construction materials, instructions, and emergency duct tape

Contents to build the gingerbread house included the cookie walls and roof, a gingerbread man, powdered sugar, and packages of assorted candy. Unfortunately, some of the cookies became cracked and crumbled during shipping, which made assembly much more precarious. A good portion of frosting included was utilized as a glue agent. Despite a few hiccups in the process, Marisa and Ariel powered through, piecing the cookies together one section at a time. The roof even sports two classy skylights . . . after a slight mix-up in what was supposed to be the roof and walls.

As they pressed the final piece together, the girls held their breath and backed up. When the walls showed no signs of buckling, they  shared a sigh of relief and a high-five. The structure survived, and was ready for a night of setting in the refrigerator.

The next day, Marisa and another intern, Meredith set out to complete the design of the gingerbread house. Ariel had already provided some intricate piping techniques on the door by writing “Horn Book” the day before.

Ariel adds some Horn Book flair to the house’s front

Marisa and Meredith placed gumdrops, M&Ms, powdered sugar snow drifts, peppermint patties, Tootsie Rolls, and other candy decorations around and on the house.

And now, equipped with the essential gingerbread house, The Horn Book office is ready to ring in a sweet holiday season!

The post The Horn Book’s sweet holidays appeared first on The Horn Book.

With a label like this,

clearly the contents were going to be awesome. But they were awesome even beyond our expectations:

Thanks so much, Dina and Disney-Hyperion! The cookies are almost too cute to eat, but we’re all looking forward to a Pigeon-themed afternoon sugar high.

For more Pigeon madness, see our reviews of The Duckling Gets a Cookie?! and Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App!

The post The Horn Book gets a cookie! appeared first on The Horn Book.

In the box (and now Out of the Box) we found individually wrapped goodies like chocolate covered pretzels and blobs made of popcorn, caramel, and other stuff my dentist would hate. There were just enough to go around our small office but we weren’t sure what was inside some of them. Luckily, small labels on the back made it all clear.

Here’s a close-up of the description for that ambiguous candy on the left:

This reminds me of the pitfalls of using a thesaurus to help write book reviews. I don’t know about you, but if I’m not careful it can lead me down a slippery slope to purple prose. I can’t be sure that’s what happened here — it might just be a translation issue — but I picture someone at Sweet Jubilee Gourmet getting tired of the word “coated” and deciding to kick it up a notch the only way a writer can.

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