Lasagna Means I Love You by Kate O'Shaughnessy

 

Over the weekend, I finished reading Lasagna Means I Love You by Kate O'Shaughnessy. This realistic fiction novel is about Mo Gallagher, an eleven-year-old girl who is put into foster care after her grandmother, Nan, passes away and her uncle, Bill, decides to return to the army. When she discovers a handmade cookbook with recipes from someone else's family, she decides to take it with her to read the stories behind the recipes and try making some of them as a hobby. After she is placed with pre-adoptive foster parents, June and Tate Townsend, and has to return the handmade cookbook, she meets one of the doormen, Joe Bianco, who inspires her to ask everyone she meets for their family recipes so that she can not only make them, but collect the stories behind them to share on a website. She even hopes that a long-lost relative will find her and give her a family recipe by seeing the website. When things begin to fall apart again, Mo wonders if she'll ever have family recipe of her own.

Although I'm not a foodie, this book was wonderful to read. I thought it was great that Mo took up cooking as a hobby even though Nan never cooked with her before she passed away. Although I liked June and Tate and thought they were good for Mo at first, I was so disappointed in them by the end of the book. I absolutely loved Joe and his wife, Carlota, though. They really stepped up as the story went on and played a major role in Mo's life. One of my favorite scenes was when Mo stayed with them for a weekend because June and Tate had to go to a wedding in Arizona and Joe invited his brothers over so they could all make lasagna. It was such a heart-warming scene. I also thought Mo's friends, Crystal Wang and Travis Ortiz, were really great especially when they helped Mo plan a pop-up restaurant for New Year's Eve. Even though it was looking rocky for a while, I adored the ending of Lasagna Means I Love You. It was perfect. Additionally, I enjoyed that the story was told through letters that Mo wrote to Nan in a notebook that Uncle Bill gave her from Nan and appreciated that the book showed the challenges of being in the foster care system. If you like food and stories about found family, you should definitely read this book.