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The Recipe-a-Day Kids Cookbook: 365 Fun, Easy Treats. By Maile Carpenter and the Editors of Food Network Magazine. Hearst Home Kids. $22.

     One of the best of the many kid-oriented cookbooks currently available, this Food Network Magazine compendium of mostly super-easy, briefly described, family-friendly recipes offers a truly delicious march through the year by literally matching one recipe to every single calendar day. That is every day, incidentally, which means the book’s subtitle is incorrect: there are 366 things to make here, with “Leap Frog Cookies” for February 29. The three-sentence explanation of what those are and how to make them is typical of the items in the book: the idea is to make lily-pad-shaped sugar cookies (make round ones and cut a notch into them), top them with green icing, then put gummy frogs with candy eyeballs on top. The illustration shows the result clearly – in fact, all the illustrations are super-clear, with every single recipe being put on visual display. That is one of the big attractions of the book.

     The photos of the foods will also help families decide which recipes to try and which to avoid. In February alone, on facing pages, there are “Hot-Cold Sorbet” (mango sorbet sprinkled with chili powder) and “Mac and Cheese with Eggs” (macaroni and cheese spread in an oven-safe skillet, with scooped-out wells into which eggs are cracked for baking). Certainly some families will find both of these ideas appealing, but certainly some will not – and either way is fine, since there are so many other recipes from which to choose without being wedded to the book’s day-by-day approach.

     There are, however, some advantages to making foods on the specific days associated with them. “Ice Cream Hearts” certainly fit Valentine’s Day, for example; “American Flag Ice Cream Sandwiches” make sense for July 4; and “Coal Treats” (the “coal” being cocoa powder) are an amusing idea for Christmas Day. On the other hand, the majority of foods have no specific correlation with the days on which they are presented: “Watermelon Fries with Lime Sour Cream” appear on August 27 and “Peaches and Cream Popcorn” on September 12, for no discernible reason. On the third hand – the recipes do not really require three hands, although younger kids will need adult supervision here and there – brief “factoids” with some recipes provide interesting connections to specific foods. “Sesame-Cayenne Pretzels” appear on June 6, for example, with a note that “The first drive-in theater opened on this day in 1933. This is a great movie snack!” And “Flavored Burger Buns” show up on July 28 with the note, “The hamburger was first assembled on this day in 1900 at Louis’ Lunch in Connecticut.”

     There are recipes of all sorts here, from snacks to main meal items to desserts to condiments (for instance, “Flavored Ketchups” on July 30). There are some clever and unexpected items on offer (“Butterbeer” on June 26, with a note that “the first Harry Potter book was released on this day in 1997”). And while most foods are simple to make and really do come out looking like the photos in the book, there are a few more-challenging recipes for kids who, likely with adult assistance, want to try out something more difficult and unusual (such as “Homemade Marshmallows” on February 16 and “Poppy Cupcakes” on May 16). The book is also fun because of the unexpected juxtapositions that repeatedly show up on facing pages, such as the all-ingredients-probably-in-the-kitchen-already “PB&J Ice Cream Sandwiches” (August 13) opposite the we-need-to-go-to-the-cheese-shop “Burrata-Stuffed Tomato” (August 15). The Recipe-a-Day Kids Cookbook is easy to read, enjoyable to look at thanks to the excellence of the photos, and a fine…err, recipe…for family fun in the kitchen throughout the year.