Brooks on Books: The Great American Cereal Book by Marty Gitlin and Topher Ellis

When my sister gave me this for Christmas, she almost apologized. She knew I was getting a lot of Kindle books, and I think maybe she feared I had moved on from regular, old books. But that is not the case, not at all, especially when those regular, old books are as well designed and just...cool-looking as "The Great American Cereal Book."

It's a hefty and sturdy but easily browsed hardcover volume that is designed to look like a smaller version of a cereal box. The spine even has a white "Nutrition Facts" box listing serving size, ingredients, and percentage of daily value (like Sugar: 100%). We are informed that it "MAY CONTAIN PEANUTS." This is a nice touch that shows the care put into the book.

Once you open the book, you get something that's laid out much like an encyclopedia. The story of cereal begins with a brief origin, and then it's arranged by different eras (the last one is 1981-2010), with each chronological chapter beginning with a brief text history of that time period. Then there is an alphabetical listing of individual cereals from that era, with each concise entry detailing the manufacturer, the dates it started and ended (if it did), the ingredients, and fun facts like different variations that appeared and celebrities and fictional characters used to promote it. Occasional sidebars like "The Cap'n Crunch Story" take several pages to examine a given topic or a specific cereal in depth. Throughout the book, the text is crisp, and the overall layout makes a smooth, pleasurable reading experience.

But, hey, did I mention the illustrations?

Oh, are there illustrations in "The Great American Cereal Book." Not every entry has an accompanying picture, but there are tons of great shots of cereal boxes, many of them taking up a full page, all in glorious color. There are also examples of magazine and comic ads as well as promotional items and giveaways. The authors subtitled this "How Breakfast Got Its Crunch," and you do get a good overview of the history of this food item, but the main appeal here, and the reason why I didn't want a Kindle version of this, is all the fantastic pictures.

I don't know if the selection of cereals is comprehensive, but there sure are a lot of obscure ones included alongside the famous supermarket staples. As a test, I looked for one particular not so fondly remembered effort from back in the day. As soon as I held the book in my hands and saw how it was set up, I went to the back and leafed through its pages hoping to find this test item. Not only is it included, but it has a full-page illustration of a sample box, a typically bombastic example of how offensive this item and its source material was. I am talking about that short-lived phenomenon known as...

Urkel-O's:

As soon as I saw that, I figured the book was all right with me. Reading the whole thing did not disappoint. "The Great American Cereal Book" is a "regular, old book" from Abrams that looks gorgeous and is full of interesting information. It earns a strong recommendation for anyone with any interest in this kind of thing.