My mom and I read Maggie Mae, Detective Extraordinaire: The Case of the Missing Cookies by Margo Dill. It was a fun book to read and my mom bought a copy for my school so my friends can read it. The pictures went great with the words! It was a good story with a surprise ending and I like stories about cookies. I hope Margo Dill shares her snicker doodle cookie recipe so I can make them. I want my friends to read Maggie Mae, Detective Extraordinaire: The Case of the Missing Cookies.
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Mae-Detective-Extraordinaire-Missing/dp/1616335262
Official Book Summary: Maggie Mae, detective extraordinaire, is on the case of who stole her grandma's super-duper snickerdoodles. With her detective's badge and notebook, she finds clues, interviews suspects, and sets a trap. Who did it--Grandpa, her brother Ben, or Toby the dog? Finally, she reveals the culprits and saves the cookies. Suggested age range for readers: 4-8
Interview by Andre Nicholas Casavant-Otto
Andre: I like the name Maggie Mae; where did it come from?
Margo: This is based on a true story of something that happened to my grandma when I was a little girl. I didn't want to use my name, so I came up with a name that sounded like mine and that was fun to read. I like that both names start with M.
Andre: I like the M too! Are you going to write more books?
Margo: I am! Thanks for asking. I hope to write another Maggie Mae book, and I have one picture book about a boy or girl (I can't decide which--what do you think?) who gets some money and wants to buy toys right away. But he/she already has so many toys that they can barely fit in his/her room. So, what should he do with this money? It's a fun book but also one that I think a lot of kids can understand.
Andre: I like to save my money in my piggy bank.
Do you have kids? Did they help write Maggie Mae?
Margo: I have two kids. My daughter is almost 4 years old at the end of October and she is going to be Elsa from Frozen for Halloween! My stepson Logan is 13 and in 8th grade. He is almost taller than me! He loves soccer and video games. They don't love to help me write--that's Mom's job.
Andre: Thank you Margo!
More about Margo Dill
Margo L. Dill is a children's author, freelance editor, and workshop leader, living in St. Louis, MO.
She has three books: Maggie Mae, Detective Extraordinaire: The Case of the Missing Cookies (ages 3 to 8), Finding My Place: One Girl's Strength in Vicksburg (ages 9 to 12), and Caught Between Two Curses (14 and up). She also teaches writing classes for WOW!, St. Charles School District Adult Education, and UMSL's Write Stuff program. You can find out more at http://margodill.com/blog/ .
Snickerdoodle Recipe
Margo wasn’t able to share her snickerdoodle recipe because she follows her mother’s recipe which is top secret, but here’s one Andre is going to be making VERY soon:
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup softened butter (salted is fine)
2 farm fresh eggs
2 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt (omit if you used salted butter)
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix 1 ½ cups sugar, butter, and eggs in a large bowl. Slowly add dry ingredients (flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt if applicable). Mix thoroughly but do not over mix. Shape dough into balls and set aside. In a small bowl mix ½ cup sugar and cinnamon. Roll the balls in the sugar/cinnamon mixture and place them approximately 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 minutes before removing from the oven. Let them cool on brown paper sack or cooling rack. Enjoy!
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| Photo Credit: Oh! Photography |
6 comments:
Andre--Great interview--wonderful questions. I am so glad you now have a snickerdoodle recipe. (They are delicious, and some of my favorites.)
Crystal--Shame on your for slacking off and making your kids do your work. ;)
Margo--I am going to have to head your way sometime or meet you somewhere or should I just click onto Amazon...so I can buy your book? Let me know.
(And by the way, the photo is Gor.Geous.)
Sioux,
Andre is over the moon and got up early to see how he looked as a famous person! He said hell autograph something of you'd like!
LOL
Hugs,
-Crystal
Andre--I will wait until you publish your first book...which I imagine won't be too far into the future.
Keep writing.
Margo--I just had a brilliant/lame idea. If you do a book event which would make this appealing, here it is: Get a big jar and put all the dry ingredients of your secret recipe into it. Type up directions for baking, along with the measurements for butter, eggs, etc. This could be a give-away. That way, you could be sharing the secret--a little--but not giving it away.
Okay. It's early and my brain is fried from working on report cards, which I'm trying to avoid, so I had better get back to them...
Sioux: THAT IS AN AMAZING IDEA. Thank you. I know the perfect place to do that--I will be at the library in O'Fallon MO on HWY K, Thursday November 13 5:30 to 7:30 and could do the cookie batch recipe then, maybe? BTW, can you come that night? I think you live up that way? I could get you books then.
Or I can send you a book or Amazon is great too. It always helps an author's ranking with Amazon sales, as long as you don't have to pay too much shipping and handling. It's up to you! You can always email me about this so we don't have to have a big discussion right here underneath the AWESOME ANDRE'S AMAZING review. I am over the moon with all of this.
THANK YOU TO THE OTTOS!
My email for anyone who wants to get in touch: Margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com
BTW, I am hoping your actual books come today, Andre and Crystal. Let me know. I sometimes worry about the snail mail.
One more thing, my photo is courtesy of Sharon Davis, a photographer near Springfield, MO, who took this head shot at a recent SCBWI conference. She does awesome work and is so sweet and wonderful!
This is a great book for kids to read. They can learn and build their self's from this. Thanks for sharing this. This is very informative.
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