literary musings, author profiles, and favorite posts

1. As this blog is a non-paying, voluntary labor of love, I’m only able to review a select number of titles as time and space will allow. My "reviews," which comprise roughly 1/3 of the content here, are actually recommendations. My aim is to only share titles I truly love and to support my fellow writers. Therefore, I cannot guarantee a review for every book I receive. If I have actively solicited a book, it will receive priority in my "TBR and reviewed" pile. Please note that I often do monthly or seasonal themes, so on some occasions I may choose to feature a book at a later time in keeping with that objective.

2. My primary focus is food-related books for children, fiction or nonfiction, Picture Book through Middle Grade, with an emphasis on picture books. Nonfiction topics of interest include nutrition, gardening, agriculture, cookbooks, culinary history, and food production. I will review the occasional young adult title if it looks especially delicious. ☺

3. In addition to food books, I welcome innovative and/or quirky alphabet books, multicultural titles (especially those by or about Asian Americans), and books by Hawai’i and Virginia authors. Oh, and I can’t resist good bear books (real or the teddy bear variety)!

4. Since I participate in Poetry Friday every week, I’d love to see more poetry collections with a food tie-in — these could be for either children or adults.

5. I feature both new and older titles on alphabet soup, and often obtain copies from the library. So, if you’re an author who thinks your book (regardless of when it was published) would be a good fit for this blog, please let me know and I’ll check it out.

6. I enjoy interviewing picture book authors and illustrators, and authors of food-related fiction for ages 7-12. Contact me if you’re interested in setting something up!

7. What I don’t review: e-books, board books, novelty books, audio books, adult fiction or nonfiction (except cookbooks and food memoirs).

8. Feel free to email me with any questions or to get my snail mail address: readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com.

photo by dlundbech.

Thank you for visiting and considering alphabet soup!! ♥

Copyright © 2009 Jama Rattigan of jama rattigan’s alphabet soup. All rights reserved.

just for fun: my debut picture book cover

November 11, 2009 ~ jama ~ 20 Comments

Image Source: www.flickr.com/photos/75839163@N00/2157314184.

"A small utensil with tines whines over its inability to dine on soup."

So, all this week, 100 Scope Notes is celebrating book covers, and folks around the blogosphere are having fun creating their own "debut picture book covers." Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something by gifting me with "dale"? "Ah yes," she thought to herself, "perhaps you speak with forked tongue." ☺

Here are the directions if you’d like to try making your own:

1 – Go to “The Name Generator” or click http://www.thenamegenerator.com/

Click GENERATE NEW NAME. The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Picture Book Title Generator” or click http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=243

Click CREATE TITLE! This is the title of your picture book.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type the last word from your title into the search box followed by the word “drawing”. Click FIND. The first suitable image is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Gettin’ creative is encouraged.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

Go to this post to see the gallery of covers!

sara lewis holmes booksigning!

November 9, 2009 ~ jama ~ 50 Comments

Had a lovely time at Sara Lewis Holmes’s booksigning yesterday at Hooray for Books in Alexandria, Virginia. It was a gorgeous day — warm and sunny, in the 60’s, and lots of folks strolled in to meet and congratulate Sara on the publication of her second middle grade novel, Operation Yes (Scholastic, 2009), which, BTW, was just named one of Booklist’s Top Ten Art Books for Youth!

Sara signing books for my contest winners, Marjorie Light and Jeannine Atkins.

Of course Cornelius came along (he has a big crush on Sara). Happily, there were a lot of little green men about for him to play with.

Above is the awesome book Sara’s agent (Tina Wexler) made from LGM photos.

Sara gave an interesting presentation about the genesis of the book, referring to a tack board full of newspaper clippings, drawings, and notes. These bits and pieces of inspiration, along with high school memories of memorizing Shakespeare, a real-life incident of little green men, and of course, first-hand experience with the kinds of challenges kids in military families face, all served as fodder for her imagination.

Audience members were given lines to read at Sara’s cue.

She then read a chapter from the book, during which time something you don’t normally see in a bookstore happened — Sara dropped to the floor (in tight jeans and heels no less), effortlessly breezed through ten push-ups, then jumped back up and continued reading without missing a beat. She wasn’t even out of breath. Aren’t you impressed? Now there’s one beautifully toned, fit writer — a fine specimen of athletic prowess. Yes! I want her to be my bodyguard. ☺

Meanwhile, Cornelius was busy checking the bookshelves for more copies of Operation Yes.

Mmmmmm! Trish made brownies again!

And he got to meet Sara’s husband, the ever famous Mike Holmes. Cornelius was thrilled and proud to pose with a real-live Air Force fighter pilot!

As always, a nice event at this wonderful indie bookstore. With all the friendly people, loads of great books to read, and an endless supply of brownies, one could just about live there. Congratulations again, Sara. I’m sure your book is inspiring lots of readers to think about their lives a little differently, and to definitely say YES!

To Sara’s right is the board containing some of the things that inspired Operation Yes.

If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, order one from your nearest indie bookstore! ☺

friday feast: the great peanut butter smackdown

November 6, 2009January 14, 2018 ~ jama ~ 62 Comments

photo by enzo & lulu.

Hey, you’re just in time! Would you like an apple slice with peanut butter? It’s my favorite snack. (Don’t worry about peanut butter breath. We’re all friends here.)

Besides, there’s very good reason to indulge: November is National Peanut Butter Lovers Month (not to be confused with National Peanut Month, which is in March). No, today it’s all about creamy goodness and spreading it on thick, with the help of Shel Silverstein and Kenn Nesbitt. What? You’ve polished off all the apple slices already? Not to worry.

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