"Taffy and her friends' plan to build the perfect sandcastle is interrupted when Rollo the beach ball is blown away by an errant breeze"--

"Taffy and her friends' plan to build the perfect sandcastle is interrupted when Rollo the beach ball is blown away by an errant breeze"--

Creater of Nick's popular series Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, Michael Paraskevas heads to the seashore to introduce a happy-go-lucky heroine who is determined to build the perfect palace of sand. Taffy's pluck is evident as she and her friends make due with a spot on the crowded beach, but when Rollo, the cheery beach ball, is carried off in the style of Mary Poppins, via umbrella, Taffy must hurry to rescue him. Fortunately, Bob the inflatable sea serpent is in Taffy's bag, and soon he is tearing down the beach, in hot pursuit. Michael Paraskevas has been a bouyant and cheery presence in the picture book market for over twenty years, and Taffy's bright colors, beautiful seascapes, and colorful characters are sure to please parents and children alike.

Life, Faith, and Saltwater Taffy combines a playful beach theme and scriptural foundation to bring fresh perspective to vital topics: living in community with others, balancing self-care with service, navigating the inevitable storms of life, and growing in relationship with God. Readers are welcomed as unique and beloved creations and invited to consider what they would carry for a day by the shore, in order to embrace what is life-giving and set down unnecessary burdens. The book culminates with a look at lighthouses and an exploration of how each individual can provide a clear lens for shining God's light brightly into the world. With its conversational tone and relatable anecdotes, you just may close this book feeling as though you have been sitting by the water, having a heart-to-heart with an encouraging friend. Each chapter includes a thought-provoking quote and a prayer. A Diving Deeper section follows, with suggestions for reflection, gratitude, further reading, and action. Designed for personal reading or group study, Life, Faith, and Saltwater Taffy also makes a wonderful gift.

A sweet tooth is a powerful thing. Babies everywhere seem to smile when tasting sweetness for the first time, a trait inherited, perhaps, from our ancestors who foraged for sweet foods that were generally safer to eat than their bitter counterparts. But the "science of sweet" is only the beginning of a fascinating story, because it is not basic human need or simple biological impulse that prompts us to decorate elaborate wedding cakes, scoop ice cream into a cone, or drop sugar cubes into coffee. These are matters of culture and aesthetics, of history and society, and we might ask many other questions. Why do sweets feature so prominently in children's literature? When was sugar called a spice? And how did chocolate evolve from an ancient drink to a modern candy bar? The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets explores these questions and more through the collective knowledge of 265 expert contributors, from food historians to chemists, restaurateurs to cookbook writers, neuroscientists to pastry chefs. The Companion takes readers around the globe and throughout time, affording glimpses deep into the brain as well as stratospheric flights into the world of sugar-crafted fantasies. More than just a compendium of pastries, candies, ices, preserves, and confections, this reference work reveals how the human proclivity for sweet has brought richness to our language, our art, and, of course, our gastronomy. In nearly 600 entries, beginning with "à la mode" and ending with the Italian trifle known as "zuppa inglese," the Companion traces sugar's journey from a rare luxury to a ubiquitous commodity. In between, readers will learn about numerous sweeteners (as well-known as agave nectar and as obscure as castoreum, or beaver extract), the evolution of the dessert course, the production of chocolate, and the neurological, psychological, and cultural responses to sweetness. The Companion also delves into the darker side of sugar, from its ties to colonialism and slavery to its addictive qualities. Celebrating sugar while acknowledging its complex history, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets is the definitive guide to one of humankind's greatest sources of pleasure. Like kids in a candy shop, fans of sugar (and aren't we all?) will enjoy perusing the wondrous variety to be found in this volume.

Food Bites is an easy-to-read, often humorous book on the scientific basis of the foods we eat, and answers those pesky, niggling questions such as: Is the quality of beer really affected by the type of water used? and Processed foods: good or bad? Readers will be captivated by this superbly written book, especially so as their guides are Professor Richard Hartel, professor of Food Engineering at UW-Madison, along with his daughter, AnnaKate Hartel. Professor Hartel has for the last four years penned a witty and illuminating column on all aspects of food science for the Capital Times of Madison, and his weekly wisdom has now been collected into a single publication. With a huge and growing interest in the science of food, this treasure trove of knowledge and practical information, in 60 bite-sized chunks, is sure to be a bestseller.