Craving Cookies and A Super Surprise

You wait patiently as the butter softens on the counter along with the eggs warming to room temperature.  You watch as the flour, salt, and baking soda are combined together and set aside.  Your excitement increases as the butter is creamed together with two sugars and a teaspoon (plus a little more) of vanilla.  When the eggs are finally added, you know it's almost done.

Shifting from one foot to the other, you wonder why it takes so long to add the dry ingredients.  Then you hear the package being opened.  Quickly two cups, okay, maybe two and half cups of those delicious morsels are poured and stirred into the batter.  Teaspoon by teaspoon, shapes are placed on the cookie sheet, which is then slid into the warm oven.

The longest ten minutes ever in the history of time is finally completed.  As the door opens, the most intoxicating smell in the world wafts through the kitchen.  You gaze longingly from your mom to the cookies. A nod is given. You never forget the first time you taste one, as all the flavors melt in your mouth.  There is nothing quite so good as a home-baked chocolate chip cookie.

If you think the need for these delectable delights is relegated to only humans, think again.  Once any living being gets a whiff of their aroma, the need to eat them is irresistible.  Tea Party Rules (Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.) written by Ame Dyckman (Boy + Bot) with illustrations by K. G. Campbell (Lester's Dreadful Sweaters) tells the tale of a cub who has caught cookie fever.


Cub was playing in the woods
when he smelled something delicious.
He followed his nose through the
bushes and found...

Wily woodland creature that he is, Cub has found a plate covered with cookies.  It seems he is not alone in this discovery either.  There is another bear sitting in a chair right next to those tempting treats.

Unlike Cub, this bear is of the stuffed variety.  So when Cub tries to engage the bear in conversation, he is met with silence.  In fact he falls off his seat when Cub touches him.

Cub now knows the cookies are all his.  As he is about to savor the first bite of one, he hears someone coming.  Uh, oh...

Cub does the only thing he can think to do.  He masquerades as the teddy.  Let's stop here a moment.  There's a lively, young bear taking the place of an inanimate toy?

A young girl is ready for her tea party to begin.  The table is set.  The cookies are on the plate.  She has brought the tea and a bouquet of fresh flowers.  When she carefully peers at her bear, he seems to be a tad dirty.  This will not do.  Readers are introduced to Tea Party Rule number one, cleanliness.

Cub has no choice as he is carried inside by the girl.  He tolerates a bath because he wants those cookies in the worst way.  He endures rules two and three because all he can think about is consuming those cookies.

Oblivious to the discomfort Cub is enduring, the prim and proper girl goes about  HER preparations according to HER rules.  Again outside the girl pipes up, voicing her fourth and final rule.  This is the proverbial straw that breaks this little guy's back.   Cub is, after all, a bear.  Girl responds as only she can, playing by the rules. GAME ON!


Ame Dyckman's passion for play in her storytelling makes its presence known by the time the first page is turned.  Techniques such as blending the narrative with Cub and the girl speaking their thoughts aloud, repetition of key phrases, pausing to complete sentences and word emphasis, all promote the feeling we readers are there watching this friendship, however improbable, form.  The atmosphere hums with anticipation.  Giggling and guffaws are a given.


With Cub and the girl eyeing one another, ready to grab the single cookie, framed in tiny birch branches, on the front jacket and cover and the question asked and answered on the back, readers can sense fun just around the corner.  Opening and closing endpapers have readers gazing through a birch forest, looking for nature's residents hidden among the trees.  On the title page, edge to edge, across both pages, we are still in the woods but now we see a mother bear sleeping with a cub, as another wakes up.

Rendered in sepia marker and colored pencils, K. G. Campbell's illustrations are spirited, brimming with humor and an enchanted extension of the story.  Each is set amid liberal amounts of white space; his artwork is so detailed, so delicate, it's like the white is gently holding each picture. The visuals in turn flow around and become one with the text.  The looks on the faces of Cub, the little girl and her cat will have readers roaring with laughter.  I adore both the two page spreads in the little girl's bedroom as she implements her rules.  When she's carrying Cub and her cat back outside to the tea party setting, I'm grinning, grinning big and wide.

Tea Party Rules written by Ame Dyckman with illustrations by K. G. Campbell, is one of the best tea parties you will ever have the pleasure of attending.  It's impossible not to fall in love with the characters.  Wouldn't it be fun to plan a tea party with your students having them bring in their stuffed animal friends, dressing up to fit the occasion?  You could make up your own tea party rules.

To learn more about the author and illustrator follow the links to their websites embedded in their names above.  Ame has been interviewed at The Little Crooked Cottage, The Styling Librarian, and by Nicole Y. Walters.  The most exciting thing is happening below!

Today...yes today....Ame is sharing with the world her brand new book trailer for Tea Party Rules.  It's short, sweet and full of laughter and love, just like she is.






I am thrilled and thankful she agreed to answer some questions below.  Enjoy.

