Ben And Me

Round two! As promised, here is the second installment of the book club saga.

For this week's book club I chose the classic tale by Robert Lawson, Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by his Good Mouse Amos. Amazon describes it as such:

In A New and Astonishing Life Of Benjamin Franklin As Written by His Good Mouse AMOS, young readers will discover that while the good Mr. Franklin got considerable credit, many of his most important contributions really originated with Amos, a less-than-humble rodent. Oh sure, his manuscript was found by author-editor Robert Lawson and published first in 1939, but discerning readers ever since have figured that it's the mouse who's the fellow with the ... tale.

Cute. Anyway, the book is full of silly events (loosely based in history) that involved Ben Franklin and his mouse. Last night, I cracked up at the way my third graders pronounced "Amos." I guess none of them ever met anyone named that? They kept saying "A-Mouse" until I finally lost it and cracked up. They didn't quite see the humor. (Amos is a mouse, okay?!?)

Disney made an animated short of it, back in 1953, which can be viewed here (and then get the second half here). It's pretty entertaining.

For this book group snack, I chose to do something Franklin inspired, rather than more mice cookies. I made lightning bolts. (Which I might add would be a fun snack for a Lightning Thief movie opening party!) But let me just say, the next time I make sugar cookies, I will ALWAYS make sure I have a cookie cutter. Flying solo just doesn't work out right. I basically used a knife to cut these out, then after they baked and got all plump and rounded, I had to cut them up again. Yes, mathematicians, that would equal TWICE the amount of work. I was inspired by this. Hers turned out better. Regardless, here is a picture. Of course, they were promptly eaten up, so I know they at least tasted good.

On a side note, I never knew until just recently that you could pipe the frosting first around the edges (then wait about 10-15 min.) and then fill in with the same color. I was so much happier with the clean lines it made. Hooray for online tutorials! Frosting sugar cookies will never be the same for me. I have "upgraded."