OOH LA LA! KIDS COOK FRENCH — Review

Thought for the Day:

“Write yourself silly. Write yourself mad. Write yourself blind. Trust the excitement that builds within you when the idea is good and the writing is superb. You can do it, but that’s the hell of it as well as the exultation of it. You have to do it.”

~ Elizabeth George ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Janice Hardy has a fantastic Narrative Nugget HERE that will give you A Five-Minute Fix for a Blah Scene.

Comps, comps, comps. I can’t get enough about comps. Here are two posts by Angie Hodapp at Pub Rants — Zeroing in on Comps: Part I HERE and Part II HERE.

As with any kind of writing, we can learn from reading good examples. HERE is a great article from Writer’s Digest by Robert Lee Brewer with 60 Examples of Hooks for Books. These examples can help you design a great hook for your book.

I know I just got back from a trip, but I will be gone the next two Sundays. This time, I am taking my grandson Gehrig and my daughter, Sara, to Italy for an epicurean tour. Gehrig is working to become a chef, and this tour offers a tour of an olive oil mill, a sommelier’s wine pairing class, seafood sampling in Vasco, a cheese-making tour, and, along the way, we will have classes in making pasta, peasant food, biscotti, and pizza. In addition, the first day has a half-day class that teaches how to prepare an appetizer, main course, and dessert for our welcome dinner. We are going to be very busy. It should be a lot of fun. It’s a little ironic that I’m reviewing a cookbook this week that is French! I haven’t run across a kids’ cookbook with Italian recipes, but maybe I will have to write one.

Last week, I offered a gently-read paperback of RISK, RESILIENCE, and REDEMPTION: A MIRACULOUS HOLOCAUST SURVIVAL STORY by Frank W. Baker to one of you. This week’s winner is Carol Baldwin. Congratulations, Carol! I will do my level best to get your book in the mail before I leave. If you don’t know Carol, she is a North Carolina writer whose debut middle-grade novel, HALF-TRUTHS, was released this year. You can read more about that at her site HERE.

If you have a young cook in the house, this is the perfect book. It is filled with sophisticated recipes and straightforward instructions that never talk down to youngsters. Author Barbara Beery clearly respects her audience and knows how to speak to them. There are over seventy recipes that will challenge young chefs to try new skills and develop new tastes. Each recipe has its American name as well as its French name, although there is no guide to pronunciation. A level of difficulty is assigned to each recipe (most are level one with a few two and three levels), how much the recipe makes, an ingredients list, and excellent step-by-step directions. Each also has a mouthwatering full-color close-up photograph of the finished product. The recipes are arranged in nine sections: Herbs & Sauces, Appetizers, Soups, Main Courses, Salads and Vinaigrettes, Breads, Pastries & Desserts, and Drinks. Young chefs will be very excited to know they can try their hand at exciting dishes like Crème Brûlée and Chicken Cordon Bleu with excellent chances for success. They can learn to make their own crunchy Croissants and sweet Macarons or Dauphinoise Potatoes, and so many more. The book won’t be out until November 4, but it will be a great holiday gift for youngsters. Keep it in mind.

Please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.