Kids always ask me, “Where do you get your ideas?” It’s hard to explain sometimes. I try to keep my eyes and ears and heart open to anything that might come along and suggest an idea for a story to me. This week I discovered a wonderful pothole in my street. Wonderful and pothole do not normally go together in the same sentence. But see for yourself. This is the same pothole before and after a rainstorm. Whether or not I end up using this image in a story some day or not I’m still glad I saw it. The world is a wonderful place, isn’t it?
Have you read Peter Reynold’s wonderful book, THE DOT? 
Well, Terry Shay, an amazing educator in Iowa and founder of International Dot Day, has started a new site called “Celebri-DOTS”. He’s asked some authors, illustrators, and other celebrities to create dots and sign them so they can be placed on the site: http://celebridots.blogspot.com.
Check out my contribution! You know me, any excuse to bake a pie…
International Dot Day is a celebration of creativity around the globe that grows bigger every year. Over 17,000 students and 1,000 adults created their own dots on or around International Dot Day http://www.fablevisionlearning.com/dotday last year.
So join the fun and get your dot on!!!!! –SW
Have you considered starting a Mother/Daughter bookclub? Looking for a great book to read together? These girls chose PIE for their club read in Santa Barbara CA.
FYI Scholastic is in the process of creating a Mother/Daughter bookclub program. I think they’re even going to be offering a prize of a free SKYPE visit with one of the authors! I’m not sure when this program will be starting, but you can probably go to the Scholastic website and find out. Here’s what one of the mom’s in Santa Barbara had to say:
“We had a great discussion that brought up some silly moments of what they would name their own pie store, to some more serious ones about if they’d be willing to forego a salary in exchange for doing something they truly loved to do and how to deal with the loss of a loved one. These 8 & 9 year olds constantly amaze me with their insights and ideas.”
It’s been a very busy spring. I spent two amazing weeks visiting schools in Illinois and Iowa. I love the midwest!!!! Here are some of my favorite memories….
Look! A cake with my picture on it! An Iowa mom made this for me.
What do you do if you have an hour to kill in Cedar Falls? Go bowling, of course!
I’m always happy to see artwork on the wall when I visit a school. Check out Mrs. McNosh hanging her hubby on the clothesline and the wall of pies!
Pies, pies everywhere. If you haven’t read PIE yet, you might enjoy it. It’s part mystery, part love story (love of PIES that is!). Some people have called it “wholesome” and most who read it seem to feel inspired to bake pies. There are 14 recipes included in the book. I’ve tried them all, of course and can vouch for the fact that they are pretty easy to make and VERY tasty. This young baker from Highland Park made the chocolate cream pie. It’s an old family recipe contributed by my good friend and fellow author, Pam Munoz Ryan. Yum!
This morning I am catching up on some fan mail that collected while I was in the midwest doing author visits. Among the envelopes was a packet of letters from a school in Shelton, CT. I can’t remember the last time I received such thoughtful responses from a class of fourth graders. Ms. Pollack, the teacher also wrote me a letter and I must admit that it brought tears to my eyes. Her class didn’t just read one of my novels –they read all of them! Pie and So B. It and As Simple as it Seems and Jumping the Scratch. WOW. Talk about a thorough author study! I wish I could share all of their wonderful letters here, but a photo will have to suffice. Thank you Ms. Pollack’s fourth graders for totally making my day. You’ll be receiving a little something from me in the mail soon too!
Glenolden Elementary School in Glenolden, PA held their 4th annual “One Book One School” program in February and guess what book they featured? PIE! Hooray! Each participating family received a cardboard pie box containing a copy of the book and suggestions for fun PIE related activities to do together. There was also a pie baking contest. The winners received…BLUEBERRY AWARDS! Afterwards I was able to SKYPE with some of the students to answer questions about the book and hear about the PIE party. Ms. Smedile, the school librarian was kind enough to send along a few photos. Check out the wonderful decorated classroom door. Love that Lardo!
After reading PIE aloud in class, Mrs. Deets’ 5th graders from North Wales Elementary School in North Wales, Pennsylvania decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a pie party. How cool is that? Using recipes from the book they made seven pies –lemon chess, cherry, peanut butter raspberry, apple, key lime, and two chocolate cream pies. The chocolate cream and peanut butter raspberry were the class favorites.
If anyone else out there feels inspired to try a little pie baking, make sure to send me photographs and you can join Mrs. Deets’ bakers here on the pie wall of fame.
MEET THE BAKERS!
Dear Friends:
I’ve been getting a lot of letters from my readers asking why I didn’t include Aunt Polly’s secret pie-crust recipe in the book, PIE. The truth is… I was afraid to! People are VERY particular about the kind of piecrust they like. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone by including a recipe that wouldn’t live up to their expectations. So I decided to let my readers imagine Polly’s piecrust exactly the way they would want it to taste. I must also gently point out that PIE is a work of fiction, which means that Aunt Polly and her piecrust are also fictional. But the letters keep pouring in so I’ve decided to start collecting non-fiction pie-crust recipes, and posting them here. If you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share with the world, please send it to me at authorweeks@aol.com.
Happy baking,
Sarah
From Michele Stuart, of Michele’s Pies in Westport, CT. **
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
¾ plus 2 TBS Crisco, cold
5 TBS ice-cold water
½ cup heavy cream*
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Add the Crisco to the flour mixture. Either with a pastry blender or with your fingertips, mix the ingredients together with an up-and-down chopping motion until the dough forms course, pea-size crumbs. Note: I prefer the old-fashioned finger option, but take care not to overhandle the dough, because it will become difficult to work with –when dough is overhandled, the Crisco becomes too incorporated. In the perfect pie, the Crisco will have a marbleized look, and you will actually be able to see Crisco swirls within the uncooked dough.
Add the ice cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, delicately incorporating each tablespoon into the flour mixture before you add the next. You may have to use 1 more or 1 less tablespoon of water than the amount recommended, depending upon the humidity in your kitchen at the time of baking. You will know you have added just the right amount of water when the dough forms a ball that easily holds together.
Wrap the ball of dough with plastic and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.
*( If you are using a top crust and want it to be nice and golden brown, Michele suggests that you brush it with heavy cream before baking.)
(**I had the pleasure of doing a presentation with Michele at the Westport Library recently. She really knows her pie! Check out her website: http://www.michelespies.com and for more great recipes and a detailed description of how to roll out a piecrust look for her book: PERFECT PIES published by Ballantine Books.)
Want to try something fun? Try making somet mini pies in jars. Learn about it here: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/09/single-serving-pie-in-a-jar/
How happy I was to receive this bundle of wonderful letters and cards from some of the students at Greenwich Academy! I spent two days in October visiting with grades K through 4, talking about my books and doing writing workshops. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, and it made me very happy to hear that the students had enjoyed themselves too. MANY THANKS to Leesa Singleton who arranged my visit and Kerri and Andrea for making sure all the books were there to be signed. I look forward to visiting with the GA middle schoolers soon! 
I’ve never been to Hawaii myself, but I feel like I got a little taste of it in the mail today when I received these BEAUTIFUL letters from some very talented 4th grade students at Alvah A. Scott Elementary School in Aiea, Hawaii. 
They were writing to tell me that they had read and enjoyed Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash in their English Language Learning Class.
I am sure that Mrs. McNosh is just as thrilled as I am to know that she and her giant squash are helping kids learn English in Hawaii. Now if we can just convince Ms. Brogle and her students to invite us to come to Hawaii to meet them in person we’ll be all set. Just kidding! Well, not really! Just say the word and we’ll pack our suntan lotion and flip flops and hop on the next plane. Thanks for making my day!
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