''Gub Gub's Book: An Encyclopedia of Food: In Twenty Volumes'' is a 1932 children's book in the

Doctor Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 '' The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in th ...

series by

Hugh Lofting Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was an English-American writer, trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle. The fictional physician talking to animals, based i ...

Gub-Gub This is a list of characters from the ''Doctor Dolittle'' series of children's books by Hugh Lofting and movies based on them. Most of the characters were introduced in the first book, the 1920 novel ''The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. Humans Docto ...

the pig was one of the first animals with whom Doctor Dolittle learned to talk and appears in most of the books. This book features stories from and about

's attempt to write an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

of food. The frontispiece of the book introduces "An Encyclopedia of Food in Twenty Volumes", going on to explain that "Prof. GUB GUB Announces that Owing to the High Cost of Living the other 19 Volumes of this have been Temporarily Postponed". The book takes the form of a

Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major character and the storyteller in the frame story, frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade ...

story, with chapters unfolding evening by evening. As Gub-Gub deals patiently with his raucous animal friends, they are drawn into his world and find out such vital information on the food map as where

King Alfred Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when ...

burnt the cakes. The book readable is by adults as well as children, who will possibly better appreciate the value and practicality of the

gingersnap A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavoured with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavoured with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses and clove. There are many recipes. The b ...

hygrometer A hair tension dial hygrometer with a nonlinear scale. A hygrometer is an instrument that measures humidity: that is, how much water vapor is present. Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other quantities, such a ...

. The hyphen in the name ''Gub-Gub'' is replaced by a space on the dust jacket, on the title page, and on the dedication page, but the hyphen appears in the name elsewhere.

References

1932 children's books Doctor Dolittle books 20th-century British children's literature Children's books about pigs Frederick A. Stokes Company books {{1930s-child-fantasy-novel-stub