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What could bring together teachers, community organizations and hungry friends of First Book?

Answer: Pizza!

First Book is proud to partner with Pizza Hut and excited to take part in their new 10-year campaign, Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project. When friends, families, and co-workers sit down to eat or order online from Pizza Hut they’ll be able to add a donation to First Book to enable access to books for children in need. The funds raised from each Pizza Hut location will go to local educators so they can purchase books and resources from the First Book Marketplace. The combination of this campaign’s worldwide reach and local community focus will bring the greatest impact.
The funds raised from each Pizza Hut location will go to local educators so they can purchase books and resources from the First Book Marketplace. The combination of this campaign’s worldwide reach and local community focus will bring the greatest impact.

Kyle Zimmer and Artie Starrs

Some of the students at PS 30 in New York City got a “taste” of the Literacy Project on September 8th, when they were treated to pizza, a visit from representatives of Pizza Hut and the United Federation of Teachers. In honor of the occasion Artie Starrs, President of Pizza Hut, and Kyle Zimmer, president and CEO, First Book, read Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin and got a copy of the book to take home.

“The teachers we serve tell us that when a child discovers a love of reading, not only do they unlock their potential, but ultimately the community benefits,” said Zimmer, “But too many low-income communities simply don’t have the resources to provide children with access to books, and teachers in these classrooms and programs often spend hundreds of dollars of their own money to try to provide what students need. Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project will unlock the potential of millions of underserved children and communities.”

Each Pizza Hut location will also be organizing reading-centric events with community partners — fun things ranging from building pop-up reading nooks or bookcases to simply reading with children who are hungry to learn.

And maybe for pizza, too.

If you serve children in need, please visit theliteracyproject.pizzahut.com to learn more about the events in your community and First Book’s partnership with Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project.

The post Using the Power of Pizza to Transform Lives Through Literacy appeared first on First Book Blog.

Below are some glimpses of hidden picture illustrations either published or fresh off the drawing board. These are a challenge but really fun to do!

(c) Highlights For Children

Y’all, I’ve tried a LOT of gluten-free pizza. Some baked goods are easy to make GF, but pizza isn’t one of them. It usually tastes kind of card-boardy. The best store-bought kind I’ve found was of a ball of frozen dough from Earth Fare (sorry, I don’t know the brand). But it was crazy, crazy expensive.

This recipe is by far the best I’ve had. Favorito. Really nice texture, not sandy or weird like some others. Even our six-year-old (who is newly gluten-free) loved it. It’s also incredibly easy if you’ve already made your stash of gluten-free flour mix.

And the best part is, the dough only has to rise 10 minutes, so, unlike traditional homemade pizza dough, you don’t have to plan so far in advance. It doesn’t require kneading, either, just mixing.

This recipe is a TOTAL keeper! Like my recent GF recipe trials, it’s also from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski. The recipe for a similar version of it is here.

The book includes a recipe for a bulk batch of GF flour mix, and then you’re all set to use it in many of the recipes. It’s completely worth the effort, and, although not inexpensive, is a better deal than buying pre-mixed GF flour.

One note on the recipe. My hubs grilled it, which went really well, but he had to pay close attention to the cooking time. I like it nice and crispy, but there are also directions for deep dish pizza in the book.

Yes, I hear you, you’re not gluten-free, and you wonder when my regularly scheduled cooking program is coming back. No worries, this is not going to become a blog solely about GF baking. It’s just what I’m excited about right now.

In other news, I’m waiting to get editorial notes on my young adult novel, and I’m currently researching for a nonfiction book project that had been on the back burner for quite awhile (since we were living in Germany over a year ago). Now that I’m researching in the U.S., with access to an American library, it’s way more fun! I’m still struggling with the shape of the project, but I’m happy to find that I’m just as interested in the subject matter. Hopefully I can share more about it when it’s a bit further along.

Meanwhile, I’ve been sewing a lot. Close to finishing a couple of projects that I hope to show you soon.

