Toby Alone

Do you absolutely love adventure books? What about fantasy-adventure books?
Ohhh, boy do I have a book for you!

Thrilling chase scenes, terrible secrets, having the whole world looking for you and wanting you dead, living every day in survival mode: These are the elements of Toby Alone, a fantasy/adventure that will leave you so far on the edge of your seat that you may find yourself on the floor without even noticing.

Toby Lolness, the main character, is a twelve-year-old boy who is 1 ½ millimeters tall.

Yes, millimeters. Meaning one-thousandth of a meter. One-tenth of a centimeter. Tiny. Miniscule. Infinitesimal.

Toby lives in the High Branches of the Great Oak Tree with his loving, devoted parents. His father, a brilliant scientist, makes an incredible discovery about the tree which turns their world upside down. Overnight, Toby is separated from his parents and begins a desperate escape for survival that sends him all over the massive tree. Along the way he learns meets many people, among them the lovely and mysterious Elisha, who immediately befriends him, and Joe Mitch (aka enemy number one), the fat weevil farmer whose rise to power banishes the Lolnesses to the Lower Branches and turns the entire tree against them. Toby must escape the powerful Joe Mitch and his nasty cronies and save his parents from being executed. Quite a large task for such a small person! This story is full of flashbacks so you have to pay close attention to what is going. However, it's completely worth the extra brain power.

Warning: The ending will leave you hanging, but don't get angry--there is more to come. (This is only the first of a 2-part series.)

After reading this book, I found myself staring at the shady oak tree in my backyard with newfound curiosity. Was there an entire world of microscopic people living in this oak without my knowing it? As if my dog, Kendall, knew what I was thinking, she began sniffing the grass and lower branches for signs of life. Perhaps it was a bug, or a feather, or a bit of squirrel poo that caught her attention and made her begin to pant and claw. I like to think otherwise…
Hey, adults can have imaginations too, right?

Recipe to Read By: Tree Bark

Don't gag yet--this is not the brown cardboard stuff that tastes like dirt many of you ate as small children (don't deny it--we've all tried it one time or another). This is the chocolate/Oreo variety of tree bark that tastes 100 times better than the real thing. In fact, it's so good, you may find yourself telling people that it's tree bark just so they'll stay away from it.

Ingredients

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate

6 oz white chocolate

2 tbsp peanut butter

10 Oreo sandwich cookies

Directions

Place semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate in separate medium microwaveable bowls. Microwave until completely melted, following directions on package.

Add peanut butter to white chocolate; stir until well blended.

Crumble half the cookies over chocolate in each bowl; mix well.

Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate mixtures onto wax paper-covered baking sheet, alternating the colors of the chocolates.

Cut through chocolate mixtures several times with knife for marble effect.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until firm.

Break into 14 pieces.

Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Label the container "Tree Bark" and no one will touch it.

*Recipe courtesy of: Kraft Foods

Watch the video of how to make this yummy concoction here

Lincoln and His Boys

When you hear the name Abraham Lincoln, which words pop into your head?

President. Tall. Beard. Civil War. Slavery. Log cabin. Honest.

Allow me to read your mind: The words “children” or “father” probably didn’t make it onto your list. Am I right? Did you even know that our 16th president had children? Don’t be ashamed. I didn’t either.
Honest Abe had four sons, and Lincoln and His Boys introduces you to three of them. This enthralling story is written from the point-of-view of Willie, the next to youngest, who gets to tag along on his father’s campaign trail, and noisy Tad, the baby of the family, who uses the White House as his playground.

Spoken by Willie:

The president’s house has as many rooms as a good sized hotel. The green room
has disgusting moldy chairs and sofas. We bounce on them, but clouds of dust and
mold come up and make us sneeze. Some rooms are filled with boring old statues
and paintings in flaking gold frames. But there are secret attics above our
living rooms. In them, we found boxes left over from other presidents. There was
a pile of rusted swords and guns left over in an old wardrobe labeled Jackson.
We found a minuteman’s uniform from the time of George Washington.

Sounds pretty cool, huh?
The book begins with Willie, Tad, and their parents at home in Springfield, Illinois. Their father, a lawyer, is thinking about running for president against his rival, Mr. Douglas. Through Willie’s eyes, we follow his family all the way to the White House. About three-fourths of the way through the book, we start to see the family through Taddie’s point of view. Through a miserable war filled with death and despair, family tragedy, and the crumbling of the South, we witness Abraham Lincoln as a devoted father; always kind, always gentle, and never losing track of what is important.

For those of you who think biographies are boring, I strongly suggest you give this book a chance. Although it reads like historical fiction, it’s really a biography in disguise.





*Recipe to Read By: Union Hardtack
Click here to read about the history of hardtack.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat
6 pinches of salt

Directions
Mix the ingredients together into a stiff batter, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet.
Bake for one-half an hour at 400 degrees.
Remove from oven, cut dough into 3-inch squares, and punch four rows of holes, four holes per row into the dough.
Turn dough over, return to the oven and bake another one-half hour.
Turn oven off and leave the door closed.
Leave the hardtack in the oven until cool.
Remove and enjoy!


Recipe courtesy of Gettysburg National Military Park

More About Lincoln:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/AbrahamLincoln/


http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/abrahamlincoln.htm


http://www.dispatchnie.com/live/export-content/sites/dispatchnie/pdfs/LincolnKidsActivities2009.pdf


http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.com/

Popcorn Alert!

Although the movie version almost NEVER compares to the book, here are a couple of childhood favorites to get excited about:

Judi and Ron Barrett's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Release Date: Friday, September 18, 2009
Plot:A scientist trying to solve world hunger encounters a problem of global proportions, as food begins to fall from the sky.

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are
Release Date: Friday, October 16, 2009
Plot: An adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story, where Max, a disobedient little boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world--a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their ruler.

Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox
Release Date: Friday, November 6, 2009
Plot: Angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, look to get rid of their opponent and his family.

Information courtesy of Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Recipe to Read By: Caramel Corn

Pull these books off your shelf, blow off the dust, and munch away on this scrumptious snack while rereading the classics. Be careful--sticky fingers equals sticky pages!

Ingredients:
1 large package microwave popcorn (10-12 cups)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 Tbsp. brown sugar

Preparation:
Prepare popcorn according to package directions. Pour into a serving bowl.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in corn syrup and brown sugar.
When the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture turns a caramel color, remove from heat and pour over poppped popcorn. Toss to coat well.

Begin counting the days until the movie release date. 109, 108, 107...