One Hundred Spaghetti Strings
Page 18
Finally, I am grateful to all of the chefs from the extended Nails and Lanza families for every hot meal that you put on the table after an exhausting day in the steel mill, on the farm, in the coal mine, on the football field, in the classroom, and in the home rearing children.
And reader, one hundred thank-yous to you, for picking up this book. I hope that the next meal you share with your family or friends is full of love.
About the Author
Photo by Tobin Herringshaw
JEN NAILS lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she was born and raised. Since she was eight, she’s been writing everything from plays to stories to diaries to pretend menus. The first thing that she ever cooked on her own was pancakes when she was nine, and she burned them. When she became a mom, she started trying to make homemade pasta for her family. A few years later, when her gnocchi skills really started to cleesh (to come together), she began writing this book. She still makes pasta nearly every weekend, just like her dad did when she was growing up. Visit her online at www.jennails.com.
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Early Praise for One Hundred Spaghetti Strings:
“One Hundred Spaghetti Strings is so poignant and full of life and heartache, wishing and dreaming, pain and exuberance. Bravo! Steffy’s voice is honest and clear, young and yet deeply tuned in; she is a real girl, right here and now, a girl readers will want to befriend.”
—Amy Hest, author of the New York Times bestselling Kiss Good Night
“One Hundred Spaghetti Strings is 100 percent satisfying. I’ve just turned the last page, and I want to start right over. I loved Steffy’s tale of her imperfect family members and all her efforts to turn them into a perfectly blended concoction. Her relatives might be unmanageable, but they’re the ideal ingredients for a good story.”
—Julie Sternberg, bestselling author of Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie
“To read One Hundred Spaghetti Strings is to laugh, sometimes cry, and always root for this middle school cook as she rewrites the recipe for family. It’s a fun, funny, smart, sometimes sad, so-true, can’t-put-it-down story about the power of love, forgiveness, and hope in cooking . . . and in life.”
—Cathleen Davitt Bell, author of the acclaimed middle grade novel Little Blog on the Prairie
“Steffy made me want to cook a big bowl of pasta and sit down for dinner with my loved ones.”
—Suzanne LaFleur, author of Love, Aubrey and Eight Keys
“When life gets complicated, Steffy Sandolini heads for the kitchen. Cooking has always been her safe haven (not surprising for a girl whose first words were “wire whisk”), and with a mom left brain damaged after a car accident and an absentee dad who may or may not have the skills to take care of her and her sister, Steffy is sorely in need of sanctuary. As the plucky fifth grader cooks her way through an emotional roller coaster of a year, she begins to come to terms with the messy ‘kitchen sink’ of a meal that is family. This joyous, heartfelt, and achingly real novel is as satisfying as a plate of Steffy’s homemade gnocchi.”
—Heather Vogel Frederick, author of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series
Credits
Cover art by Michelle Taormina
Copyright
When cooking, it is important to keep safety in mind. Children should always ask permission from an adult before cooking and should be supervised by an adult in the kitchen at all times. The publisher and author disclaim any liability from any injury that might result from the use, proper or improper, of the recipes contained in this book.
ONE HUNDRED SPAGHETTI STRINGS. Copyright © 2017 by Jen Nails. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
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ISBN 978-0-06-242760-1 (trade bdg.)
EPub Edition © March 2017 ISBN 9780062427625
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FIRST EDITION
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