For more posts on cooking, click here.

Diabetic Diva Susan with her latest recipe book.

Diabetic recipes are ‘Healthy’ because they have limited amounts of refined sugars and salts so if you want more healthy recipes take a look at her website.
Remember you don’t have to be diabetic to enjoy Susan’s tasty recipes, in fact eating these healthy feasts can help prevent you becoming diabetic so tuck in!

TWIRLY SPAGHETTI & MINCE SAUCE

A family favourite and so easy to make. The mince can be prepared in a batch and frozen for at least 3 months. Good with jacket potatoes, rice, pasta, mock pizza.

Main ingredient: Mince beef, spaghetti Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes Serves 4:

EQUIPMENT
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Can opener
Measuring spoon
Large saucepan with lid
Wooden spoon

For spaghetti
Measuring jug
Measuring spoon
Medium size saucepan with lid
Spoon for stirring

INGREDIENTS
500g lean ground mince beef
½ sweet pepper, roughly chopped
½ onion roughly chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 jar pasta sauce
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 tsp dried Italian herbs

METHOD
COOK the mince in a pot stirring with a wooden spoon until it’s brown in colour and no pink bits remain. ADD the onion and peppers and cook for another 3 minutes
NEXT add all the other ingredients and let meat mixture cook until the sauce starts to bubble. TURN the heat down to low and let this cook for at least 20 minutes
SERVE with spaghetti and a salad (even a teeny weeny one would be great) Remember your 5 A Day.

SPAGHETTI
PUT 500ml of water and ¼ tsp salt into a pot
LET it boil
ADD 100g wholemeal spaghetti to the boiling water
COOK for 8 minutes (al dente) cooked still firm
DRAIN and put on a plate
SPOON some mince sauce over
If you like sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over and dried parsley.

Try these
Make mock pizzas using the mince sauce. Slice a wholemeal French roll in 2. Spoon some of the sauce over and about 2 tbsp grated cheese. Grill under hot grill until cheese melts.

Or add red kidney beans, ½ to 1 tsp chilli powder and dried Italian herbs to make chilli.
Here is Susan cooking with some children.

Children love to cook when there's a grown-up to help.

4 Stars Chase Danger, Super Spy: Pirates of Pineapple Island Chase & Lisa Olivera Adam Goodman 32 Pages:    Ages: 4 to 7 ................... From Website:  7-year-old super-spies Chase Danger and Princess Ali Bali must think fast when they discover pirates have stolen Zalezgon’s magical pineapples.  But that’s not all!  Ali’s little brother Aiden has been [...]

……… Today we have a fun interview with a powerful character. His name is Chase Danger and he is a seven-year-old Super Spy. Yes, you read that correctly, he is seven-years-old, 7!  And he is a super spy.  Here with Chase Danger is one of the co-authors of the second book in the series., Chase [...]

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You know what the best thing about having interns is? You can get them to do your work for you have the privilege of teaching them what you know, and watching them grow professionally. This week, we bring you a special Linked Up, written by publicity interns extraordinaire, Alexandra McGinn and Hanna Oldsman. Be sure to check back next week for my (awesome/hilarious) Q & A with them.

I think I may want to move to Japan and make pizza. [Reuters]

The Good News: Thanksgiving isn’t a reason to break up. The Bad News: Christmas comes shortly after Thanksgiving. [Popfi]

I’m more of a Garamond type of girl myself. [Not Cot]

If you’re still in a candy coma from Halloween it’s time to let the goods go.

The Shining’s not so scary in Lego form. [Flickr]

Obama the Grinch Steals Christmas In Tea Party Picture Book [Gawker]

Commute via holograph? Yes please! [Wired]

C the difference? [Virtual Linguist]

Van Gogh would have bought an iPad. [BBC]

Which literary character is a Facebook addict? [Salon]

Funny Lunch by David Catrow

This second Max Spaniel book offers mayhem and fun with a pizza theme.  Max is not a dog, he is a chef!  He and his cat friend have a restaurant where they serve pizzas.  When one customer refuses the special and orders chili instead, he is given a scarf, hat and mittens.  When another orders a hot dog, a panting dog with a fan is served.  Trouble arrives by bus with an order of 100 pizzas with everything!  Max cannot make pizzas that fast and ends up with a mess instead.  Luckily great pizza is only a phone call away.  Even better, Max got to enjoy the pizza too.

