CORA COOKS PANCIT by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore,
pictures by Kristi Valiant (Shen’s Books, 2009).
Picture book for ages 4-8, 32 pp.
Here’s a thoroughly delicious, lip-smacking picture book, perfect for celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!
Just released by Shen’s Books in April, Cora Cooks Pancit is the heartwarming story of a little girl’s first experience helping her mother prepare a favorite Filipino noodle dish.
photo by frotos
Good, you’re here! Just in time for lunch.
Today, we’re featuring some beautiful May flowers on the menu. It seemed like a perfectly mad idea, since most of us are used to flowers as either table decoration or garnishes on dessert.
What’s that? You say you’d rather look at flowers, smell them, maybe wear them, rather than actually eat them? Me too! Somehow it just seems wrong, doesn’t it, to bite into a blossom?
Apparently, people do it all the time, and I’m thinking, maybe I need to get over myself and munch on a marigold. After all, flowers have been incorporated in foods for thousands of years in Roman, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures. The first recorded recipe was by a Roman named Apicius for eating brains with rose petals. *scrunch face*
Quello quello!
My favorite quack is back!
Jackie Urbanovic, author/illustrator of the wildly popular picture book series about Max the duck, has stopped by today to share some fabulous news. Some of you may remember my two-part interview with Jackie last year, where she gave us the scoop on her creative process, extolled her love for comic books, and revealed a surprising fondness for Gobstoppers.
Well, the first two Max books, Duck at the Door (2007) and Duck Soup (2008), both New York Times Bestsellers, have been chosen to be part of Kohl’s Cares for Kids® campaign! During May and June, both books will be available at stores across the country for the amazingly low price of just $5 each! And there’s more – both Max the duck, and Brody the St. Bernard, have gone three dimensional! They’re now available as adorable, cuddly plush animals, also at $5 each. Best part is, 100% of the net profits from the sale of these items will support health and educational opportunities for children in your own community!
Hip hip hooray!
*cartwheels* *backflips* *high jumps*
WooHoo! Friends, we can hardly bear it, because today, Kristy Dempsey’s very first book, Me with You, is officially out!
Each new book is a miracle, but a first book is a very special cause for celebration. No matter how many books an author publishes, there is, and always will be, only one first book.
“Once you begin being naughty, it’s easier to go on and on, and sooner or later, something dreadful happens.” ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Which children’s book character would you most like to be for just one day?
I’d like to be Laura Ingalls, mainly because her childhood was so vastly different from mine. I would love to have three sisters, a father who plays the fiddle, a dog named Jack, and a more intimate knowledge of how food was grown, cultivated, preserved, and prepared in the late 19th century. It would also be quite cool to be called, “Half-pint.”
Pioneer life was much harder than is depicted in the Little House books, so I wouldn’t necessarily want to actually be Laura Ingalls Wilder — no, just the Laura in the stories who eagerly watches Ma make Pancake Men, takes her turn at churning the cream, marvels at eating a little heart-shaped cake made from white flour, and is there to smell and taste all the bread and biscuits fresh from the wood-fired oven.
Jama's Alphabet Soup 