{"id":357,"date":"2008-03-24T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T09:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbicmsblog.reedbusiness.com\/elogic_660000266\/2008\/03\/24\/edible-reading-readable-eating\/"},"modified":"2008-03-24T09:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-24T09:10:00","slug":"edible-reading-readable-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Edible Reading, Readable Eating"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have not yet met Laura and Leo Espinosa, the duo behind Otis and Rae and the Grumbling Splunk<\/a><\/em>, a new Houghton Mifflin picture book that is splashy, spunky, and almost spelunky (the characters go camping, not caving).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I have, however, snooped around on Laura and Leo’s lively website<\/a> and spent time on Leo’s blog<\/a>, in preparation for meeting this husband-and-wife team at next weekend’s Belmont Children’s Picture Book Festival<\/a> organized by author Melissa Stewart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There’s lots of fun stuff on Leo’s blog, including some fantastic sketches<\/a>, but what really rocked my socks was this: A FRANNY K. STEIN BIRTHDAY CAKE<\/a>!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Franny is the wacky mad scientist star of the Franny K. Stein series<\/a> by Jim Benton, which just happens to be a hit with lots of first through third graders and a few older kids too (e.g. the person writing this blog). Part of the reason I dig Franny so is that boys love her. Did you catch that? BOYS love this series of books about a GIRL. How I wish that wasn’t such a rare thing! And how glad I am that at least some gals like Franny are helping to bridge that aggravating gender gap. (While messing about with chemistry sets, no less.)<\/p>\n

In any case, apparently Leo’s son Ben is one of Franny’s many boy fans, hence the reason he wanted a Franny cake for his birthday. And what a cake! I’m not sure when I’ve seen a better home-baked likeness.<\/p>\n

Paired with last week’s post<\/a> about the birthday cake our store got for Pete, our receiver, I realize I seem to be running with a cake theme these days. By coincidence my timing is perfect! The annual Edible Book Festival<\/a> falls on (or about) April 1st every year. That means it’s time to fire up your mixers, folks!<\/p>\n

A few of last year’s entries that tie in with spring and the holidays:<\/p>\n

The Bake Way for Ducklings<\/a> entry in the 2006 University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies Edible Books Festival:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And the Passover Haggadah<\/a> created by Gene Epstein for the 2007 Edible Books Festival at Loganberry Books in Cleveland, OH:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Have you hosted one of these events at your store or library? And if so, was it a hit? I’m thinking our store ought to get on this bandwagon in future years. And that we should invite Leo and Laura Espinosa to participate!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have not yet met Laura and Leo Espinosa, the duo behind Otis and Rae and the Grumbling Splunk, a new Houghton Mifflin picture book that is splashy, spunky, and almost spelunky (the characters go camping, not caving). I have, however, snooped around on Laura and Leo’s lively website and spent time on Leo’s blog, in preparation for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}