Catrow successfully mixes very simple beginner reader words with pictured filled with funny details and merriment.  The jokes are classic and there are some that only those looking at the pictures will find.  Catrow’s watercolor illustrations ooze giggles and laughs as well as pizza sauce and cheese.  They add another dimension of fun to the book.  The relationship between Max and his cat friend is a good one that plays out primarily in the illustrations. 

A frolic of an easy reader, this book will be enjoyed by young pizza and dog lovers.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

Blessedly, some foods seem to have magical healing properties. When I left my family of origin, I needed to reconstruct some family traditions in order to reclaim them in an emotionally healthy way. One of the traditions that had to go was a big, fancy, mom-trapped-in-the- kitchen, crazy-making Christmas Eve meal. In the household where I am the mom, Christmas Eve dinner has always been pizza. It’s the one time of the year when no one has to share or compromise--everybody gets whatever toppings they want before Santa comes. Even if I wanted to change now, the kids wouldn’t let me. My children have always been pizza addicts, even as babies, and the last in line is the worst by far. Scarlett recently found the discarded lid to a banker’s box and, thinking that pizza was secretly being consumed without her, carried it around to each person in the house demanding to know where the “pee-zah” was. That’s how powerful the lure of the pie is. In Dayal Kaur Khalsa’s How Pizza Came To Queens, four little girls in the 1950s try to figure out what will make their sad Italian guest smile. She doesn’t speak English and they can only guess at what “pizza” (the one mournful word they can decipher) means. They even break down and visit the library, where they find the answer. They bring her the secret ingredients, she shows them the perfect toss, and they all spend the rest of the summer in pizza heaven.

I am kicking off our third and final week of Guilty Secrets, where we're going to talk about anything and everything in our world--cyber or other--that lights our fires!

And for me, it’s the rare opportunity for the truly tasty, almost poetic slice of New York pizza.


I grew up in New York and as a teenager, inhaled pizza on almost a daily basis. But once I moved west, a delicious, drippy slice of New York pizza became a memory. The standard fare in California is a whiter, thicker cheese, a plumper, doughier crust, and often, uncooked veggies (which my NY-reared husband considers the ultimate affront).


As I’ve been known to say, west coast pizza would be perfectly fine if it had another name like tomato/cheese/vegetable bread or something. It’s the “pizza” designation that is the deal-breaker for me.

I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had good, true, New York pizza in the past fifteen years, and three of those were last August, when I went back for a visit to old friends, my editor and agent. Each time, it was like a sensory experience for me. And as I stood on Lexington Avenue, munching a warm slice off waxed paper above a plain paper plate, I actually felt my eyes fill with tears in a sort of reach-back to the uncertain teen who’d wolfed so many similar slices. And I decided that if I could momentarily time-travel to tell her about how “our” life would go, she would be proud of me for having fulfilled so many of our dreams. (Cheesy, huh, and pun totally intended...)


So, anyway, yay for New York Pizza and its many wonderful properties!

What I’m Reading: Al Capone Does My Shirts, Gennifer Choldenko

Tina

Tina Ferraro
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie, January, 2008
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, Spring, 2009
www.tinaferraro.com

Wow! I made it!

My post titled On The Left Hand Side of Jacketflap is number three on jacketflap.com's, menu titled 'Most Commented Posts' In the past 7 days.

Besides the day my children were born, and the day they printed my name in the phone book, and the day I defeated Apollo Creed, this is the best day of my life!