AME:  Thanks so much for having me on Librarian’s Quest, Margie!  I’m very excited to be here!  And—(YES, Cub!)  Cub is visiting today, and he’s very excited, too.

MARGIE:  I would like to know more about how you felt about the illustrations the first time you saw them.  What did you like best about them?  Did you and K.G. talk at all before you saw them?

AME:  Seeing K.G.’s illustrations for the first time was a RIOT!  K.G.’s a GENIUS with facial expressions—there’s so much humor in them!  I love all the little jokes he added, too—the bubble bath bottle, the artwork in the girl’s room, etc.—and I still crack up EVERY time I see Cub in that frilly pink dress.  (Sorry, Cub!  But I’m sure you can laugh about it by now, no?  Oh.  Moving right along…)  Sadly, K.G.’s far, far away on the other side of the country, so we didn’t really talk before first sketches except for an e-mailed “Hey, K.G.!  I bet you’re gonna ROCK it!”  And he did!  But I hope the two of us can hang out sometime soon.  OW!  (Why did you poke me, Cub?  Oh.)  Make that the THREE of us!

MARGIE:  I think the forest of birch trees adds to the lightness and fun of your narrative.

ME:  AFFIRMA—I mean, AGREED, Margie!  Kids enjoy looking for the hidden animals in the end pages.  I THINK I’ve found all of them!

MARGIE:  Did you and Husband Guy make the trailer?  It's the perfect amount of text and pictures to get people to read the book.

ME:  We did!  We cleared a few extra nights in our schedule by having cookies and tea for dinner, and—uh-oh.  (I was just kidding, Cub!  OF COURSE we didn’t eat cookies without you!)

AME:  Thanks again, Margie!  Cub can’t wait to try your chocolate chip cookie recipe!  (NO, Cub!  Those are MY car keys!)  Looks like I gotta go!  Happy reading, everybody!

This is my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  I clipped it from the Traverse City Record Eagle more than fifteen, probably twenty, years ago.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar (I use raw with a little of the white)
2 eggs at room temperature (brown, cage-free, organic)
1 package (3 oz.) cook and serve vanilla pudding (not instant)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use two)
Zest of one orange, reserving the juice
1 cup dried cherries
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (unbleached)(I add 1/4 cup more to make the cookies less flat.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 package (12 oz.) chocolate chip morsels (Ghirardelli)

Grate orange and chop zest finely. Squeeze orange and pour juice over dried cherries. Simmer until cherries are soft, or you can microwave them for 1 minute.  (I never do this.)  Drain cherries; set aside.  Combine flour and baking soda.  Mix butter, orange zest, sugars, eggs, pudding mix and vanilla together until creamy.  Gradually add flour/soda mixture.  Combine fully then fold in cherries and chocolate morsels.  Let dough rest in the refrigerator for one full hour. (This is important.) Place large teaspoons full of dough on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 375 degree oven for 15 minutes.  (Watch the time though depending on the humidity and your oven. It might take fewer minutes.)

All For Love...

Within days of Superstorm Sandy striking the Atlantic coast on October 29, 2012, in what has gone down in the history books as the lowest barometric reading ever recorded for an Atlantic storm making landfall north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, super author Kate Messner put into action an enormous relief effort, Kid-Lit Cares.  She gathered in authors, illustrators, agents and editors, all part of the children's literature community, to create an online talent auction.  In the first round of the auction 41 people offered their very best.

An article about the auction quickly appeared in the School Library Journal on November 2, 2012. For the second round super author, Joanne Levy headed up the organization of another 81 auction possibilities.   Follow up articles were posted in Publishers Weekly on November 15, 2012 and December 4, 2012.  All total more than $60,000. was donated to the American Red Cross as a result of Kid-Lit Cares.

Word spread like wildfire on Twitter about Kid-Lit Cares.  Bidding was fast, furious and tricky.  What these people were offering to the highest bidder was nothing short of amazing.  When I saw #11, Skype Visit with Author Ame Dyckman,  listed in the second round I was determined to win.  This past summer I had read and reviewed her debut title, Boy + Bot, loving this delightful story of friendship.  The winning bid included:  a signed copy of Boy + Bot, a classroom Skype visit, Boy + Bot swag for the students and the students could choose what color Ame's hair would be on the day of the Skype.

The good news is I won!  The even better news arrived when I received my first email from Ame Dyckman.  I had also won a signed copy of Boy + Bot for myself.

The swag included bookmarks and stickers for the entire student body; plus bracelets for the Skype class.  It still gets better.  Ame signed a copy of her book for each of the four first grade classrooms, autographed with the teachers' names,  Mrs. Carey, Mrs. Mailloux, Mrs. Sterrett and Mrs. Wood.  Her graciousness continued when she did a separate Skype visit with each of them.

Over the course of several email exchanges plus about twenty DM messages on Twitter we finally had our four dates: February 21st, 22nd, 26th and 28th.  Thankfully we are in the same time zone. (I tend to have trouble with time zones.)  We were all so excited to see Ame with blue hair; the top vote of the students. (When I say blue hair, I mean electric blue.)

