The Accidental Kidnapping

Girl, Stolen 
by April Henry
Henry Holt & Company (2010)
224 pages
ISBN:  0805090053
Grades 7-10

Seeing a Cadillac Escalade running with the keys in the ignition, Griffin impulsively hops in and drives away.  What he doesn't see is the teenage girl in the back seat under a blanket.  The girl, Cheyenne, has pneumonia and is waiting in the car for her stepmother to come back from the pharmacy with her prescription medicine.  Oh, and Cheyenne is blind.

When he realizes he hasn't simply stolen a car, Griffin doesn't know what to do, so he heads home to his abusive father and his two creepy cronies.  Author April Henry conceived the idea for this novel from a real-life story of a blind girl caught in a car jacking.  In the real story the carjacker lets the girl out, abandons the vehicle, and is never found.  In the fictional story, Cheyenne's carjacker is a teenage boy, and his father a petty criminal, who, upon learning that Cheyenne's father is the CEO of Nike, turns the carjacking into a kidnapping.

What Griffin realizes is that his father has no intention of letting Cheyenne go when he gets the ransom.  Griffin treats Cheyenne with kindness, but is not sure how, or if, he can ensure her ultimate survival.  Cheyenne doesn't know if she can trust Griffin, but either way she's not going to let herself be killed without a fight.  Cheyenne is a gutsy, smart survivalist, who is vastly underestimated by her kidnappers.  Even more enthralling than the plot is the relationship that develops between the two teenagers, and I found myself rooting not just for Cheyenne but for Griffin as well.



To order this book from Amazon, click on this link:  Girl, Stolen.

Chinese Cooking in the Year of the Dragon

Since posting my defense of chop suey last Chinese's New Year, I've been eating more Hunan and Szechuan Chinese food.  Oh, I still love Cantonese food and even made chow mein again for dinner a couple of nights ago.  (Remember the difference between chop suey and chow mein is the starch in the dish, chop suey being served over rice and chow mein over crunchy rice noodles).  But this past year I've sampled a lot of Chinese fried chicken dishes--and even one fried shrimp dish.  I've eaten general tso's chicken, empress chicken, orange chicken, and for Christmas a delicious orange fried shrimp.  (Chinese carryout has been an annual Christmas tradition for us for the last three or four years.  I love it--no cooking and no dishes.)

My favorite local Chinese restaurant, China Dynasty, is about a mile from my home.  Though it's been there since 1999 and I'd even eaten there for lunch once, I've only just discovered how good it is.  But, alas, as much as I like eating there, it's just not in the budget to do so very often.  So I learned how to make orange chicken at home.  The recipe I follow is adapted from America's Test Kitchen.  It's not a difficult recipe, but it's labor intensive for about half an hour.  It's worth the effort:  The results are as good as any takeout meal.  Serve the chicken over brown or sticky rice with a side of broccoli.  Incidentally, I think this might work very well with shrimp, too, something I'm going to try very soon.

Orange Chicken (Four servings)

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts (cut into nuggets)

Marinade and sauce
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp. Penzeys orange peel*
6 Tbsp. distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp. Penzeys minced garlic*
1 Tbps. fresh grated ginger
1/4 tsp. Penzeys black and red pepper*
1 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. cold water

Coating and frying oil
3 large egg whites
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. Penzeys black and red pepper*
peanut oil

Put the chicken nuggets into a gallon-size ziplock bag and set aside.  In a saucepan combine the broth, juice, peel, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and 1/4 tsp. pepper.  Whisk until the brown sugar is completely dissolved.  Pour 3/4 cup of this sauce over the chicken in the bag and make sure that all the pieces are covered in the marinade; press out the air and seal.  Refrigerate for half an hour to an hour, but no longer.

Bring the remaining sauce to a boil over high heat.  In a small bowl whisk together 1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. cornstarch and the cold water; whisk this into the sauce.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and translucent, about one minute.  Set aside.

In a pie plate beat the egg whites with a fork until frothy.  In another pie plate mix together the cup of cornstarch, the baking soda, and 1/4 tsp. pepper.  Place half the nuggets into the egg whites, turning to coat, then thoroughly coat with the cornstarch mixture.  Place the dredged chicken nuggets on a plate, and repeat the process with the second half of the nuggets.

Pour 1/2 inch of peanut oil into an 11-12" frying pan. Heat until a drop of water sizzles in the oil.  Add half of the nuggets.  Fry until golden, turning each nugget with tongs once halfway through the cooking.  Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in a 200-degree oven.  Add more oil to the pan if needed and let it get hot again.  Repeat with the rest of the chicken nuggets.

