No candles on the cake for this birthday celebration! Oh no! We’re going to have yummy bowls of soup…CHOWDER, that is!

I’M IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK! It’s written by one of my favorite authors (and critique buddies) Anna Crowley Redding, published by Islandport Press and illustrated by Vita Lane. I remember seeing this story when it was just a rough draft…that’s always such a thrill to see a manuscript become a real book!

Here’s a little snippet from Amazon to give you an idea of what the book is about:

Maine lawmaker Cleveland Sleeper loved steamy, creamy, dreamy clam chowder. Thoughts of tomatoes in his chowder made him see red. So he proposed a bill to make it a crime to add tomatoes to clam chowder. New Yorkers were offended! A war of words raged, until finally a duel of chefs settled the matter once and for all. The story behind the great chowder cook-off of 1939 is told by author Anna Redding with gusto, humor, and, of course, good taste.

And we are sooooo lucky because Anna found time in her busy (very busy – she has a Zoom book launch tonight that I hope everyone will attend – here is the link you’ll need to register: https://www.printbookstore.com/event/redding1020 Registration is free and easy-peasy!) schedule to stop by and and chat with us.

ME: Anna, welcome to Picture Books Help Kids Soar! I know you don’t have much time, but could you tell us something funny about the path to publication for this book?

ANNA:
One of things that cracks me up about this book is what happens when I talk about it to other people. Usually when you mention you write books, people want to know what it’s like, what the process is, etc. As soon as I mention CHOWDER RULES! is a story about whether tomatoes should be legal in clam chowder? They tell me in the most passionate of terms where they stand on tomato vs. no tomato! I love it. This book strikes an intense culinary nerve which is also why I wanted to write about Cleveland Sleeper and his attempt to save Clam Chowder from becoming vegetable soup! 

ME: That’s awesome, Anna. And you know what? I just might have to make some clam chowder tonight! But will I use tomatoes? Or no tomatoes? That’s up in the air…but what I’m sure about is that I’ll be attending your Zoom launch later today at 6:30pm Eastern time. We’ll let you go now…and we’ll see you later tonight.

ANNA: Thanks so much, Vivian! And I hope everyone pops into the Zoom launch tonight. It’s hard not having onsite bookstore events, but the awesome thing about the Zoom launches is that people can attend from ALL OVER THE WORLD. See you all later!

I hope everyone will register for the launch…both Anna and the illustrator will be there, chatting about the book…and perhaps the process of creating it. I always learn something at these author/illustrator discussions. This one will be at 6:30pm tonight – Tuesday, October 13.

Here is the link for the Zoom launch registration:  https://www.printbookstore.com/event/redding1020

And here’s a SNEAK PEEK illustration that Anna sent me:

I hope you all have a lovely week…remember the best way we can tell our favorite authors that we love their books is to:

Buy them if we can, review them, tell friends about them, and ask our local library to purchase them for their collection.