Authors 24 and 25: Audrey Wood and Jakki Wood

Jubal's Wish is a good example of how we sometimes have to go through a difficult time to find happiness. It also shows that we never know what role we might play in trying to help others-sometimes we end up being the one helped! Audrey Wood has written numerous books with many of them illustrated by her husband, Don Wood. You can read more about their books and do some activities at their clubhouse site. Visit www.audreywood.com

Jakki Wood has written and illustrated a couple of books that look at day to day life such as the one above: A Hole in the Road and Bumper to Bumper. She has also written and illustrated some other books for children including: Across the Big Blue Sea: An Ocean Wildlife Book with National Geographic and some counting and alphabet animal books.

We loved the bright colors in both of these books. It's been overcast and stormy so vivid pictures of flowers and frogs and things being repaired helped to enliven our day.

Authors 22 and 23: Aaron Reynolds and Peter H. Reynolds

Aaron Reynolds has also written Buffalo Wings, Chicks and Salsa and Superhero School along with a few other books. We thought the Superhero School was a clever way to introduce the usefulness of math in everyday "superhero" life.


Peter H. Reynolds both writes and illustrates many of his books. He is known for his Sugarloaf books such as the one above, The Best Kid in the World, and his The Dot and Ish books. His artwork is also to be found on the Judy Moody books written by Megan McDonald. Mr.Reynolds has an older twin brother named Paul. If his brother Paul saw Pete drawing when it was time to come help with dinnertime, he would say, "Stay there Pete, I'll do your chores." Not too surprisingly, the brothers have gone into business together. They started a company called Fablevision along with a family store called The Blue Bunny located in Dedham, Massachusetts. For more information on Peter H. Reynolds, visit his site at: http://www.peterhreynolds.com/

Baked Tortilla Snowflakes

How about a warm treat, reminiscent of a cold type of weather? Combine a handful of ingredients and you've got edible art that's almost like eating those delicious pastry sticks.

But with these goodies.....(some surprising good news for a new year diet!) you have almost all the crunchy goodness with a fraction of the mixed fats! I don't know about others, but we love cinnamon pie crust sticks-you know, the ones you make with the leftover pie crust dough?

But the fat of pie crust dough with its lard, shortening, butter and margarine....sigh....it just isn't kind to the hips or waistline.

So here we discovered Tortilla Snowflakes! They're simple to make and delicious to munch.

Get some of the refrigerated and uncooked flour tortillas (we get ours from Costco), butter, cinnamon sugar mixture and/or powdered sugar to a baking sheet. Introduce everyone.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Fold tortilla into quarters (half then half again). Use kitchen shears to cut designs to create snowflakes. Place tortilla (and scraps if desired) on lined baking sheet. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. (If using powdered sugar then just brush with butter and sprinkle on powdered sugar after they come out of the oven.) Have everyone talk about their hopes and dreams of bubbly sweet crunchiness before the tortillas enter the 375 degree F oven.

Bake your pieces of art for about 7-9 minutes or until they're browning on the edges. Remove from oven. (Now's the time to sprinkle on the white powdered sugar snow if you want the flocked effect.) Endeavor to let them cool for just a few seconds before the nibbling begins.

Much thanks to http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2009/10/tortilla-snowflakes.html

Authors 20 and 21: Lauren Thompson and Kay Thompson

Lauren Thompson has written a number of books ranging from How Many Cats and Polar Bear Night as shown here to Ballerina Dreams and the Little Quack series and Mouse's First Series. She spend part of her growing up years in the Netherlands with her family. She also worked as an editor for 18 years before turning to writing full-time in 2006.

We enjoyed both these books with counting cats and the adventures of a young polar bear as well as other books by Lauren Thompson. For more on Lauren Thompson, visit her website at: www.laurenthompson.net

The Eloise books are based in part on the the character created by Kay Thompson for the amusement of her friends and colleagues. Kay Thompson was a very well-known personality who danced, sang, composed, choreographed, and trained others in the Hollywood sphere. For more on Eloise visit the official website at: http://www.eloisewebsite.com/

The illustrator of the popular Eloise books, Mr.Hilary Knight, still draws and recently donated his collection of papers and illustrations spanning a career of over fifty years to the New York Public Library. Read more about Mr.Knight's artwork at his website: http://www.hilaryknight.com/

Delicious Acorn Squash from Pioneer Woman

Today we made Delicious Acorn Squash as featured by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman back in October of 2008. The ingredients are very simple: acorn squash, salt, brown sugar, butter and maple syrup.

We used kosher salt from the Great Salt Lake, sold as Redmond Real Salt. Visit their site at: https://www.realsalt.com/ and look for their products in your local store. We think their gourmet all natural sea salt on broccoli tastes like you put butter on your broccoli only better. (And without all the fat of actually putting on butter!)

We made a total of six acorn squash halves using traditional green-skinned acorn squash which was starting to turn orange and one yellow-skinned acorn squash.
The squash "meat" is scooped out along with some of the delicious syrup. Mmmmm....... it was very yummy and earned an excellent rating.
This second picture is a close up of the delicately browned edges and the golden dipping syrup.
Find the recipe at The Pioneer Woman's site: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/10/delicious-baked-acorn-squash/
Here's a great example of the ability to include more vegetable goodness in our lives.

Authors 18 and 19: Murphy, Pat and Murphy, Patti

There are many good authors with the same last name and some authors with the same or similar first name. This month we'll look at a few authors with similar names but different books and writing styles.

Pigasus by Pat Murphy tells of a pig with wings. All the tricks she learns from her pigeon friend come back when she needs to escape from the pirates. Pat Murphy has also written science articles and short stories and she has worked at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. You can read more about the Exploratorium by clicking on this sentence. The exploratorium has many links on different subjects and even some projects and activities that you can do at home.

Elinor was just a little naughty but Violet was very naughty. Follow the adventures of Elinor and Violet with the art and verse of Patti Beling Murphy. Be forewarned that the chickens never really have to answer for their bad behavior-they just continue with behaviors like writing on dresses with inedible marker and hiding things without much punishment other than going to time-out.

These books are meant to just be for fun and entertainment. Patti Beling Murphy is a former lawyer who lives in a Massachusetts house almost as brightly colored as her artwork.