six bookish bites on a thursday

February 28, 2013March 4, 2013 ~ jama ~ 22 Comments

1. Heartfelt Congratulations to Kate Coombs on winning the 2013 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for Water Sings Blue (Chronicle Books, 2012), her first published book of children’s poetry, masterfully illustrated by Meilo So!

Water Sings Blue was also a 2012 Cybils Finalist and has earned a veritable galaxy of bright and shiny *starred reviews* and other well deserved accolades. The week it was released last Spring, Kate dropped by Alphabet Soup to tell us more about the book. At the time, I was so blown away by this stunner that I really wanted it to win the LBH Poetry Award — and now it has! *happy dance*

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2. Speaking of the Cybils, I am equally thrilled that Laura Purdie Salas’s BookSpeak (Clarion, 2011) recently won the 2012 Cybils Poetry Award!

Since the time we celebrated this perky, quirky, fun collection (charmingly illustrated by Josée Bisaillon) on its pub day, BookSpeak went on to win the Minnesota Book Award (squee!) as well as many other very cool honors (NCTE Notable Book, Bank Street Best Books, Eureka! Gold Medal, Librarians’ Choice, et. al.). We congratulate Laura again on winning this year’s Cybils and are only too happy to don top hat and tails for another happy dance :).

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3. Looking for a fun and delicious challenge to ward off cabin fever? Why not enter Playing by the Book’s 2nd Annual International Edible Book Festival?

This online competition is open to anyone, with or without a blog — children, parents, authors, illustrators, booksellers, librarians, families, bakers. All are invited to create an edible book based on a children’s book in any language. This year’s Festival patron is British author/illustrator Bruce Ingman, and the deadline for submissions is March 20, 2013. Click here for full details and also check out Playing by the Book’s Pinterest board for ideas and inspiration.

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4. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, you probably already know about The Niblings, a new children’s literature blog consortium representing Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Jules Danielson), A Fuse #8 Production (Betsy Bird), Nine Kinds of Pie (Philip Nel), and 100 Scope Notes (Travis Jonker). I like being able to nosh on the tasty links and kidlit news served up by all four of these powerhouse bloggers at the same table. 🙂

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5. Can you believe tomorrow’s the first day of March already? That means it’ll be Women’s History Month! Check in each day at the Kidlit Celebrates Women’s History Month blog for essays, book reviews and commentaries from authors, illustrators, and kidlit bloggers. This year’s theme is “Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” This site is a great resource for those interested in both new and older books for young people focusing on notable women throughout history.

6. Finally, Children’s Book Week will be here before we know it (May 13-19, 2013). Brian Selznick designed this year’s snazzy poster,

and Grace Lin created this gorgeous bookmark:

bookmark_FINAL-900 — Can you find the hidden letters that spell “Reading”? (click to enlarge)

Grace recently discussed its backstory on her blog. Details about how to send for your free poster(s) and download your bookmarks are here and here.

Now, help yourself to a cup of hot chocolate and some cookies. 🙂

Happy Thursday!

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♥ miss edna lewis, my valentine ♥

February 13, 2013August 27, 2017 ~ jama ~ 43 Comments

“So many great souls have passed off the scene. The world has changed. We are now faced with picking up the pieces and trying to put them into shape, document them so the present-day young generation can see what southern food was like. The foundation on which it rested was pure ingredients, open-pollinated seed—planted and replanted for generations—natural fertilizers. We grew the seeds of what we ate, we worked with love and care.” ~ Edna Lewis (“What is Southern?”)

For me, she’s the one. The more I learn about Edna Lewis, the more I love her.

Since today marks the 7th anniversary of her passing at age 89, it’s a good time to celebrate her remarkable achievements as an award-winning chef, cooking teacher, caterer, cookbook author and Grand Dame of Southern Cuisine with a love-in-your-mouth piece of her Warm Gingerbread. Mmmmm-mmmmm!

Miss Lewis, as she was always known, grew up in the small farming community of Freetown, which is located behind the village of Lahore in Orange County, Virginia (about 66 miles from where I live). Her grandfather founded Freetown with two other freed slaves and started the first area school in his living room.