I would like to thank all the little people, the streetlight people, the village people, and the confused people who don't realize that pizza is only pizza when you don't need a knife and fork to eat it, for helping make my dream come true (wipes tear from eye).

Ian Sands
http://www.ponywombat.com

I actually meant to post this last week and I guess I didn't soooo....here she is, Big Beautiful Pizza-Eating Wonder Woman, done for the Fat Wonder Woman Blog (though she still hasn't been added over there, for some reason.)

There--I feel like I've posted my butt off this morning.

--chickpea

Our second day in New York was a working day for both of us. Wendi was off to Random House, where she had her first day of pre-sales. During pre-sales, a few of the field reps come home to roost to meet with the folks at HQ to talk about an upcoming season. They're always working ahead, so this was the fall pre-sales. There will be a real sales conference - often held in some summery locale - later this season, when ALL the sales reps will gather. At this point, the feedback Wendi and the other few reps give can still be used to tweak things before the real deal. Hence pre-sales. Now you know.

I on the other hand got to do something much more fun - go meet the editor of Something Rotten! After a casual wake-up in the hotel room and a quick croissant and water at one of the two hundred Starbucks locations in Manhattan, I headed off in search of the subway line that would take me south to Greenwich Village, where the Dial offices were located. The thing with my map was that it would have a little red M for the Metro red line in the middle of a city block, and when I would arrive at that exact location on the planet earth, there would often not be any magical stairs leading down into the mass transit warrens. The day before I had become familiar with an orange line station or two around our hotel, but today I arrived and found no stop.

I finally found a red line, but it was headed only uptown. I consulted my map once again, and marched off down another street. It was ass cold that day, and as I lost feeling in my ears I began to despair that I would not only have to walk many freezing blocks to return to my familiar downtown orange line, but that I might conceivably be late as well - and this after starting off with an hour and a half to spare. Tracing the red line with my finger, I realized that this was the line that once served the World Trade Center. I had read that the stop was now closed, of course, but I began to wonder if that didn't mean that the entire southbound line was closed.

I doubled back down another street, resigned to hitting the orange line (which would dump me off in Soho, not the Village, requiring a further blistering walk) when I stumbled onto the entrance to the downtown red line. A Solstice Miracle! I hurried inside and boarded the metro for Greenwich Village.

I popped out of the subway almost directly across from the Holland Tunnel, which I felt obligated to photograph:


I was no doubt captured on some sort of video camera, my face forwarded to the FBI as someone "casing" the Holland Tunnel. Having considered this gigantic hole in the ground (somewhat reminiscent of the Hellmouth on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) I'm not sure I would ever want to enter the Holland Tunnel. I'm not even sure where it goes. I studied my map a few more times though, and I'm fairly sure that it does not, in fact, lead to Holland.

Despite my misadventures looking for the Metro station, I was significantly early for my appointment. Knowing how heavy the security is at the Random House building where Wendi was working that day, I figured that crashing in the lobby of the Dial building for an hour or so was probably out of the question, so I hiked around what I think was Greenwich Village. There were many record stores - selling real vinyl - so I think I'm fairly safe in this assumption. I expected a lot of hippy folks walking around smoking pot and wearing Birks, Che Guevara t-shirts, and worn-out corduroy pants, but as I said, it was very cold, so perhaps they were all inside. I did see this rather ingenious way to park one hundred cars in a lot that would ordinarily only hold twenty:


I suppose when these folks say "no in and out," they really mean it. Seriously, how many days in advance do you have to let them know you're going to need your car? I cannot imagine how extracting one of those vehicles is an easy thing to do. It's like an automotive Rubik's Cube.

After futzing around as long as I could, I hit the Dial offices. Approaching it from afar, I was able to appreciate the really cool reliefs up at the top:


Okay, so it's kind of hard to see them here. But here it is: 345 Hudson, home of Dial Books for Young Readers. (And all those lesser Penguin imprints that haven't bought anything from me and so don't matter.)

