REVIEW: Cherry Time by Daniela Bunge

How many of you have been fortunate enough to encounter books published by minedition? I have to officially gush over them – their international books are just a revelation to me. All the sweetness and poignancy that a picture book can possess…but without the cloying sentimentality that can be prevalent in American children’s books. I became familiar with minedition after reading Five Nice Mice by Chisato Toshiro and J.A. Teddy by John Rowe – both wonderful books. But I got a hold of Cherry Time by Daniela Bunge, and I’m officially in love. It’s a picture book about two shy children who find one another and become friends. Though one of them has to move away in the end, they still promise to “be brave even without each other.” The illustrations remind me a little of Giselle Potter – whose work I don’t care for – but Bunge’s art is more accessible and charming. And the text just rolls off the tongue: “Ruby showed me how to bake a cherry cake, and sometimes we got vanilla ice cream with warm cherry sauce. The whole summer tasted red and sweet.” I’m swooning. I found a new favorite picture book. Granted, I’ll have a new favorite two weeks from now, but still…

Rethinking my passionate love of mushrooms

Your Neighborhood Librarian gets the Funniest Post of the Day Award. You know you're obsessed with food when your first thought to this post is "Yeah, but are they edible???"

But then the very thought of eating those things made me throw up in my mouth a little.

Where has all the good mythology gone?

It’s a challenge to blog about anything but food – given that it seems I’m always thinking about it, not to mention that I eat more often than I read – but I’ll give it a try:

1. I just got a review copy of a book called Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas (Front Street, 2007). Strange, strange stuff. It’s scary in the same way I found Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman (HC, 2003) scary. Or that Victorian short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Sort of creepy. This boy is living in an apartment building and he’s lost his family to these mysterious “woolvs”. He only talks to his neighbor “Missus Radinski.” You never see these woolvs – they’re these dark shadows, which we all know can be much scarier than if we had seen the real thing. The entire text is spelled very phonetically (“I longs for bloo skys. I longs for it to rane.”), which is both infruriating and effective in portraying a locked-up, scared boy in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic setting. This is in a picture book format, but it’s really for an older child – about 4th grade and up. The cover is really striking – I can see it flying off the shelf if you display it in the YA section, perhaps. Overall, I really liked the book. It’s difficult to find good scary books, and the sense of foreboding and fear without giving away too much information make this a very smart addition to the genre. Just beware the spelling - it was difficult not to throw the book across the room.

2. I finally got an account at Good Reads. Right now the only method I have of keeping track of the books I read is an old Excel worksheet I created back in library school. And I haven’t used it for months. I tried LibraryThing awhile ago but found it horribly un-user-friendly. So hopefully Good Reads will fare better. I’m really horrible at remembering books I read so I really need this one to work out!

3. At work, I’m putting together a core mythology selection list. This is a list that the librarians can choose from to replace their older titles or flesh out their collections a little more. The trouble is, do you realize how many of the classic mythology books are out-of-print??? How is that??? Don’t kids read mythology anymore? They must because I’ve had a significant number of librarians ask me for mythology books. This list is not going well.

4. Lastly, I have to post this Unshelved strip. It’s one of my favorites. If only more librarians would have this attitude toward maintaining their collections…

Food Photography 101: Part Deux

Another reason I love living in NYC: Union Square Farmer's Market. Adam and I have started a routine that we seem to be repeating every Saturday lately:

1. We all wake up around 7:30 a.m.-ish.

2. Adam immediately gets dressed and is out the door by 8:00.

3. He heads to the Market, buying whatever strikes his fancy, talking to the purveyors a bit, loading up a big backpack he takes with him and carrying lots of bags.

4. He brings the bounty home and I figure out what I'm going to do with it all weekend.

So for lunch today we had farm-fresh eggs, fresh bread, and bacon - all from the Market. Tonight we're having grass-fed buffalo medallions, mushrooms, onions and shallots, yellow squash, tomatoes, bread, and cheese. All of which is coming from the Union Square Market so it's all local growers and most, if not all, of the food is organic and/or sustainably farmed. How can I feel anything but warm and fuzzy over such amazing wealth?

So here are my attempts at capturing Adam's haul:

Food Photography 101

Here are my first attempts at food photography. I was hesitant to share them...but then I thought about all the ones I wasn't going to share and decided that this was nothing! Oh, the horrible pictures I've taken!





Squash blossoms with microgreens from Satur Farms





My summer staple: buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, olive oil, basalmic vinegar, lemon salt, and pepper. Heaven on earth!

