The Facts of Life

Children say some of the strangest, (but funny) things. Sometimes they spew out the greatest common sense that ever existed! 

Mommy: "Mommy's eye is all red." 

Saturday: "You need a shot in your eye." 

Mommy: "Can I just put some drops in it?" 

Saturday: "Yes, first you have to put in one eye drop, then eat 4 cookies, and then go poop 2 times and your eye will feel all better!" 

Mommy: "Sounds good." 

Saturday: "Mommy, you should not eat poop. It tastes yucky and it will make you very sick. Don't ever, ever eat poopy! 
Mommy: "Okay, okay! Thank you. I won't eat poop!" 

Saturday: "Good job Mommy."

So unless you are one of those parents who feels this is the way to handle gross things...

here are a few books for the scientist who is much too curious about poo and other seemingly disgusting  things...

For the kid who always knows what to do:

 What is the funniest thing a child you know has concluded about bodily function(s)? Any funny (and obviously sincere/innocent) "know it all" situations? Tell me your favorites. 

Doolittle About It

The pain in my head stays mainly in the brain. The pain, the pain, stays mainly in the brain.

Headaches Hardly Happen Here. However, Horrible Happenstance Helps this one Happen.

Aawuuuu! Awuuu!

Heaven help her!

Okay, I was just having a wee bit of fun. I might as well, since I have no control whatsoever over when this respiratory infection will go away. Cease to exist! Aww, see how powerful I think I am.

**shrugs**

IF there is anything to know about Eliza Doolittle, it is that she bloomed (into a proper lady) quite well. The point is, she bloomed. As authors we'd like to think we can do the same (into proper authors obviously). And while doing little about it will get us nowhere, Doolittle about it will absolutely take us many places or at lease it will make us realize what we are doing wrong.

For example:

1. Doolittle with your vowels, they should stand alone or at lease fit in.

A    E   I    O    U

not

Auuuewww,  Eeeeew, Iow, Ohhh, Ewww

One of the mistakes I constantly make in typos is typing soembody instead of somebody or soemthing instead of something. Gosh it drievs me nuts! I cna't stnad it. LOL.  BUT as an author I must Doolittle about it and fix the problem EVERY SINGLE TIME! I would hate to think "soembody"  found its way into my query letter or manuscript! Proofread. Keep it constant.

2. Doolittle with your manuscript. Don't mind it at all...only

"Move your bloomin' (notice I said bloomin') arse."

See how nicely she put it! Edit. Make changes. Take note of (BAIC) "bloomin' arse" in chair. Make it bloom. Own it.

Doollittle.

3. Doolittle to fool everyone. No point in putting on an act. Higgins might disagree. Never mind that though.

Make your characters worthwhile and  believable. Pin point that dialogue. Show us things about your characters, don't tell us everything about them. Let us figure some of it out for ourselves. No point to tricking anyone after all that hard work! Be yourself in your writing---a good voice is the best kind to use in this instance, so use your own. You may find a few things on all this here.


4. Doolittle to disagree, until it is worth the time and effort.

No point in pulling your hair out over every word. No point in changing that sentence unless maybe the whole lot of your critique group despises it for the most brilliant reasons. Don't let anyone take a stroll all over your MS unless you are willing to wipe up the muddy footprints and ready for a possible BIG CHANGE. Leave all your reservations behind. Make good with what you have and aim for perfection but only if it fits.You have to, after all, live with what you have written. So here and here and here are a few things you could do to be sure your aim actually is set on perfection.

5. When there is absolutely nothing left to do there is always PiBoIdMo 2010! Doolittle about picture book ideas!  Here's the link! Don't miss out!


Anyone  else have a Doolittle moment? I'd really like to know what yours are.  

Much Ado About Nothing

Nothing....

such a lonely, horrible word, that is unless you make do about it. With a respiratory infection looming around I was bound to get it too. To think all the garlic, onions and vitamin C I've been eating could ward it off. Nope!

So while I have been (mostly) stuck at home with it, I've also been pretty busy. I perfected my pumpkin empanada recipe (I had to make a few changes to it) that I want to include in one of my books! At least by my standards, I even managed to make them LOOK delicious. So the workshop for today was getting acquainted with perfection, recipe perfection. Which is quite important if it might possibly go in a book.

Here they are: "scrumdidlyumptios" is what my DH calls them.

This got me thinking about books that have recipes in them. OR books that explore food but don't necessarily have recipes in them. Books like this one:

Thunder Cake is so easy to make, and quite delicious. My children definitely enjoyed making it with me, but mostly they just licked the batter. Tomatoes and all! Here is the recipe for it.

Here are some more along with some recipes or activities related to the kidlit--so that you always have something to do about nothing. 

Walter the Baker by Eric Carle

 Here are some pretzel recipes along with a bit of pretzel history.

Have some fun with Carle and his books here. 

or just play with some Play-Doh here.

There is always much ado about popcorn with:

Learn about de Paola and his books here.

Or make a popcorn cake with this recipe and read the fun poem/song while you munch away. 

Explore an overload of popcorn madness, find the encyclopedia popcornia, find more great popcorn reads, and ask Poppy anything you like with this website.

Read Wende and Harry Devlin's  Cranberry Thanksgiving for some a berry fun secret recipe. 

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World is just as fun but so is Enemy Pie. I couldn't find the Enemy Pie recipe but here is one with Granny Smith apples so that you can make An Apple Pie for Dinner.

There are so many good ones! Too many to list! 

Like:

 What can you do with a Paletta by, Carmen Taffola 

Here, here, and aqui are are a few things you can do with Paletta! 

Or: 

This book contains 2 recipes! Here is a link to a multicultural bakery Los Bagels where you can find recipes and a bit of the history of the bagel and the bakery itself.

So when there is much ado about nothing...I challenge you to try to find something to do. Writing or not, much ado about something is better than nothing.  You get the point.

What are some of your favorite kidlit book/recipe combo favorites?