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Give ‘Em the Old Razzle-Dazzle

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If you’re going to write something, why not make it extra fancy, glowing, blinking, AND neon? I absolutely love anything that lights up, so I was thrilled to test drive the Crayola Widescreen Light Designer. It was fun!

This toy is intended for children ages 6+ and retails for about $18 on Amazon. We’ve tested Crayola products on the blog before (including an airbrush kit I was very skeptical about but it totally worked!). I have to say, Crayola never disappoints. Their products are solid, easy to use, and the colors are always vivid. This light designer was no exception.

Out of the box, the light designer is 18″ tall (the actual drawing screen is 9.5″ x 15″). There’s an easel stand built into the back, as well as some clever little holders for the six markers that come with the set (blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, and white). You can also see the holes that allow you to mount the light designer to a wall.

Load in a couple AA batteries, flip the on the power switch, press the light button on the front, and start drawing! The colors go on beautifully with a lot of vibrancy. You can also press the front button multiple times to change the light settings (blinking, fading in and out, etc.). Three small quibbles: 1) The blue marker came out of the box bone dry, so I was unable to use it; 2) You have to cycle through seven light settings to get back to the original solid glow one, which seemed a bit excessive; 3) Wiping the marker off the screen with a dry paper towel took a LOT of elbow grease. Definitely use a slightly damp paper towel when it’s time to erase.

Essentially, this is a white board you can use in a darkened room with neon colors and blinking lights. But the little kid me would have been SO excited to see my artwork and writing presented in this unusual dynamic way. It just makes your drawings and announcements all the more special.

And speaking of Crayola light designers and razzle-dazzle special announcements…

Everyone, this is CLEO! You met Katie’s rescue pup Finley in 2021, and now I’m delighted to introduce the newest member of my family. Cleo recently joined us from SAVE animal shelter. She is 7.5 years old, 18 pounds, and the undisputed Queen of the Household.

Long may she reign!

That’s a Big Twinkie (Pie)

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It’s time to head to Katie’s test kitchen to try a literary recipe! Previously, it was sunshine bread. Today, it’s a delicious helping of Twinkie Pie! Twinkie Pie hails from Kat Yeh’s middle grade novel The Truth About Twinkie Pie. It’s a sweet story about coming-of-age, sisterhood, secrets, and delicious desserts. Ever since my interview with Yeh, I have been yearning to try her novel’s signature dish, and it did not disappoint! Take it away Katie!

As a 1980s kid, it was a great day when my mother came home from the grocery store with a surprise box of Hostess sweets. Whether it was Twinkies, CupCakes or Ding Dongs, I can assure you that when the box was empty, there would predictably be a fight of “who ate what and how many” between my brothers and me.

When I saw the recipe for Twinkie Pie, I just KNEW it was something I needed to make and taste test. It gave me a great excuse to purchase a springform pan, which was something I had wanted for a while, and it also meant I could officially introduce my son to the magical and wonderful Twinkie.

What about the Twinkie? Mothering fail. My kid had never eaten one.

So while I was baking up the vanilla wafer cookie crust, I sent my son to the grocery store to pick up a couple necessary items for the pie, most importantly a box of Twinkies. After a 45-minute food aisle scavenger hunt, he sent me this hilarious text.

He did eventually track down the elusive Twinkies, though he didn’t say if it was because of the screenshot photo or by asking for assistance. Side note: Does anyone remember the great Twinkie crisis of 2012?

The pie is very easy to put together. After you cool the cookie crust, you essentially layer the different ingredients inside the springform pan. Once finished, I popped the pie into the refrigerator for a couple of hours to firm and then brought it to share with friends at an evening BBQ.

Twinkie Pie is a heavenly blend of flavors and despite all the sugary ingredients, it’s not overly sweet. The inside layer of bananas and outside circle of Twinkies add the perfect texture to the pudding and maraschino cherry whipped topping. Needless to say, it was very popular with the teenagers in attendance at the BBQ. One kid said, “This is the best pie I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

And this is from Dr. Dana’s 13 year-old: “The pie has some flavors that I wasn’t sure would mix well together, but I was surprised at how good everything tasted and found myself wanting more, especially the soft crust. 9/10!”

Surprisingly there was enough Twinkie Pie left over that I could bring slices into work to share with my library colleagues. Here is the opinion of Beth Kushner, who, being an awesome librarian, dropped in an additional literary reference:

“I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.”
~Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby

The slice of Twinkie pie was mainly creamy and delightful.
pros: that PINK CLOUD smelled and tasted wonderful… fluffy, ambrosial
cons: the slice of banana looked weird (I couldn’t identify it before tasting it); the crust was kinda hard (wish it were crispy or crunchy) — one hard element in an otherwise soft dessert.

For adults with kids who are eager helpers in the kitchen, there are great lessons to teach while creating the pie layers: crushing vanilla wafers, whisking pudding, blending cherries, beating heavy cream with a mixer, cutting bananas. Twinkie Pie is an excellent introduction to the art of baking, and the best part, it’s REALLY delicious!

Extra bonus! In preparing this post, we found this awesome YouTube video of Kat Yeh making Twinkie Pie with KidLit TV’s Rocco Staino. It’s definitely worth checking out!

A Pen By Any Other Name…?

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It seemed like such a good idea. In fact, it seemed like a GREAT idea. But alas, I tested the Westcott hot glue pen, and it was not to be!

When it comes to projects and paper engineering, we use quite a lot of hot glue here at Pop Goes the Page. In fact, during story time, Katie and I always run two hot glue stations, each with two glue guns at the ready. We use book carts, which are terrific as mobile glue stations – just the right height to work on, and wheeled if we need to move them out of the way quickly.

We use standard mini glue guns, but when I spotted the Wescott glue pen whilst shopping (retails for around $8), I wanted to give it a shot. Especially if it allowed a little more control when it comes to distributing glue. Sadly, it did not work. This one might end up on a blog fail list someday!

To give credit where credit is due, the glue pen heated up nicely and was easy to hold. The fatal flaw, however, was the loading mechanism. Ideally, you load the hot glue sticks in, slide the little tab (the instructions call it the “handle”) to the rear of the pen, plug it in, and once heated, it’s ready to use. As you compress the trigger button, the glue is supposed to distribute nicely as both dabs and a steady clean line.

Nope. When I pressed the trigger, the handle released down the entire length of the pen, causing it to snap down on my finger. The glue glopped out, and then just stopped. As you can see in the image below, I tried several time. It never worked. I even unlplugged it and tried again. Nooooope. A dozen times this thing snapped on my finger!

While this was a great product idea, the mechanism was unfortunately faulty. We’ll be sticking to our standard glue guns and the elusive hot glue pen will remain, for now, a mythical entity yet to be discovered.