I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: LUNCH MONEY-“Ate too Much of My Favorite Food” (2009).

Surely everyone has experienced this horrible feeling–you love some kind of food so much that you eat too much and get sick.  My example was peanut butter Rice Krispie treats, an invention that I assume was my mothers.  They were sooooo good.  But I have never eaten them since that day (over 30 years ago.  In fairness, no one has offered them to me either).

So this is a fun song–opening with snapped fingers and a solo female voice before the horn fueled simple melody comes in.  I enjoyed the way the “ba ba ba” section turned into baba ghanoush.

There’s a shout-out section about the foods that did you right and wrong.  My only quibble with the song is that the foods that they list are really strange–foods that no one thinks of as their favorite foods–zucchini??, creamed spinach??.  Even gummy bears?  Where’s the heavy foods that kids actually overeat?

Lunch Money has another song called “I Love My Library” that I may have to check out.  This one came on the Kids Corner 25th Anniversary CD.

[READ: October 25, 2013] Goofballs #3: Superhero Silliness

This book introduced me to a word that I evidently should have known for some time: derder.  A derder is the cardboard roll inside of toilet paper or paper towels.  You put your lips up to it and go “der der der” and it’s a musical instrument.  Seriously.

But what does that have to do with Superheroes?  Well, in this case, plenty.

The kids are on line at Pizza Palace, the site of their very first mystery (which we never saw).  Luigi, the owner, had named a pizza after them for their brave deeds–cheese, garlic, pineapple and peanut butter.  And now it was one year after that deed and he was adding a new mystery topping.  Everyone was waiting to see what it would be when a lino pulled up to the line and called the Goofballs over.  It is Randall Crandall’s driver and he says that Randall Crandall needs their help.

Randall has the world’s largest collection of derders and he is afraid that someone is planning to steal it.  He is having a superhero costume party and he fears that the thief will try to steal them during the party. Will the Goofballs come dressed in original superhero costumes and catch the thief?

Will they ever!

The Goofballs set about coming up with some original superheroes.  Brian, the kid with the weird ideas, decides to be Tommy Papers.  Tommy Papers scribbles notes on papers and throws them on the floor–bad guys will feel compelled to pick them up and read them and will then be easy to catch!); Mara whips together a fantastic array of clothes and emerges as Blazey Blazington; Kelly makes a costume out of aluminum foil and emerges as InvisiGirl (this was by far my favorite costume and I loved the way it actually worked in the story!); And Jeff wears some suspenders to create his triangles of power!

The thief proves to be The Dutchman, a sneaky person who seems to know everything about Randall and his derders.  But how can the Goofballs defeat an enemy who knows so much?

As with the other Goofballs books, the kids enjoyed this one quite a lot.  And I have to say that each one is getting better in the series.