During those four Skype visits I have never been happier to see students so actively engaged with an author; their excitement was only exceeded by her sheer joy and enthusiasm.  From the second the connection was made until the final goodbyes were spoken, Ame Dyckman filled the room with conversation and information about her work and herself.  No question went unanswered.

Students discovered and learned:

• how many books she has written
• the titles of her new books
• how many books Dan Yaccarino, her illustrator for Boy + Bot, has illustrated
• how long it took her to write Boy + Bot
• how many revisions were done on Boy + Bot
• why she choose a robot to be boy's friend
• who Alaric is on the dedication page
• her daughter's name and age
• her favorite cereal
• her favorite toy
• what some of her robots look like
• her cats' names plus seeing them on screen
• the inside scoop on Willie and XL
• how she carries her works in progress in her pocket 
• where she writes
• her favorite picture books and 
• how important reading and writing are to her; encouraging the students to do both.

Ame read Boy + Bot to the students giving it her own special voice and emphasis drawing attention to those part she wanted them to notice in the writing and illustrations.  As she read she would pause, inviting comments from the students.  She spoke about how Boy and Bot were different on the outside but cared for one another the same on the inside.  

When I've returned to the classes since the Skype visits the students' beam when speaking about meeting Ame Dyckman; wanting to chat with her again.  After the first Skype the word was out about Ame; the principal and several parents appeared at the second and subsequent Skypes.  When someone as extraordinary as Ame Dyckman shares their time with you, it's the very best kind of day.

We all feel so very fortunate to have been able to have this delightful lady come into our classrooms.  There is never a dull or unhappy moment in her presence.  We all thank her from the bottom (and top and everything in between) of our hearts.


Please follow some or all of the embedded links to learn more about all these awesome authors and illustrators and the Kid-Lit Cares benefit.

Performance Criteria Rated High...Affirmative

Back in 2001 I discovered a poster by Rick Ruggles titled Love is where you find it...  From that time forward I have tried to slow down to notice heart shapes appearing everywhere, especially when Xena and I take our walks; discovering those special stones on the beach is like finding a priceless possession.  But sometimes you don't find the heart, the love, unexpectedly, it finds you.

First time author, Ame Dyckman, teams with illustrator, Dan Yaccarino, to bring readers, Boy + Bot (Alfred A. Knopf), an endearing story of a normal day turned extraordinary.  Remarkable use of text and visuals, make this book a stunning example of the beauty to be found in simplicity.  You never know what a day spent gathering will reveal.

A boy was collecting pinecones in his wagon when he met a robot.

Can you imagine the wonder of having a big red robot appear behind you ?  Trusting in spirit, quick to see a potential playmate, the boy asks him to play.  The robot's reply is, of course, in the affirmative.

Finding fun in the great outdoors, their adventures are cut short when a rock and the robot meet.  With no power supply, to the boy, the robot is in need of help; believing him to be ill. Packing him up in his wagon they set off for the boy's home.

Doing what he knows should make the silent Bot better, the two finally settle in for the night.  Peeping in to check on Boy, his parents, not knowing Bot is behind the door, trigger his switch to on.  Now it's Bot's turn to deduce that Boy, sleeping soundly, is malfunctioning.

Carrying Boy back to his home Bot is likewise seeking to fix the problem.  In the nick of time the Inventor steps in, startles Boy into wakefulness and makes an important phone call.  The two fast friends make plans for the next day to play and...they do so with great joy.

Ame Dyckman has discovered a very special place were readers' affections wish to reside.  Her narrative guides us down the beloved path of finding friendship with those unlike ourselves; of caring despite differences.  With clarity, using short sentences, Dyckman depicts in both Boy and Bot the characteristics found in best buddies.

On watercolor paper with gouache Dan Yaccarino fashions illustrations from a primary color palette with added greens and purples; bold and radiant, eliciting a smile from readers.  Endpapers picture both the Boy's and Bot's typical "toys".  The title page begins the story with Boy pulling his red wagon past an evergreen with Bot peering from behind.

Freckles sprinkled across Boy's nose and cheeks, smiles playing about Boy's and Bot's mouths, bright-eyed admiration, the one for the other, and a one-eyed light bulb figure walking about on legs in Bot's home, are little extra details readers will notice and appreciate.  Yaccarino has chosen to vary his image sizes; double page, single page or several on one page all framed by the appearance of a casual brush stroke.  But the way he depicts Dyckman's final sentence,

And the friends did.

is masterful; over the final three pages a series of images clearly showing the cementing of a bond not to be broken.

Boy + Bot written by Ame Dyckman with illustrations by Dan Yaccarino is a clever story where caring + sharing = friendship.  When readers' hearts are warmed and laughter tugs at the corners of their mouths, a book will be read again and again; shared with as many as possible.  This is one of those books, a timeless classic.