On Amazon, there are over 50 choices for healthy recipe books for kids, but the best of the lot are hidden gems. And they don’t necessarily feature diets.

Pediatricians have been told for years to not give diets to kids to lose weight, for fear of disrupting self-esteem further.

But the popular market is changing that, and with good reason. The childhood obesity epidemic is out of control. 23 percent of all U.S. kids, if current trends continue, will be obese by 2020.

Real Food for Healthy Kids gets it mostly right. “Kid food” is a big, commercial invention: kids can love Zucchini Tempura with Horseradish Dunk and Hole-y Eggs as much as adults. And with food like this, adults and kids will both lose weight.

Toddler Cafe is even better: no sneaky carrots into meatloaf or white beans into cupcakes (yuck!) here. Instead, you get simple, creative ways for the food oriented parent to create beautiful meals that taste great and introduce avocado, brussels sprouts and Pea Pancakes to the younger set with style and smarts.

Pretend Soup is a favorite, and not just because Mollie Katzen (Moosewood Cookbook) is a friend (conflict of interest: full disclosure!). It picks up where Toddler Cafe leaves off.

The recipes are simple, friendly, kid-considerate and intrinsically healthy. No need to dumb down adult food: this is food that is low calorie, rich in flavor, and teaches your kid (and you) how to cook. That’s probably the very best way to lose weight and keep it off for a life time.

Too expensive? Drug costs for obese kids were 2.5x higher in 2005 than for normal weight kids…and that difference could buy a lot of groceries.