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A Good Book Drive: Alison Page

It’s great to see Alison Page 's gregarious smile in this photo as, typically, her gorgeous face is partially obstructed by a camera that's (almost always) pointing at food.

Alison_Page_A_Good_Book_Drive

It’s great to see Alison Page's gregarious smile in this photo as, typically, her gorgeous face is partially obstructed by a camera that's (almost always) pointing at food.

Her book choices - Monster Cheese by Steve Wolfson and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett - are hardly surprising given her vocation as a food photographer. What’s particularly special is how these stories inspire some truly warm and rich memories about Alison’s food-filled, love-filled past.

"These books were favourites of mine growing up and are special to me because of the home cooked meals my parents and my grandparents always cooked for me. My family was keen on canning, preserving, gardening while i was growing up and these books were a way to have fun with food and think of it as more than just fuel."

While Monster Cheese showed a young Alison how even something like cheese can have “personality”, the humour and whimsy coursing through Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs helped her see food in a whole other light: “For example”, she explains, “The snow in the last scene as mashed potatoes with a buttery sun melting them!”

The way we feel about books, Alison feels about food: “Food is so important to our community and I love how it brings people together. I hope these books can help whoever reads them have fun with their food and feed their creative culinary imagination!” Despite many parents’ protestations, Alison implores the next reader to ”Play with your food”.

A Good Book Drive is an annual book drive to bring stories to a new generation of readers, and support kids in need of new books. Running through the month of November, A Good Book Drive will be inspiring Vancouverites to purchase a new copy of their favorite kids’ book and deliver it to set locations throughout the city. At these drop off locations you can personalize your donation with a special bookplate, sharing the story of why that book is special to you. All books will be donated to this year’s book drive recipient, One to One: A Children’s Literacy Program. Share your favourite stories with A Good Book Drive onTwitter, Facebook and Instagram.