Who Are YOU? (as the Caterpillar asked Alice)

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Back in the day, I used to work for Dance Magazine (check it out if you're a dance aficionado — it's still in print). Once a year, we used to do a survey of readers, asking who they were, what they liked about the magazine, what they didn't, what they wanted to see more of.  Or, as the hookah-smoking caterpillar said to Alice in Wonderland, "WHO ARE YOU?"

When I first arrived at Jungle Reds (over two years ago!), I asked if such a survey had ever been done. "Who's the audience, exactly?" No one really knew, although, from statistics about who buys/reads mysteries these days, one can infer. 

Now that I know so many people from the comments section (Hi FChurch! Hello Gram! How's it going, Joan?) I do have a better idea. But I know there are lots of you who "lurk" (don't really like that word), but come up to us at conventions or readings and say things like, "I don't ever post, but I love the blog!" As Emily Dickinson wrote:

And so, dear readers, this post is about and for you. Please tell us who YOU are. How did you find the Jungle Reds? What are your favorite things? What would you like to see more of?

Today, please take a moment to say hi and tell us yourself in the comments, even — maybe especially — if you've never done so before!

And tell us — "WHO ARE YOU?"

"Oh, Kaye!" Chats About Pop-Up Books

But first!

Let's chat about the Agatha nominees!  

Wow - WHAT a stellar group!  

I have no idea why I feel like such a proud mommy when I see so many names I know, and so many people dear to my heart, but it truly does make me enormously proud.  What a kick to know so many delightfully talented people.  

And, of course - how bout a standing ovation and a few rounds of heartfelt applause for Reds Hank and Rhys, who have three nominations between them.  

Yay, Reds! 

okay -

back to pop-up books.

I am smitten with pop-up books.

I have, for many years, resisted the urge to start collecting them, but it's hard.

And I know I'm going to, some day, just toss off those restraints and give in.

I already have a little bit of a start.

My friend Cat gave me this adorable little Lulu Guinness book, Put on Your Pearls, Girls!  Have you seen it?  I just love it.

It speaks loudly to the "girly girl" in me.

I also love my pop-up version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as any "Alice Fanatic," such as myself, would.

I've had this for a long time and told myself I really wasn't giving in to the pop-up collection urge, just still feeding my "all things Alice" urge.  (Rationalization -  ain't it grand?!)

Besides.

Harley loves Alice too, so . . . 

With all that in mind, you can well imagine how thrilled I was to open my Christmas gift from my much loved sister-in-law, Lee Ann, to find

THIS!

What mystery loving woman doesn't have a soft spot for Nancy?!

She's the one who got so many started in our love of mystery novels, after all.

And by golly, she deserves her very own pop-up book, right?!  

Well, of course she does, and it is wonderful!

Besides the pop-ups, there's a bunch of other little secret things - envelopes with "clues," letters, just neat fun really cool stuff.

And this leads to a confession.

And, of course,  I blame Lee Ann.

Besides my delightful Nancy Drew pop-up book, she also gave me a gift card.

Which I promptly used to buy - 

guess!

A pop-up book!

Yay!

I have wanted this one for awhile.

It's lovely!

But no. 

No more!

That's it.

Those are the only pop-up books I really need.

Who cares if the "King of Pop-Ups," Robert Subada, has done a very tempting Peter Pan pop-up book?

Who care if there's a Dr. Seuss pop-up book?

Or one about Edgar Allan Poe?

Or "Game of Thrones?"

Or "The Wizard of Oz?"  EEK!!!!!!  "The Wizard of Oz!"

Or dinosaurs, dragons, and farms?

Or cities, and ocean, and super heroes?

Or Christmas?

Or bugs, or gargoyles?

Or phobias (phobias???) ?

OR, that there are wonderful books about making your own wonderful pop-up books?!

NO.

MORE!

How 'bout you, Reds, are there any pop-up book collectors out there?  Don't you love 'em?!  And if pop-up books aren't your weakness, what type books IS?  Surely, there's at least one . . . 

Butter Beer with Bernie Botts' Beans, Anyone?

HALLIE: Picking back up on our favorite kids' books and merging it with another favorite topic, food...

My sister Amy Ephron, has posted a wonderful essay by Agatha French on her ONE FOR THE TABLE web site. http://www.oneforthetable.com/oftt/stories/celebrating-anne.html

("Anne of Green Gables is, to put it plainly, a total badass," says Agatha. "The recipe for raspberry cordial, a drink that featured prominently in a famous episode of the book, begins with this Anne-ism: 'I love bright red drinks, don’t you? They just taste twice as good as any other color.' Which in my opinion is totally true.")

So then I started thinking about other great children's lit and the food it inspired...

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook--pioneer food. Recipes were adapted from her personal records. A lovely recipe for gingerbread.

The Narnia Cookbook written by one of C. S. Lewis's stepsons. Gooseberry fool and steamed pudding, anyone?

Mary Poppins in the Kitchen by P. L. Travers. Shepherd's pie and tips on making a souffle, delivered with MP's brand of dry wit: "You must wait for the souffle--it won't wait for you."

Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes--recipes, compiled by Josie Fison and Felicity Dahl and illustrated by the wonderful Quentin Blake, are for dainties like mosquitoes' toes and wampfish roes. Edible marshmallow pillows take two days to make.

Which took me back to Dr. Seuss's Scrambled Eggs Super and Green Eggs and Ham;" Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice; and my kids' favorite Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

HANK: Stone Soup, of course. And hunny, if you're planning a visit to the Hundred Acre Wood. Remember the search for what Eeyore liked to eat?

And in my beloved Many Moons, the Princess Lenore falls ill from "a surfeit of raspberry tarts."

Oh! And in Alice in Wonderland..remember Alice is so hungry, and finally gets to the Queen of Hearts' banquet. They show her the "joint," I think it is, and say something like: "Here's the joint." And then Alice reaches for a piece, and they say--oh no, you can't eat it now. Once you've been introduced to the food, the Hatter or someone tells her, you can no longer eat it.

My favorite line is "Alice, Pudding. Pudding, Alice." (I say it to myself all the time at restaurants, when the wait staff shows off the food. I always feel as if we're being introduced. And then I wonder if it's okay to eat it.

Oh--wait, my favorite line is "We had jam yesterday, and we'll have jam tomorrow. But never jam today." Something like that.

HALLIE: Ah, Alice – how I loved that book. And how lovely to find someone who remembers Many Moons, that wonderful book by James Thurber and illustrated by the great Louis Slobodkin, and in which the Royal Wizard avers that though he has “squeezed blood out of turnips for you, and turnips out of blood,” he cannot get the Princess Lenore the moon.

Please, share your food/kidlit memories...