MasterChef Junior Cookbook: Bold Recipes and Essential Techniques to Inspire Young Cooks

Why it's worth it

The MasterChef Junior Cookbook carries 100 recipes built around real techniques, aimed at kids who want to plate something impressive. It's the book for a tween who's already decided cooking is their thing and wants to be pushed.

MasterChef Junior pulls 5 to 7 million viewers an episode, and the 8-to-14 bracket is the show's largest audience segment. If your kid is in that group, this book converts an hour of TV into something they'll actually do on a Saturday. That motivational hook is not a small thing — the hardest part of any cookbook is getting a kid to open it twice.

The recipes assume more of the cook than most kids' books do, and that's the point. Knife work, searing, building a sauce, thinking about how a plate looks — these are the moves the show rewards, and they're taught here rather than glossed over. A twelve-year-old who's already made scrambled eggs and pancakes will find something to work toward.

From our review of 7 children's cookbooks for ages 9 to 12

What we like

• +MasterChef Junior pulls 5 to 7 million viewers an episode, and the 8-to-14 bracket is the show's largest audience segment
• +The recipes assume more of the cook than most kids' books do, and that's the point
• +There's a real payoff to ambition at this age

What to know

• –It's not a beginner's book
• –The show tie-in also means some of the appeal fades if your kid loses interest in the franchise