Thanksgiving is coming up, and every time I go into a store, my eyes feast on shelves stacked with heaps of my favorite fall treats--pumpkin and apple pies, stuffing mixes, fresh baked bread, and egg nog. Yes, food is on my mind. Maybe that's why Sam Stern caught my eye when I was putting together the November/December issue of Writing.

   Although he’s only 14, Sam Stern may be well on his way to becoming the next Iron Chef! The British teenager is the author of Cooking Up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook .   

   "I wrote this book for kids like me who enjoy cooking or who want to learn to cook. It’s full of simple tasty recipes—the kinds of things that my friends and I like to eat,” writes Sam in the introduction to the book. It features well-written recipes that range from blueberry and apricot muffins and chocolate mousse to sweet potato fries, party pizza slices, and chili con carne.

With chapters such as “When Friends Stop By,” “Impress a Crowd,” and “Exam Survival,” this book is sure to please the eye, the mind, and the stomach!

Read an interview with Sam Stern and then, click here to download his favorite guacamole recipe (courtesy of Candlewick Press). Maybe you can whip up this guacamole for your family this holiday season.

Then, post your favorite recipe in the comments section below. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

When I was in high school, my relatives bought a new house not far from ours. As they were moving in, my uncle commented on the house's previous owners. "They didn't have books. There wasn't a book in the house," he said to me. "Can you imagine a house without books?" He was aghast. He was a professor at a top university and he had written quite a few books himself.

But I was taken aback. "Maybe they used the library," I said in defense of the unknown previous owners. "We don't have any books in our house," I pointed out. My parents were not readers. At our house, we got the daily newspaper and the Reader's Digest. That was it. But my mother had diligently taken me to the library from the moment I could read. For me, a trip to the library was as wonderful as a trip to the toy store. More so, really. At the toy store, I would gaze longingly at the glittering displays but usually leave with only one small token. At the library, I knew I would go home with my arms full of treasure.

My uncle mumbled something like, "Oh, well, yes, the library..."

I was confused. I had never thought of books as being things to own. Why would you want to buy books when you could read them for free from the library? I figured my uncle was being a snob. After all, he was wealthier than my parents were. My dad was a cop. He didn't read books, but he always said he was going to write one about all the nutty people he'd encountered during his career. (He never did write that book, and he's gone now. But that's another story. I'll tell it another time.)

Over the years, I began visiting bookstores and buying books when I could afford to. I began to understand the concept of books as beloved objects. I loved the heft of them in my hands, the covers, the bindings, the stories. Today, I own shelves and piles of books. In the attic of our house, I have boxes of them, including boxes of my children's books from when they were little. Some books, I pick up time and again. Others just sit there gathering dust. Honestly, I don't need all these books. And yes, I do still love the library.

But I can't imagine a house without books. To me, they make a house a home as much as pots and pans, family photos, pillows, and teapots do. Well, I must be off. I'm going to the bookstore. I need another book.

The following story is an interpretation of the 1,000 Words image in the October, 2006 issue of Writing Magazine.

A Forest Under The Floor
Story by Veronica Brown, Grade 6 

      "Come on Sara!"  Yelled Alli. "If you don't hurry up and come, I will go to the park without you! ... Sara!" Alli ran into the living room only to find her sister's favorite fantasy book, her sister's journal, grape juice, a shovel, and a hole in the floor surrounded by broken floorboards. Alli peered in the hole. She saw a forest. It was about 5 feet tall and looked as if it went on forever. "Sara! Sara!" Alli called. Alli ran to the garage and grabbed a long piece of rope and hurried back to the living room. She tied one end of the rope to a chair and the other end to her waist. After taking a deep breath Alli jumped into the forest. Alli searched the greenery for Sara. "Sara!" Alli's voice quivered even though she was the older sister. 
       "Alli!" The whisper came out of nowhere.
       "Sara? Is that you?" whispered Alli. 
       "Shh! Come look at this!" Sara shined the flashlight at a glimmer of bronze in what appeared to be an enormous web. "It's a dragon!" mouthed Sara. Alli scoffed but upon further inspection, she realized it looked exactly like a dragon. "We have to save it, Alli! We have to bring him home!"
       "Yeah, we'll bring home a dragon and walk him around on a leash!" scoffed Alli.
       "Please!" Sara begged. Alli realized she had clearly lost this argument. 
       "Fine! Just hurry up! When you grab him grab onto me so I can reel us up." Sara leaned into the web and grabbed the dragon and then Alli. As Alli began to walk towards the hole a 3 foot long and 2 foot tall spider began running towards them.
       "AAAAAHHH" both girls yelled. They ran and ran and finally climbed out of the hole. They quickly boarded it up. Sara promptly made a bed for the dragon in her room. Sara and the dragon nodded off to sleep.
       Alli couldn't sleep. Something in the forest was moaning. After listening to the moans for several hours, Alli got out of bed and tip-toed into the living room. Alli yanked up the floorboards and peeked into the forest. There sat a dragon. It looked identical to the one Sara had saved except larger.
       "Hello." whispered Alli. The dragon sniffed and looked up. "Was that your baby we saved?"  The dragon gave Alli a meaningful look that Alli interpreted as a yes. "Hold on." Alli said. She ran into Sara's bedroom, being careful not to wake her. She rushed back to the hole and lowered in the dragon. "Good luck" said Alli. Alli carefully sealed up the floor and walked back to her room. She would need rest if she was going to explain to Sara what happened tomorrow morning.

We just received a poem from a student in Texas. The poem reads:

In the October issue of Writing, we invited you to submit questions for Jack Gantos, author of the young-adult memoir Hole in My Life and the recently published Love Curse of the Rumbaughs. Congratulations to the students at Sacred Heart School in Dearborn, Michigan. We selected three of their questions to pass on to Jack Gantos. Here are his answers!

Katrina Greathouse, grade 7: What are some things you do while getting ready for writing a book?

Jack Gantos: When I get ready to write a book I try to find about 10 books to read that I think will be helpful—perhaps they are full of characters I find inspiring, or a setting I find engaging, or themes or problems that I find fascinating and will help me think through my story.
    Then I make sure to get a new notebook.
    I usually find a new ink color I like for my favorite fountain pen.
    I set writing goals--so I can feel some progress on the project.
    I make sure I do a lot of physical exercise so I feel prepared to sit all day long.
    And then I allow nothing to stop me--especially my own excuses to do something other than write.

Danielle Barum, grade 7: I'm trying to write a story. But every time I make a character, it's one that is already made. How do you make a character? 

Jack Gantos: How do I make a character? Generally I just start writing without any goal in mind and allow the character to generate from the accumulated words that gather on the page. Or, I draw loosely and conjure up a character from the drawing. Or, I pay close attention to people I find interesting as I walk down the city streets, or in libraries, or at the mall, or in grocery stores. I find restaurants are a very good place to find characters because people are very honestly themselves when they are hungry.

Kayla Roszkowski, grade 8: How do you come up with ideas for your books? Do you base them off your everyday life experiences?
Jack Gantos: A lot of my books are based on personal experiences. Since I keep a journal and write in it every day--even a sentence or two will do per day--I manage to discover something interesting that takes place each day. I'm sure it will for you, too. But the secret is to keep a daily journal and always ask yourself, "What is the most interesting thing I saw or did today?" Then write the answer down.