The Book Search

 I might not have mentioned it before, but I married a chef.  My first job as a teenager was working at a local French restaurant and I had big dreams of going to culinary school, which, my dad, who was paying for my post high school education, shot down.  So I went to a four year school and became an elementary school teacher and librarian.  WAAAY better hours, retirement plan and health care benefits.  I even teased my chef into joining me as a teacher (he's been teaching cooking now for 25 years!).  Anyway, cookbooks were some of my favorite books growing up (Betty Crocker Cookie Book anyone?) and I still love a good cookbook, as evidenced by my latest round of books from Netgalley. The first one is called Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of  French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano.  Unsurprisingly, it's about cake.  Don't you kind of love the simplicity of cookbooks?  Eponymous titles, straightforward directions, gorgeous pictures. ...

I've been reading some advanced readers copies on Netgalley.  If you haven't heard of Netgalley, it's a website where you can sign up for FREE and read advanced readers copies of books.  I think the hope is that people like us will help generate buzz for the books.  Win-win!  Awesome!  Anyway, this morning I read a really awesome one called Daisy to the Rescue by Jeff Campbell.  It should be out this week and it's wonderful.  It starts off explaining about the mythology of animal rescue and goes into some detail of verifying sources (which would make for a great lesson about fantasy vs. reality). The stories are sorted into groups and before each story there is a sort of a fact sheet with a lovely pen and ink drawing of the animal.  The stories are quite short and the author's voice is strong, which I think the kids will really connect to.  I think this is one that's really going to be worth looking for. I also read Tucci's Table by Sta...