Reheat the sauce over medium heat until simmering, about two minutes.  Add the chicken and gently toss to evenly coat.  Serve pronto.

* I love Penzeys spices, as you no doubt can tell.  If you prefer, you can substitute 1/12 tsp. grated fresh orange zest, 3 garlic cloves, minced, and 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper for the orange peel, minced garlic, and black and red pepper.  If you can't find a Penzeys store locally, but would like to try their spices, click here to order online.

The Blood of the Children

The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963
by Christopher Paul Curtis
Laurel Leaf (2000)
224 pages
ISBN:  044022800X

Christopher Paul Richard's 1995 debut novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 garnered both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor.  A funny, poignant portrait of the Watson family of Flint, Michigan, the novel opens with the Weird Watsons, as they are known in the neighborhood, huddled under a blanket on the couch to keep warm.  Momma, who is from the warm state of Alabama, glares at Dad, as he is the one who moved her to Michigan, a state she loathingly calls "a giant icebox."

The story's narrator, ten-year-old Kenny, does extremely well in school and tries to please his parents, but his older brother Byron, "officially a teenage juvenile delinquent," is a rebellious boy who taunts his younger brother.  Little sister Joey tries desperately, if unsuccessfully, to keep the peace.  After a series of misdeeds, his "latest fantastic adventures" as Byron calls them, Momma and Dad decide Byron must spend the summer with his strict grandmother down in Birmingham.  The whole family piles into the Brown Bomber, a 1948 dull brown Plymouth, and drives south to Momma's hometown heading straight for one of the darkest, most shocking days in America's history.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 mixes the fictional story of the Watsons with real life events, making for a gripping introduction to one of the most devastating events of the Civil Rights Movement.  Of this tragic event, Martin Luther King, Jr. said that sometimes life is "as hard as crucible steel."

Incidentally, Christopher Paul Richard's second book, Bud, Not Buddy, received both the 2000 Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award.  If you enjoy Christopher Paul Richard's books, you might also like The Rock and the River and One Crazy Summer.






To order this book from Amazon, click on The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.

That-Girl-A-Thon

That Girl (1966-1971)
Created by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff
Starring Marlo Thomas and Ted Bessell

I rang in the new year watching a That Girl Marathon on Me TV.  Like Family Affair and The Mod Squad, That Girl is a show I haven't seen since the sixties.  (It was another of the television shows my eight-year-old boyfriend and I played.  When we weren't Linc and Julie, we were Donald Hollinger and Ann Marie.)  I hadn't expected the show to be as good as I remembered it to be when I started watching it at the age of seven, but actually it's held up a lot better than most sitcoms of that time.  In fact, it's really quite good.

Created by the same guys who brought us The Dick Van Dyke Show--no wonder it's so good--That Girl, a precursor to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, is a cutting-edge television program about a young actress struggling to make it on her own in New York City.  Incidentally, Jerry Paris (The Dick Van Dyke Show's Jerry Helper) directed the pilot and even appeared in it as a television director.

To support her acting career, Ann Marie works at various menial jobs:  waitress, Santa's helper, clerk at Macy's and the candy counter in a building lobby--where she meets Donald--and even Donald's temporary secretary at Newsview magazine, all the while dressed fabulously in her mod, colorful clothing.  She's beautiful, but she's no bimbo.   She's smart, and she takes no crap from the boyfriend.  She's also wacky, a little clumsy, struggling to make ends meet, basically leading an imperfect life.

Watching the That-Girl-A-Thon, I was surprised by how much of the show I remembered.  Like the episode in which Ann Marie wants to change her name to Ann Brewster, much to the anger of her father, Lou Marie.  And the episode in which Ann takes Donald home to meet the parents.  Along the way they stop for a picnic, where Donald steps on a bee, has an allergic reaction to horseradish, and loses one of his contacts.  But because Ann can't drive a stick, half-blind Donald must drive.  With Ann navigating, Donald drives off the road and get stuck in some mud.  Trying to push the car out of the mud, Donald gets drenched in the gooey stuff.  Meanwhile, back in Brewster, Ann's parents (Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp) are worried, and Lou, her father, is convinced that Donald is a bum.  When Ann and Donald finally make it to her parents' home, Donald's appearance convinces Lou that he was right:  Donald is a bum.