There I met Liz, editor extraordinaire. Knowing we were going to see Avenue Q during our visit, she gave me a copy of the soundtrack, which we've already enjoyed a few times. After we chatted for a little while Liz took me around to meet folks. We burst in on a meeting of the entire marketing staff, and I thanked them profusely for helping spread the Samurai gospel. Then it was off to the den of Tony Sahara, the guy who created my terrific cover illustration. (And who let me use the full illustration on my baseball cards!) His office was loaded with Star Wars toys, so he won more points in my book. We also dropped in on the gals who handle the bookstore and convention promotions.

(I should probably not say this, but that feeling has never stopped me before: if any guy was ever looking to find the single largest concentration of intelligent, attractive women in New York, all he really has to do is go work for Dial Books for Young Readers. Internships are available now. Many intelligent, attractive women are standing by. I kid you not.)

Our penultimate stop was to meet Lauri Hornik, Vice President and Publisher of Dial Books. I laid it on pretty thick when I told her that Dial was one of my A-list publishers and that I was thrilled to have landed there, but I wasn't lying. We talked about Something Rotten, which comes out this fall, and even discussed further ideas for more Horatio books. (Yeah buddy!) Then, to my surprise and delight, Lauri remembered and asked about my Fasting Girl project, which has sat by the wayside lo these many months as I finished editing Something Rotten and began writing the first draft of The Brooklyn Nine, my middle grade generational baseball book. I'm afraid I broke the rule I gave the attendees at my very own recent marketing seminar and went on and on about the Fasting Girl story, rather than just giving her a two-sentence blurb. What was I thinking? Well, she seemed interested, even when her eyes glazed over and she put her head down on her desk. She told me she was just resting her eyes, so I kept talking. (Kidding.)

Our last stop of the day was Brad, who is the guy in the office who makes sure the manuscripts are where they need to be at every step in the process. I liken his position to that of the folks in traffic when I worked at the radio station. The traffic department didn't follow vehicular traffic, they organized the on-air commercials and drops, and made sure that everything that was supposed to play hit the airwaves at the right place and time. I didn't know publishers had such a position, but considering the number of manuscripts they must be juggling at one time, it makes perfect sense.

In addition to being the managing editor, Brad is also going to co-edit The Brooklyn Nine with Liz. The idea for the book was originally his, and I was tapped to write it. He had a copy of the Baseball Encyclopedia when he was a kid (just like I did - and still do) and we immediately found common ground when it was revealed that we had each programmed the stats of Dead Ball era baseball players into computer games and played out seasons with long-gone teams. In his honor, I've made a point of dropping some of the better players of the 1908 season into one of the stories in the book, including Three-Finger Brown of the Chicago Cubs. (In the last year the Cubs won the World Series, by the way.)

The three of us did lunch at John's Pizza, where we had a waitress who will have to appear in something I write someday. She talked like she was out of sync with the universe, but I couldn't decide if she was ahead of us or behind us. Liz asked for a refill on her Diet Coke and I asked for one on my regular Coke, and our waitress says, "Right. Okay. One regular Coke, one regular Diet Coke." I couldn't tell if she was messing with us, or just kooky. Maybe both. The pizza was great - well worth the hype - and I had a great time chatting with Brad and Liz. They made the mistake of asking me about other ideas for sequels to Something Rotten, and I launched into my take on The Tempest, my favorite Shakespeare play. (I hope I get to write that one some day!)

I have no pictures of any of this, of course, so you may think I made the whole thing up. I didn't, I promise! I briefly debated pulling out the camera and getting pics of Liz and Brad, but somehow felt it would be a little too amateurish. So here I am without illustrative graphics.

