliss Blend. The smell of Citrus Bliss is very much akin to the orange creamsicles many of us ate as children.

**Talking points. Ginnie dreamed about traveling? Is there a certain place you would like to travel to? Why? What are some other of your dreams? At first it looked like they wouldn't get their new swimming pool. Is it easy to give up on dreams that don't look like they are going to happen? What dreams of yours look like they are not going to happen? Which look like they will happen? Do you tend to give up on your dreams when they look like they will not happen, or do you tend to keep working towards them? How does it feel when your dreams come true? Ginnie got to go to New York, but not the way she had planned to go. Which dreams of yours were fulfilled, but in a different way. Why did Ginnie encourage another girl to join the competition? Do you think that was smart? Do you think was kind? Is being kind always smart? Ginnie often sacrificed what she wanted to help others. Like when she didn't go skating, so that she could make a child happy. Who do you think is happier in the end, those that live for themselves, those that live for others, or a combination of the two? Do you like cooking? What's your favorite thing to cook? What's your favorite thing to eat? Are you a good cook? Or what are your talents? And which talents would you like to develop?

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of all of my Ginnie and Geneva books. Ginnie and her friends try their hand at entering a county cooking contest.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite Woolley book. I love, love, love the whole foodie/cooking plot of the book.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember liking this book a lot when I read it, although kids these days might find it kind of slow. I seem to remember it taking me a long time to finish reading it.

I remember Ginnie was a preteen or young teen girl who decides to enter a cooking contest. She plans to make a souffle, but something goes wrong at the last minute, and she decides to bake bread instead. (I guess making a souffle is a rather delicate procedure.)

Reading this book made me want to enter and win a cooking contest, but I never did.

CLM on the What's the Name of That Book??? group told me the name of this book after I posted a question about it. Here's the link to that thread

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read of one of my favorite series as a young girl. This book was everything I remembered it to be, and it is fun and inspiring. Ginnie is an 11 year old only child who loves to cook, solve mysteries, help others and try new things. In this book, Ginnie decides to enter a cooking contest and tries many new recipes to find the perfect one. This is one of my favorite in the series, because it was all about cooking and specifically, baking bread.

This book would be a great read aloud to any girl 6 and up and probably suitable for a 2nd-3rd grade reading level. These books are out of print and hard to find, but worth it!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids were totally interested in this book--which was surprising because a third of it is a detailed account of this girl searching for, trying out and deciding on recipes. (They obviously have a mother who LOVES to cook). It was written in the 1950s and you could tell, which was fun. Not the most exciting book I've read, but the kids and I enjoyed it.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a girl, cooking and baking were two of my favorite things to do, along with reading. This book combined both my likes. I loved all the Ginnie books, I can still remember what shelf they were on in my local public library. I'm sad that they are out of print, and very hard to find.

[CLM · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably my favorite of the Ginnie books, and I always think about it when making bread (which used to be a more frequent occurrence).

[Wendy Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A whole book in which a girl tries out a bunch of different scrumptious dishes in hopes of winning a contest! Obviously I love it. Plus there is a secret pickle mine.

[Yasmin Bixler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when I was growing up and I miss it even if it is a children's book!

[Jane Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure from childhood!

[Maryo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's another "Ginnie" book - again, extremely dated, but very, very sweet. A real comfort read.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book always makes me hungry, even though I don't like the sound of half of the recipes. But mmmm - warm homemade bread!

[Bitsy]

1966

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my faves!

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

(review by an 8 year old). I like it because she won a special prize and that she did a really good job doing the baking. I didn't like how she was playing around instead of getting her menu sent in.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsessed with this book!