Meet Mick, Mack, and Molly, the lovable squirrel children, in Kazuo Iwamura’s children’s series from NorthSouth books. Each book celebrates the joy and wonder of a different season. The squirrels enjoy a day of family fun outside in Hooray for Snow! Springtime finds Mick, Mack, and Molly scampering from one blossoming branch to another, in search of food for a baby bird. Hooray for Summer!, newly released just this month, is about the squirrel children making friends while seeking refuge from a storm. In Hooray for Fall!, Mama’s hand-knit red sweaters call attention to how the natural world is changing colors in preparation for winter.

The text is sweet and simple, letting Iwamura’s stunning illustrations take center stage. These books would make a great gift set. Children will look forward to the change of seasons and the coming of a new Mick, Mack, and Molly story.

Did you hear us? Amy and I did our first on-air book review today on Jeremy and Holly Spencer’s new show, “The Local Gourmet,” which airs on WDKN 1260. Jeremy and Holly are the owners of House Blend, the coffee shop right next door to us. If you heard the show and want the recipe Jeremy and Holly discussed, you can find it on their blog.

The books we highlighted in our segment were all cookbooks that feature ingredients that are common to the everyday garden:

The All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook
by Mel Bartholomew

The perfect companion to Bartholomew’s The All New Square Foot Gardening, our bestselling gardening book, and its “chocolate box” approach to your garden. As Amy mentioned, the Zucchini Parmesan Pancakes on page 144 look simply amazing.

Tomatoes Garlic Basil
by Doug Oster

Recipes and tips for growing three of the most versatile vegetables. With a section for each plant, Oster covers planting basics, common ailments and pests, and ingredient-specific recipes.

Cooking from the Garden: Best Recipes from Kitchen Gardener
edited by Ruth Lively

A beautiful book packed with mouth-watering, straight-from-the-garden meals. Also has tips and tricks, such as the proper way to peel a tomato (page 179).

Be sure to tune into “The Local Gourmet” every 1st and 3rd Saturday at 1pm on Dickson’s own WDKN to hear great recipes and food-related book reviews.

First there was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, then Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Later this month, Quirk Classics will release a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies called Dawn of the Dreadfuls, which will give the backstory of the zombie plague and how Elizabeth Bennett became a “savage slayer of the undead.” In June, Quirk will depart from Jane Austen with the publication of Android Karenina.

Now other publishers are venturing into the arena of mash-up lit. Del Rey will release Little Women and Werewolves in May. We are expecting Grand Central Publishing’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Seth Grahame-Smith, to arrive tomorrow. Below is a graphic book trailer featuring honest Abe, a vampire, and an axe. (Don’t watch it if you’re squeamish!)