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This summer I’m doing a little learning of my own. I’m using Lisa Garrigues’s book Writing Motherhood: Tapping Into Your Creativity as a Mother and a Writer to get out of the writing slump I’ve been suffering from this past couple of months. (Check out the MotherTalk Blog Tour for Writing Motherhood for reviews.) Lisa’s ideas are so inspriring that I’ve decided to take some of her concepts about keeping a writing notebook (what she calls a "Mother’s Notebook") and do something similar here at A Readable Feast.

Do you have a child who loves to write? Or maybe you think they need to keep up their writing skills over the summer? Come join us on our summer writing journey!

Besides my usual postings about books, cooking, and activities, I’ll be giving you a weekly writing prompt from books like Once Upon a Time: Creative Writing Fun for Kids, Kids Write!: Fantasy & Sci Fi, Mystery, Autobiography, Adventure & More!, Letter Writer Starter Set (Reader’s Digest) and more. But first, let’s gather our writing tools and have some fun creating our writing notebook.

Note to parents: I’m calling this a notebook rather than a journal because it is to be shared activity between parent and child. Not only will the notebook help with writing skills, I hope it will help you learn more about your child and bring you closer together. However, if you have a son or daughter who prefers to keep their writing private, encourage them to keep a personal diary as well as having a public notebook.

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I’ve been given the chance to do an email interview with Silvana Nardone, the editor of Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine. Silvana is a mother of a nine-year old and a one-year-old. And she would love to discuss great kid-friendly recipes and how cooking with your kids can be a wonderful bonding experience.

Are you a fan of Rachel Ray and her magazine or show? Or just need some kid feeding and cooking advice? Either way, send me a question or two for Silvana, and I’ll pass it on to her. Then I feature both your question and her response (and credit you!) when I post the interview.

Interested? Then email your question, name (the way you’d like it to appear in public) and website link (if you have one) to readablefeast@gmail.com by Monday, June 4.

When I saw these mini book cupcakes from FamilyFun.com, I thought they would be a perfect way to kick off your summer reading program (or bribe reward your reluctant reader).

Mini Book Cupcakes
Watch a step-by-step video demonstration of this recipe!

Ingredients:

1. Your favorite cupcake recipe or premade mix
2. White frosting
3. Black gel
4. Fig Newton
5. Small Hershey bar square or Candy Blox
6. Green fruit leather for the leaf
7. Red candy Runts for the apple

Directions:

1. Make the cupcakes and let cool.
2. Spread a layer of white frosting on the cooled cupcakes.
3. Use black gel frosting to decorate a Fig Newton to resemble a schoolbook and place it on top of the cupcake.
4. 2 For a calculator, add gel icing buttons to the smooth side of a small Hershey bar square or Candy Blox. (You can even add an extra piece of candy for the calculator’s display screen.)
5. Finally, use a drop of water to stick a green fruit leather leaf to a red candy Runts apple, and set it in place on the cupcake.
6. Enjoy!

(These would make great bake sale goodies, too!)

Don’t know where to get summer reading ideas? Check out this list by About.com’s Elizabeth Kennedy. (And while you’re at it, sign up for her e-newsletter. She’ll keep you up to date on the latest in children’s books.)

Get a Clue @ Your Library Reading List - The American Library Association’s 2007 summer reading program theme is "Get a Clue @ Your Library." This is the theme my local library is using this summer.

HAISLN 2007 Recommended Reading Lists - Eight booklists are available in pdf format: Preschool through Kindergarten, Grades 1 & 2, Grades 3 & 4, Grade 5, Grade 6, Grade 7 & 8, Grades 9 & 10, Grades 11 & 12.

National Endowment for the Humanities: Summer Favorites - The booklist represents NEH’s effort to highlight classic literature for young people from kindergarten through high school.

2007 Notable Children’s Books - This annotated 2007 booklist from the American Library Association includes the current Newbery, Caldecott, Sibert, Geisel, and Batchelder Award and Honor books.

2007 Summer Reading List from the Dana Hall School - This 21-page summer reading list includes required and recommended reading lists from the school’s English, science, and social studies departments.

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I hope you have gone over to Mom is Teaching and signed up to win The Fairy Chronicles books (see my post about it below). In the meanwhile, let’s discuss fairies.

First, if you have a daughter, granddaughter or niece who’s really into the whole fairy thing, check out Usborne Books fairy offerings. There’s everything to fairy cooking and craft books to fairy tales. One favorite of Lucie’s has been the That’s Not My Fairy board book.

But now that she’s getting older, she’s really been enjoying Usborne’s sticker doll books. She already has Sticker Dolly Dressing Dolls and I plan to get her Sticker Dolly Dressing Fairies soon. The books feature removable stickers and are great to bring to a restaurant, on a car trip, or anywhere else your daughter needs to be quietly entertained.

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(Warning: the books are "roll your eyes" super girly to the point of making a feminist leaning mom wonder if they could show a few doctors and police women getting dressed for work, too. Sigh. And how about some sticker doll dressing pirates and knights for boys?)

But did you know that in the U.K. they call cupcakes fairy cakes? I love that! Here are some sample British fairy cake recipes:

• The perfect fairy cake recipe from iVillage UK (with six different flavors of toppings)
• A ‘Fairy’ Easy Fairy Cake Recipe from Becks & Posh
• Nigella’s Fairy Cake recipe