Cora Cooks Pancit

Cora and Mama work together to cook up pancit for the family in this celebration of Filipino heritage and foods.

Cora loves being in the kitchen, but she always gets stuck doing the kid jobs like licking the spoon. One day, however, when her older sisters and brother head out, Cora finally gets the chance to be Mama’s assistant chef. And of all the delicious Filipino dishes that dance through Cora’s head, she and Mama decide to make pancit, her favorite noodle dish.

With Mama’s help, Cora does the grown-up jobs like shredding the chicken and soaking the noodles (perhaps Mama won’t notice if she takes a nibble of chicken or sloshes a little water on the floor). Cora even gets to stir the noodles in the pot-carefully-- while Mama supervises. When dinner is finally served, her siblings find out that Cora did all their grown-up tasks, and Cora waits anxiously to see what everyone thinks of her cooking.

Dorina Lazo Gilmore’s text delightfully captures the warmth between mother and daughter as they share a piece of their Filipino heritage. With bright and charming illustrations by Kristi Valiant, Cora’s family comes alive as Cora herself becomes the family’s newest little chef.

Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young grew up in a Filipino-Polynesian-Indian-Italian family in the kitchen with her mama, aunties and grandmas. Today, she loves to create recipes and share stories in the kitchen with her friends and daughters. Dorina is a writer, speaker, podcaster, spoken word artist, avid runner and foodie. She has a B.A. in English and Journalism and is completing an M.F.A. degree in Children’s Literature at Hollins University. She is also the author of two other children’s books, Children of the San Joaquin Valley and Stone Soup: A Hmong Girl’s Journey to the United States, and a non-fiction book for adults, Walk Run Soar. Dorina is originally from Chicago and lives with her husband Shawn and three daughters in Central California. They love traveling, trying out delicious foods from different cultures, and running near the ocean.

Kristi Valiant loves cooking, monkeys, penguins, and red walls, all of which are found in her books. Her husband loves hippos, so you may find hippos lurking too. Kristi wrote and illustrated the picture book PENGUIN CHA-CHA and illustrated Danielle Steel’s picture book, PRETTY MINNIE IN PARIS, as well as the Little Wings chapter book series, THE GOODBYE CANCER GARDEN, CORA COOKS PANCIT, and others. Kristi graduated magna cum laude from Columbus College of Art & Design with a major in Illustration. She lives in Indiana with her husband, daughters, and a room full of hippos, monkeys and sneaky penguins. Visit Kristi at www.kristivaliant.com or at www.facebook.com/kvaliant.