Recipe books for kids say a mouthful

I was in my favorite bookstore back when that was a thing to do, when I came face to face with my past.

There on the shelf was a brand-new, reissued copy of the cookbook my brother and I had as children, "Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls." I paged through it with a sense of wonder, a sense of delight and, if I'm going to be totally honest, a slight sense of dread.

There were all of the old recipes, just as I remembered them — or rather, as I didn't remember them until I opened the book again: Eskimo Igloo Cake ("the Eskimo has his igloo, but no cake like this"); Wheaties Ting-A-Lings (Wheaties cereal mixed with melted chocolate); the vaguely suggestive Candle Salad ("It's better than a real candle, because you can eat it").

Meanwhile, I also recently received a brand new cookbook for kids, "My First Cookbook," by America's Test Kitchen. The cover promises "Fun recipes to cook together, with as much mixing, rolling, scrunching and squishing as possible."

This one is different. It has recipes for Pork Dumplings for Chinese New Year. Egyptian Spice Cookies for Eid. Karanji for Diwali.

I am more or less a professional food writer. I did not know what karanji are. Fortunately, the book helpfully explains "karanji are sweet or savory dumplings that are typically fried."

Those examples all came from a chapter devoted to holidays and celebrations. The chapter also includes more pedestrian fare, such as Easy Biscuits for Thanksgiving and Peppermint Bark for Christmas.

But other recipes are equally exotic. Rice Noodle Bowls with Peanut Sauce, for instance. Mango Lassi Popsicles.

The difference between the two books is startling. The book I grew up with had recipes for something called "Chili Concoction," which is basically a slightly underflavored chili. "You...