October 2023: Which witch?

It was a big month: A couple of beautiful hikes, walk/bike/roll to school day, three(!) pajama storytimes at the library, back to school night, seeing some kidlit luminaries at the Carle, a visit from “baby friends,” a day trip back to Arlington, a birthday outing to Mike’s Maze, a first sleepover with friends, a lost tooth, and Halloween!

What we’ve read

The kiddo has been into the Geronimo Stilton Kingdom of Fantasy series, and re-reading Phoebe and Her Unicorn and the Mysterious Benedict Society novels. She also inhaled the first three Katie the Catsitter graphic novels. We both loved The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (the audiobook has three narrators). We shared the classic The Cricket in Times Square with a book club friend, reading a couple of chapters a night over the course of two weeks, and then read the prequel. Corey Tabor’s three Sir Ladybug early reader graphic novels are super cute and funny, and middle grade graphic novel Nell of Gumbling is sweet and magical. We also liked The Story of Gumluck the Wizard by Adam Rex, even though it has no raccoons.

We also enjoyed these picture books together:

• If I Was A Horse by Sophie Blackall
• Are You Awake? by Sophie Blackall (our new favorite – hilarious – bedtime book)
• Bedtime Monsters by Josh Schneider
• Oh, Olive! by Lian Cho
• Ogilvy by Deborah Underwood
• Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann
• Hungry Jim by Laurel Snyder

And I enjoyed:

• The Talk by Darrin Bell (adult memoir/graphic novel)
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (adult fantasy/haunted house/horror)
• Mexikid by Pablo Martin (middle grade graphic novel)
• Accountable by Dashka Slater (nonfiction)
• The Witch of Woodland by Laurel Snyder (middle grade fiction)
• The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day (nonfiction)
• Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable (middle grade graphic novel/horror?)
• The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo (middle grade, original fairy tale)
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamas O’Reilly (memoir, Irish)
• Search by Michelle Huneven (adult fiction, with recipes)
• Have Sword, Will Travel by Garth Nix (middle grade fantasy)
• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (adult memoir)

What we’ve made in the kitchen

Our fall CSA share ended at the end of October. I’m sad that we won’t see a decent tomato again until next summer, but we have plenty of root vegetables and kale. Here are a few things we made this month (Ben has taken over a lot of the cooking because I have less time at home):

• Bruschetta
• Shepherd’s Pie with gardein fake ground beef
• Mary Berry’s potato bread
• “Angry Grandma” pizza (Smitten Kitchen)
• Macaroni and cheese (Pioneer Woman-inspired recipe)
• Anytime bars
• Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies a.k.a. “most best” (Good to the Grain)
• Ginger molasses cookies
• Purple plum torte (Smitten Kitchen/NYT)
• Swirled jam cake (Snacking Cakes)
• Several other things, probably!