TGIF: Miscellaneous stuff

I've got a mishmash of stuff for this Friday afternoon:

1. After almost 10 years of thinking hard about doing it, I finally submitted a book review and got it published! Here's the review from this month's School Library Journal:

BLUME, Judy. Soupy Saturdays with the Pain & the Great One. illus. by James Stevenson. 104p. Delacorte. Aug. 2007. Tr $12.99. ISBN 978-0-385-73305-2; PLB $15.99. ISBN 978-0-385-90324-0. LC number unavailable.
Gr 1–3—This book expands the picture book The Pain and the Great One (S & S, 1984) into a beginning chapter book. Third-grader Abigail calls her little brother "The Pain" because he causes so much trouble. Jake is in first grade and calls his older sister "The Great One" because she thinks so highly of herself. The book doesn't follow a traditional story arc; instead, it is a series of vignettes in which the children continually clash and then reconcile. While the stories are funny and sometimes poignant, often they're a bit heavy with sentimentality and nostalgia. The theme is that arguing with your sibling is part of the fun of growing up, but there isn't much child appeal in that adult perspective. How many kids enjoy being told that they really love their brother or sister, despite all the bickering? Nevertheless, the stories are sweet and accurately depict the growing pains of childhood. Stevenson's black-and-white ink illustrations are entertaining, particularly the drawing of mashed potatoes with peas strewn across the page. Overall, this is a successful effort with great illustrations and humor, but it's not an essential purchase: the picture book was more succinct.—Laura Lutz, Queens Borough Public Library, NY

Yep, that's my name in print. I feel a little exposed and self-conscious about it - it's not comfortable knocking a book by Judy Blume so publicly. Especially when other reviews that have been printed about it are more positive than mine. But I'm excited nonetheless and stand by the review.

2. I also spent some time this morning reading a great interview with JK Rowling. It was an online interview and she got 120,000 questions! There's spoilers galore here so don't read it until you've read the whole Harry Potter series. But I was happy to have some questions answered after reading the interview.

3. I've mentioned the "Chocolate and Zucchini" site to a lot to people, but I want to draw particular attention to the picture gallery on her blog. Clotilde Dusoulier's recipes and narrative are wonderful, but I love her pictures the best. I've been trying to take more pictures of the meals I make, but they're not fit to print compared to hers. Try to look at the pictures without having your mouth water profusely.

Batter up!: What I'm Reading

Here’s the list of books I have lined up to read in the next…um…oh, I have no idea how long it’ll take for me to get to all these:

CURRENTLY READING: The Quantum July (Ron King) – I’m reading it for School Library Journal…otherwise, I don’t think this is a book I would have been motivated to read.

1. Omnivore’s Dilemma (Michael Pollan) – I was halfway through, but I had to stop so that I could read Harry Potter and The Quantum July.
2. Elijah of Buxton (Christopher Paul Curtis) – it’s getting Newbery buzz so I’ll jump on the bandwagon and read it.
3. The Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Lee Stewart) – this one has been on my list for ages and I’m beginning to fear that I’ll never read it.
4. Michael Tolliver Lives (Armistead Maupin) – I love the Tales of the City gang and looking forward to reading this new one.
5. Slam (Nick Hornby) – I started this one at ALA and loved what I read. Can’t wait to finish it.

And then I pre-ordered Stephenie Meyer’s new one, Eclipse, which is coming out August 7th so obviously I’ll drop whatever I’m in the middle of and read that one immediately. Meyer has compared the storyline of Eclipse to Wuthering Heights…Needless to say, the 7th can’t come soon enough.

Food and kids' lit meet?

It’s not very often that my love of children’s literature and my love of food intermingle – the only example I can think of is the D.I.S.H. series where a group of young girls start a cooking group (though I won’t even get started on the newly reissued covers that are ridiculously YA and completely incongruous to the book’s audience).

So I was pleased while reading an ARC of The Quantum July by Ron King (Delacorte). Danny’s dad is a talented cook, and he’s making pancakes for his family in the shape of medieval weapons. And he also makes vegetables at dinner the shapes of woodland creatures. So when Dad is probed as to why weapons are appropriate for breakfast and forest animals for dinner, this is what Dad has to say:

“'Because, my son, dinner is about making peace with the day. But breakfast,' he said, dropping five or six pistachio bombs into the pan, 'is about preparing for it, and things might get ugly.'”

I love that. It makes me re-think my breakfasts…I’d love to work more power into my morning – attack the day with the foods I choose to eat. But incorporate softer, milder flavors into my evenings, making peace. Tonight we’re doing an enormous antipasti layout for a few guests…I think that’ll be perfect. Buffalo mozzarella with olive oil, fruity balsamic vinegar, lemon salt, and pepper is the perfect way to close a day and get to my Zen place. With a bottle of red, of course.