♥ a yummy chat with author natasha lowe on the power of poppy pendle (+ a giveaway!) ♥

October 23, 2012September 3, 2017 ~ jama ~ 55 Comments

What could be sweeter than having a lovely lady bring you a tray of freshly baked cupcakes?

Please help me welcome debut author Natasha Lowe, who’s just published an indescribably delicious middle grade novel that I absolutely adore!

The Power of Poppy Pendle (Paula Wiseman/S&S, 2012) is about a girl with a passion for baking who inherits an extraordinary gift of magic. Poppy’s parents enroll her in Ruthersfield Academy, an exclusive school for witchcraft, with high hopes she’ll follow in the footsteps of her famous Great-Granny Mabel.

But Poppy is miserable. She’s teased mercilessly in school because she’d rather create new recipes than cast spells. She repeatedly tells her parents she doesn’t like magic but they just won’t listen. Frustrated and angry at being misunderstood, and unwilling to give up her dreams of becoming a master baker someday, Poppy takes matters into her own hands, misusing her magic powers to disastrous results.

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chatting about the goodbye cancer garden with janna matthies and kristi valiant (+ a special giveaway!)

October 18, 2012September 4, 2017 ~ jama ~ 47 Comments

Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I invited children’s author Janna Matthies and illustrator Kristi Valiant to tell us about their critically acclaimed picture book, The Goodbye Cancer Garden (Albert Whitman, 2011).

This sensitively written, uplifting story is based on Janna’s personal battle against breast cancer and is an invaluable resource for families facing similar struggles. Without downplaying the seriousness of this life-threatening illness, the book illustrates the importance of focusing on the positive, acknowledging sadness and worry, expressing gratitude and sticking together.

In January, when Janie learns her mom has cancer and probably won’t be better until “pumpkin time,” she suggests the family plant a vegetable garden:

Watching it grow, and eating healthy veggies, will remind us Mom’s getting better. Then before we know it . . . Hello, pumpkins, goodbye cancer!

They continue to nurture their garden of hope and healing as Mom has surgery and endures chemo, hair loss, radiation, aches and fatigue. Step-by-step, day by day, they move toward their goal with the kindness and support of friends, relatives, and of course, each other. Their harvest time celebration, marking the end of treatment with a bounty of homegrown veggies, couldn’t be sweeter.

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♥ a tasty visit with nikki mcclure (+ a giveaway!) ♥

October 16, 2012September 3, 2017 ~ jama ~ 77 Comments

*Originally self-published in 1997, this recipe gift book was released by Sasquatch Books in 2010.*

For award-winning cut-paper artist Nikki McClure, the perfect day would likely start off with one of her husband Jay T’s homemade waffles. It would be topped with fresh fruit — foraged or farm market blackberries or neat slices of late summer nectarines. Or he might make his giant blueberry pancakes — pancakes that fill the whole pan, flipped with a giant spatula. Mmmm!

These nourishing, homemade mornings are an important part of Nikki’s inspiring, free-spirited lifestyle that’s marked by weekly visits to the farmers market, cooking, eating and playing outdoors with her son Finn, foraging for fruit, afternoon swims, astute observations of her rural environment, and hours of meditative work in her studio, where she captures the essence of bird, leaf, branch, sky, the turning of the seasons, and a myriad of other everyday wonders in her amazingly beautiful, intricate papercuts.

*Nikki’s studio: working on her next book, HOW TO BE A CAT*

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friday feast: a three-course meal from the poetry friday anthology

September 28, 2012September 6, 2017 ~ jama ~ 45 Comments

*We love you, Sylvia and Janet, the best poetry evangelists on the planet!*

Happy Poetry Friday!

Can’t think of three other words, aside from, “Time to Eat!”, that fill me with as much joy and anticipation. 🙂

Poetry Friday has been a part of Alphabet Soup ever since I first came online in 2007. I didn’t know many other bloggers then, but I knew a good thing when I saw it: a progressive party where a mixed platter of poems, reviews, and musings were served up in friendly fashion by a group of enthusiastic word lovers. Most of them were uncommonly good looking and unfailingly generous and supportive. It’s still the best way to end a work week, take a break for a little special something, refresh, rejuvenate and connect!

A couple of months ago, I was thrilled to hear Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong were publishing The Poetry Friday Anthology (Pomelo Books, 2012), which would take this same concept into the K-5 classroom, turbo-charging it with Common Core curriculum support. As a fan of their PoetryTagTime Trio, I assumed this would also be an eAnthology. Well, it is, but it’s also a gorgeous, chunky paperback containing 218 previously unpublished poems by 75 of America’s finest contemporary children’s poets — some are Poetry Friday regulars, some have been Poetry Potluck guests, and a few others I was excited to meet on the page for the first time. Continue reading →

passion in pittsburgh: with this cookie, i thee wed

September 19, 2012September 23, 2017 ~ jama ~ 52 Comments

Do you fancy a cream-filled lady lock, a rich chocolatey buckeye, a peanut butter blossom?

No need to toil in your kitchen beating butter, sugar, eggs, and flour into submission or raid your neighborhood bakery. Just invite yourself to a Pittsburgh wedding!

Those in-the-know will tell you that a well laden Cookie Table is absolutely de rigueur in the Steel City, where skyscrapers tickle the clouds and arched yellow bridges invite exciting adventures on both sides of the Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela Rivers.