The story is that parents meddle too much with the first kid, causing pretty much fruitless heartbreak. The others we tend to leave to their own devices, equal parts lack of attention and lack of courage. By the time my third child, Hart, was born, the other two were six and nine. They’d graduated from Winnie the Pooh movies and the Berenstein Bears, and were gleefully into R.L. Stine, “Young Frankenstein,” and “Abbott and Costello Meet The Killer.” Unsurprisingly, young Hart grew up fearless, and ghost stories were at the top of the heap of favorite books.

The Georgie books by Robert Bright, for instance, were huge. My mom read these stories to me and I can’t tell you how much pleasure I felt, rediscovering the Whittaker’s attic. The first book was published in 1944, but don’t miss these just because they’re old.







A recent title that also scores high on the cute meter (although, to be fair, it’s the story that keeps Georgie haunting the bookshelves, not the adorableness) is Frankie Stein by Lola Schaefer, illustrated by Kevan Atteberry (Marshall Cavendish). It’s a rip-off of the Munsters and their “horrible” normal child, but there’s a reason that story worked as well. Here mom and dad try to scare some scariness into their beautiful blond boy. Little kids will like this for the roll-playing and the reversal at the end.







If you want something a little scarier, actually plenty scarier as far as the illustrations go, try Witches’ Night Before Halloween by Lesley Bannatyne, illustrated by Adrian Tans (Pelican). Kindergarten through second graders should be able to handle this however, simply because of the use of the well-known happy tune. The text is good for vocabulary-building, with ghoul, rheumy, snaggle, and hovel punctuating the pages of the headless and shrieking.









Moving in a slightly different direction, although staying in the season, try Uncle Monarch and the Day of the Dead by Judy Goldman, illustrated by René King Moreno (Boyds Mill). The simple but rich illustrations will be a nice change from the foregoing visual mayhem, and the story explains a holiday that honors the dead, instead of one that thumbs its nose at death.

A couple of weekends ago, Traverse City hosted what’s become the largest cookbook event in the US. Essentially, it’s a food and wine festival. Chefs and sommeliers come from all over the country to cook and teach; guests come from as far away as Phoenix and Southern California to learn and sample.


Flower arrangements waiting to be placed on tables.

But what the two founders, Mark Dressler and Matt Sutherland (Mark is also Director of Education for BEA), discovered during the five years they’ve been running the event is that chefs can’t really get away from their jobs – unless it’s their job. And promoting a cookbook is their job, whether they own a restaurant or freelance.



Raghavan Iyer, IACP Teacher of the Year and author of 660 Curries: The Gateway to Indian Cooking.

Consequently, most of the chefs and wine experts who participate in the Epicurean Classic have books recently published, and more and more often, they have books published the same month as the event. The Epicurean Classic has become the premier launching point for chefs with new books. So what began as a food and wine festival has become an Eat, Drink, and Read party.



About 100 books per author are ordered from the publishers for the event. Guests attend the demonstrations, then come down to the main lobby to purchase the chef’s book and get it signed.


Antonio Curti, author, chef and co-founder of Trattoria Grappolo, Santa Ynez, CA.

I say that, but really, the bookstore was crowded from 8 o’clock in the morning until 8 o’clock at night. (Some people don’t care about signings. Some people spend an hour perusing the materials, even taking notes, until they settle on the perfect book.)



And we did, actually, have a “perfect” book this year. It’s called Small Plates, Perfect Wines: Creating Little Dishes with Big Flavors (Andrew McMeel), by Lori Lyn Narlock. It was a hotcake from the moment it hit the tables. With its photos on every page, well-explained recipes, and paperback price – not to mention, perhaps, the suggestion of “small” and “perfect.” Women in particular decided to take it home with them and I sold out a whole day before the show ended.



The Epicurean Classic is held annually in mid-September in Traverse City, Michigan. Traverse City is also the home of the National Cherry Festival and the Michael Moore Film Festival.