After I left the Dial offices, I met up with my friend Brian from New Jersey. He and I hit Forbidden Planet, a massive comics shop near New York University. It ROCKED. I could have spent all day pouring through the indie titles. I picked up a Tick omnibus I had missed out on the first time around, and Above and Below, two shorts by James Sturm, author and illustrator of the phenomenal graphic novel The Golem's Mighty Swing. Brian made off with that Sonic Screwdriver he'd been looking for. That led to, oddly, the first of two Dr. Who conversations I would have with two separate people in two consecutive days in New York. Brian and I hit a diner afterward, where I regaled him with my plans to take the DC Comics company by storm, unbeknownst to anyone at DC Comics or anywhere else outside that diner.

Wendi got through with her meetings around four o'clock, and I took a train uptown with Brian, where we parted. Wendi and I had planned on going out to eat at a fancy restaurant, but we had both had big lunches and were pooped, and so opted instead for a stroll down to Times Square and cheesecake (for Wendi) at Junior's in the Theater District. One thing I have observed about New York is that the closer you get to Times Square, the more quickly the waiters try to turn your table. Standing up signals an army of busboys who swoop in like winged monkeys. I have seen a table completely bussed and reset before I have even donned my coat. While I admire the efficiency, it does give one the impression that you are not allowed to linger or loiter anywhere in Midtown Manhattan. Everything there is in constant motion, with brief pauses for eating and drinking. Another New York lesson learned: always always always use the bathroom before you leave a restaurant. It may be your last chance until you return to your hotel room.

Our plans for a big evening together on the town petered out with our flagging energy and our aching legs, so we went back to the room where Wendi crashed and I watched Star Trek: TNG and The Daily Show with the sound muted and the closed captioning on. After reading a little television I hit the sack. It was an odd end to a great day in the city, and I went to sleep dreaming about the next day's destination: Brooklyn.

We just flew back from New York, but it's not our arms that are tired--it's our legs.

Wendi and I spent the week in New York City, and in that time I think we must have walked a hundred miles. I exaggerate, but not by much. Here, with photos when I remembered to pull out the camera, are the highlights.

Our flight on Tuesday got in around eight in the morning, and we hit midtown Manhattan around 9:30 a.m. We checked our bags at our hotel and then (figuring that if we took the subway we'd arrive long before anything opened) we decided to walk the fifty or so blocks to SoHo. At Bryant Park, we stopped to watch the ice skaters.

Further down Sixth Avenue we saw the Macy's at Herald Square and the nearby Empire State Building (which we rode to the top of on our last visit to the city). From there we took a detour down Broadway, for a glimpse of the famous Flatiron Building.

Further downtown we were delighted to find the Parsons New School for Design--home to our beloved Project Runway! The bottom floor was getting a makeover, perhaps in preparation for season four. We were dressed to impress, but did not see Tim Gunn.


I had to take a picture of this. These signs are all over Manhattan. What a joke!


In New York, even the sidewalk graffiti is high art:


Next up was Washington Square Park, where Sally dropped off Harry.


After walking around SoHo for half the day, it was time to eat. The Famous Cozy Soup and Burger lived up to its name. Wendi had the split pea soup, I had the skinny fries. Both got a thumbs up.


With another thirty blocks to go back to the hotel, we gave up and took the subway. It's not that we were trying to avoid the subway--we planned on using it a great deal during our time in the city. It's just that we were in New York to see the city, not the subway. Nevertheless, we hopped the metro and hit our hotel room, where we promptly fell asleep. (What can I say, we'd been awake since four and walked a total of around eighty city blocks that day!)

That night we crashed a gathering of New York area young adult writers at a bar called Sweet and Vicious on the Lower East Side. We met a bunch of great folks like Jordan Sonnenblick, Gordan Korman, Cecil Castelucci, Emily Jenkins, David Levithan, and Libba Bray. Afterward, a few of us went out for pizza at a place called Pomodoro's. (That's Wendi in the foreground.)


This time we didn't even try to walk the whole way back to the hotel, as our legs were already threatening to secede and we had lost all communication with our feet. (We do a lot of driving, not walking, in Atlanta.) We emerged from the tunnels to the sights, sounds, and smells of midtown Manhattan, and turned in to gather our strength for another day in New York.