To order That Girl DVDs from Amazon, click on one of these links:
That Girl - Season One
That Girl - Season Two
That Girl: Season Three
That Girl Season Four
That Girl: Season Five

Summer of Butter Pecan Ice Cream and the Brooklyn Dodgers

Penny from Heaven
by Jennifer L. Holm
A Yearling Book
2007
288 pages
ISBN:  0375836896

It's the summer of 1953 and eleven-year-old Penny, so nicknamed because her father loved Bing Crosby's song "Pennies from Heaven," thinks Heaven is full of butter pecan ice cream, swimming pools, and baseball games.  But Penny's summer's not much like Heaven:  She's never been to a baseball game, and she's not allowed to swim in public pools because she might catch polio.  Penny's father died when she was a baby; she lives in New Jersey with her mother and grandparents.  Me-me, a terrible cook, takes care of Penny when her mother is at work; Pop-pop is obsessed with WWII and has radio conversations with the beloved nephew who died in battle; and her mother has started dating the milkman.  The milkman!

Penny spends a lot of time with her father's large Italian family, none of who ever speak of the War.  Her uncles shower their fatherless niece with gifts all the time.  Her best friend, cousin Frankie, is often jealous of the attention Penny receives, and her mother worries about Penny spending so much time with her prankish cousin.  But then her mother doesn't like Penny spending so much time with any of her Italian family:  In fact, the two sides of her family don't even speak to one another.  Penny's paternal grandmother Nonny loves cooking huge meals for her family, but harbors great sadness.  Her favorite uncle Dominic, consumed by his own sorrow and guilt, wears bedroom slippers and lives in his car.  At one time he was slated to play baseball for Penny's favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, but something happened and Dominic gave up baseball completely and now works in his brother Ralphie's store.  Nobody, not even Uncle Dominic, will tell her how her father died.

Penny from Heaven, an engaging portrait of one Italian-American family in the mid-twentieth century, tackles an overlooked segment of our nation's history:  the treatment of Italian Americans during World War II.




To purchase this book from Amazon, click on Penny from Heaven.

To purchase the Bing Crosby CD, click on Pennies From Heaven.

What Child Is This?

The most moving story in all of Western Civilization is that of the lowly birth of the Christ child.

"Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)  To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.  And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.  And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."



Following are sixteen of the loveliest Christmas carols inspired by this beautiful tale:

1. Angels We Have Heard on High
2. Away in a Manger
3. Do You Hear What I Hear?
4. The First Noel
5. Go Tell It on a Mountain
6. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
7. Good Christian Men, Rejoice
8. Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing
9. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
10. Joy to the World
11. O Come, All Ye Faithful
12. O Holy Night
13. O Little Town of Bethlehem
14. Silent Night
15. We Three Kings
16. What Child Is This?

Post a comment and tell us your favorite Christmas carol.  It doesn't have to be on this list.  Click here for my ten favorites of 2010 and here to read about the first day of winter.

Christmas Is All Around

Love Actually (2003)
Written and directed by Richard Curtis
Starring Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Laura Linney and Martine McCutheon
Cameos by Rowan Atkinson and Billy Bob Thornton

Love Actually was written by my favorite romantic-comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis whose other credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones' Diary, The Boat That Rocked, Mr. Bean, and Black Adder.   Set in London in the five-week period leading up to Christmas, Love Actually focuses on nine interlocking stories of all kinds of love--unrequited, fulfilled, illicit, lost, and platonic.

Jilted Jamie is a writer holed up in a rustic house in the south of France who falls for his Portuguese housekeeper.  David, newly elected Prime Minister, is enchanted by one of his housekeepers.  Mark is in love with his best friend's wife.  Widower Daniel helps his step-son deal with his first love.  Karen suspects her husband is about to engage in an affair with his secretary.  Colin, fed up with "stuck up" British girls, flies to Wisconsin where he's sure American girls will love him for his "cute British accent."  Sarah, an American abroad, is smitten with a colleague.  And Jack and Judy get acquainted while filming a porn movie.  Meanwhile, aging pop star Billy Mack is attempting the impossible:  a number one Christmas hit.

Rated R for language and nudity, Love Actually is actually a heartwarming fun Christmas movie with a fabulous ensemble cast and a terrific soundtrack.  So good is the music I couldn't choose only one video to accompany this post.  Or maybe it's just because, like Karen (Emma Thompson), I love Joni Mitchell, and "true love lasts a lifetime."  Incidentally, for another good Christmas movie, click on One Magic Christmas to read my review from last December.





Here are the Amazon links:
Love Actually (Widescreen Edition)

Love Actually (Blu-ray)

Love Actually Original Soundtrack