THE FIFTY GIFTS

What’s the best gift you ever got? The worst? This book is a celebration of some gifts I’ve received over my lifetime; the ones I’ve kept and the ones I haven’t. Most importantly The Fifty Gifts explores the real meaning I found in receiving those gifts. In honor of my upcoming 50th birthday, this collection of personal essays encourages the reader to dig deeper and be truly “present” with the presents in their lives.

Justin’s Cupcakes

The town of Butterville is famous for one kind of cupcake–vanilla with pink frosting. They’ve even won a prize for baking so many of them! Justin is an innovative young baker who is bored with all of that sameness, and he decides to try some radically different recipes. Will he be able to convince the citizens of Butterville to try something new? Justin and his brave friend Ruby work together to prove that in cupcakes and people–it’s the inside that counts!

Lani’s Wings

Lani is a little girl who loves birds. In fact, she loves them so much she wants to be one! Her supportive Papa helps her create a bird costume for a school project about ornithology, and the reactions she receives help Lani learn to love herself–wings and all!

Garden Dance

Rattle a gourd if you get bored.

Splash up mud with your boots.

Shout “Hidey Ho!” Watch eggplant grow

When rain and sun are in cahoots.

This picture book is a celebration of both music and dinner as it portrays a variety of garden vegetables dancing. 19 different vegetables are mentioned — not only those as common as corn or green beans, but also fiddle ferns and bok choy make their musical debut. Playful rhymes offer a child-friendly guide to veggie identification as well as cheerful characters for the imagination.

 With the return of farm-to-table cooking in homes and the goal for children (and parents) to know  the origin of their food, Garden Dance sheds a happy, playful light on vegetables and gardening, and it offers one more way for parents to bring healthy food into the minds and onto the plates of their children.