humor

sippin’ soup at happy harry’s café by michael rosen and richard holland

~ jama ~ 25 Comments

Doodle-ee-doo

Okay. I admit it. It’s entirely impossible for me to be objective about this book.

Look at the cover forcryingoutloud. See the rotund bearish guy with impish eyebrows wielding tiny cups and saucers on a tray? Well, if you think he’s cute there, wait till you see what he does in this story. His name is Harry and he makes SOUP! !

*dies*

Now, it would be one thing if Harry’s soup was merely good, the kind that makes people politely smile and nod their heads and say things like, “Mmmm, how tasty, I’d love another bowl.” But this Harry, red suspenders red-and-white checked kerchief I don’t need to wear a shirt in my own café Harry, makes EXTRAORDINARY soup — soup so unbelievably delicious people are always run run running to the café before the soup runs out.

Continue reading →

friday feast: one last lipsmacking, creamy-crunchy spread for peanut butter lovers month

~ jama ~ 63 Comments

November 30th already?  I’ve been having so much sticky fun, I hate to see the party end (sniff)!

Cornelius’ favorite: Ashdon Farms Peanut Butter Bears

This has definitely been the nuttiest November on record here at Alphabet Soup. So glad all you giddy goober peas emerged from your solitary shells, sent in poems, and feasted with us every Friday. At first I wasn’t quite sure whether I’d be spreading it on thick or thin, but thanks to all the generous Peanut Butter Poets, we had just the right amount of food to savor and digest each week. I’m so glad Father Goose Charles Ghigna initially suggested a Peanut Butter Poets Poll. It was the perfect excuse inspiration to turn a singles poll dance into a month-long poetry party. 🙂

Peanut Butter Cheese Ball via The Girl Who Ate Everything

We’re topping things off today with another lipsmacking menu that brings to mind Santa and his elves. Actually, Santa never had it so good with this bevy of beauties: Linda Baie, Cathy Ballou Mealey, Betsy Hubbard, Mary Lee Hahn, and Renée LaTulippe. And Santa himself? None other than our brilliant, beloved (and oh so cuddly) Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis (who, BTW, is also this week’s Eye Candy)! No, we don’t mess around here. We serve up only THE BEST.

Continue reading →

friday feast: legume loving ladies

~ jama ~ 52 Comments

Well, we’re really in the thick of things now. When I first extended my invitation for peanut butter poems, little did I realize just how many of you nuts were actually out there! Nice to know I’m not the only one who likes to munch, crunch, slather and rhapsodize about America’s favorite spread!

Before we get to today’s poems, wanted to congratulate the one and only Joyce Sidman for receiving the 2013 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children!!! WooHoo! So well deserved. Love love love her work and it was such an honor to serve as a Cybils Final Round Judge the year we selected Red Sings from Treetops (Houghton Mifflin, 2009), still one of my favorite poetry picture books of all time.

 

You probably know Joyce’s most recent book, Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature (Houghton Mifflin, 2011), has earned a galaxy of *starred reviews* among many other cool accolades. Let’s all have a Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl cupcake in Joyce’s honor! (Just for today, you may twirl as you swirl.)

Georgetown Cupcake Peanut Butter Swirls

Since Joyce is extra special, let’s have TWO . . . or THREE! . . . or . . . .

Continue reading →

friday feast: cracking open a few more nuts

~ jama ~ 54 Comments

You know what they say. It takes one to know one. And I know you’re nuts nuts nuts!

Nuts about peanut butter, that is. You look hungry. Please help yourself to one of these beautiful Buckeyes, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.

(click for SK Buckeyes recipe)

That’s it, wrap your lips around that perfect little ball of cream cheese, butter, smoother than smooth peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and deep, dark chocolate. *swoons*

Now, where was I?

Feel free to slather yourself all over with reckless abandon.

Oh, yes, back to the party! We’ve got four more Peanut Butter Poets on today’s menu: Douglas Florian, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Irene Latham and Charles Waters.  Nothing finer than having grown men go gaga for goobers with such purty poems of praise! And leave it to the ladies to serve up a giggle and a growl! Never know what you’ll get when you crack these nuts wide open.

Spread it again, Sam!

* * * * *

Continue reading →

friday feast: chocolate mustache party!

~ jama ~ 46 Comments
Help yourself to any of the refreshments in this post. Tips welcome.

 

If you were a chocolate mustache,
And I were a peanut-butter purse,
Then we would be living somewhere
Else in the universe.

~ J. Patrick Lewis (“Elsewhere in the Universe”)

I’ve always said the best poems are the ones that feel like they were written just for you.

Well, the one and only J. Patrick Lewis, our much beloved Children’s Poet Laureate, has written an entire book of poems just for me! Look:

He actually had me at the title — I’ve made no secret about my obsession with mad love for chocolate and mustaches. But when I opened this bountiful feast of 125 funny, cuckoo, clever, punderful, endearing, burp-inducing, useful, snorty, short, twisty, wacky, vigorously vivacious verse, I totally flipped out of town. My tines tingled, my spoons swooned, my knives knocked.

“Dang, he’s good!”

Continue reading →