The Andersen Library Blog

Discurso del Oso
por Julio Cortázar; ilustraciones por Emilio Urberuaga
E Cor
New Arrivals Island, 2nd floor

While Cortázar’s Discurso del oso (Bear’s speech) is presented as a children’s picture book, the story was originally written for the children of a friend, and later published in his Historia de cronopios y famas.  In Cortázar form – surreal, imaginative, absurd – the sounds and thumps the human inhabitants hear in the walls of their apartment building are not faulty pipes or noisy neighbors, but the bear, traveling through the pipes, and observing the humans and their curious behaviors. The reader can listen along to the story read by the author himself:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/XZBy8GhmUW8[/youtube]

New arrivals to the Curriculum Collection now include an increased number of Spanish language titles. These will be shelved alongside Curriculum Collection Easy, Fiction, and Nonfiction titles, and be quickly identified by the Spanish/Español spine label: 

Titles can also be browsed in Research@UWW by typing the phrase “Spanish language” and then using the location limiter for Curriculum Collection Easy, Fiction, and Nonfiction.

Pinterest users may watch for new titles as we pin them to our Spanish Language Children’s Books board.

Do you have a favorite children’s book in a language other than English? We invite your recommendations! Please use our online suggestion form.

How the cookie crumbled: The true (and not-so-true) stories of the invention of the chocolate chip cookie
by Gilbert Ford
E For
Curriculum collection, Easy books, 2nd floor

I’d heard the origin story – perhaps you have too – of how some baker had forgotten the vital ingredient, the baking chocolate, in her chocolate cookie recipe. She broke up a Nestle chocolate bar and hoped the chocolate pieces would melt while baking. They didn’t, and the chocolate chip cookie was born.

Well, turns out there are plenty of variants on that story, and like most stories, the truth is a bit different, as is explained in a minor authorial intrusion in the middle of the story. I won’t ruin the surprise for you, but suffice to say that the real story of baker and restaurant entrepreneur Ruth Wakefield’s invention – and its amazingly fast adoption as America’s classic cookie – is more interesting than the fantasy ones. The various other stories are probably more of a creative invention by Nestle than anything else. Within a few years after the recipe’s creation, Nestle was carrying the “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie” recipe on every bag of its chocolate chips – a product they specially designed to match her recipe.

The bright and cheery illustrations (and a sprinkling of food puns throughout the text) make this book fun to read for adults and kids alike. And Ruth’s original recipe at the back makes me want to go make that simplest and best of home recipes. Mmmm!