Long before it became chic to advocate fresh, organic, seasonal ingredients and field-to-table cuisine, Edna and her fellow Freetown residents were enjoying a bucolic live-off-the-land existence — growing, harvesting and preserving their own food, gathering nature’s bounty (seeds, fruit, nuts), fishing the streams, hunting wild game in the woods, cultivating domestic animals.

In The Taste of Country Cooking (Knopf, 1976), a classic of Southern cuisine edited by the brilliant Judith Jones (also Julia Child’s editor), Edna shares recipes and reminiscences of the simple, flavorful, uniquely American, Virginia country cooking she grew up with, lovingly describing how they anticipated the select offerings of each season and celebrated special occasions like Christmas and Emancipation Day with full-out feasts.

We are reminded that there’s nothing better than a freshly picked sun-ripened apple, relishing a dish of Spring’s mixed greens (poke leaves, lamb’s-quarters, wild mustard), celebrating Summer’s bounty with deep-dish blackberry pies, apple dumplings, peach cobblers and pound cakes, sitting down to a Fall Emancipation Day dinner of Guinea Fowl Casserole, “the last green beans of the season and a delicious plum tart or newly ripened, fresh, stewed quince.” As Alice Waters says in her introduction, “sheer deliciousness that is only possible when food tastes like what it is, from a particular place, at a particular point in time.”

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a taste of chris caldicott’s world food alphabet

January 29, 2013September 14, 2017 ~ jama ~ 13 Comments

#46 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet.

Fancy some Moroccan dates, farm fresh eggs from France, bananas from the Caribbean? How about a stroll through the street markets of Burma, Guatemala and England? Now, I know that if you chanced upon a particular street vendor in Thailand, you’d surely insist on a bowl of yummy noodles. Sitting around a low table on your plastic stool, you’d likely find the happy conversation every bit as satisfying as the food.

Acclaimed UK food and travel writer and photo journalist Chris Caldicott serves up an international feast for the senses in his photographic alphabet of world food. He takes us to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, giving us a fascinating glimpse of how food is grown, transported, sold, cooked, eaten and shared. Far more than a standard “A is for Apple” compendium, each photograph in World Food Alphabet (Frances Lincoln, 2012) tells a story with an interesting cultural and geographical context, showing people interacting with particular foods in their everyday lives.

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chatting about the moogees with author/illustrator leslie mcguirk

January 22, 2013September 3, 2017 ~ jama ~ 12 Comments

Don’t move a muscle. Word on the street is that the Moogees are on the move!

If you’re really lucky, they just might move in right next door to you. In the meantime, you can read all about them in this fun and whimsical new picture book, The Moogees Move House, written and illustrated by the endlessly creative, and yes, quirky, Leslie McGuirk.

It’s always a treat to see just what Leslie will do next. You may remember the last time she was here to chat about her amazing alphabet book, If Rocks Could Sing (Tricycle Press, 2011), or the time before that, when she and co-author Alex von Bidder shared tasty tidbits about Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant (Candlewick Press, 2009). Doggone delish!

In The Moogees Move House, a family of fanciful creatures searches for a new home. The perky, picky, peculiar-looking Moogees want something round, on the ground, “with class and a nice wide yard and plenty of grass.” With the help of Moogee realtor Mr. Ruru, they see and then reject homes that are too blue, too expensive, and too cheesy (if it were me, I’d move in immediately with a lifetime stash of crackers). Will they ever find just the right house? And what do the three baby Moogees know all along, as they scream, waa waa moogee doogee wee wee low lum!?

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soup of the day: happy birthday, bunny! by liz garton scanlon and stephanie graegin

January 15, 2013September 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 39 Comments

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday!

It’s time to put on your party clothes and fancy shoes: for our first Soup of the Day for 2013, we’re celebrating a birthday book’s book birthday! Got that?

And I’m doubly, even triple-y excited because it was written by one of my favorite author/poets, Liz Garton Scanlon, and beautifully illustrated by Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie Graegin, who did such a brilliant job that it’s hard to believe it’s her very first picture book. You know how much I love featuring “first books.” 🙂 I totally agree with Kirkus, who called Stephanie “an up-and-coming artist to watch” in their *starred review*. Hooray!

But more about Happy Birthday, Bunny! (Beach Lane Books, 2013), right after we suit up for the festivities.

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