Sally Rightor Parks’s A is for Artichoke (Pasadena: Water Works, 2014) is a book of fifty-two paintings, two for each letter of the alphabet, one painting showing the letter in its upper- and lower-case forms, the other depicting a flower or fruit or vegetable whose name begins with that letter. A border of leaves or flowers (good for counting!) runs around each page. (One exception: for the mushroom, it’s caps and slices.) The paintings are rustic watercolors: delicately curled beet leaves, a luminous eggplant with its floppy hat, a forest of fennel, a brightly spotted zucchini. A quiet, witty touch: the red, white, and green of the pages for the jalapeño.
A is for Artichoke is a large and sturdy, 10″ x 12½″, perfect for use with a child or grandchild in one’s lap. The book is available from Vroman’s Bookstore in sunny Pasadena. And boy, is that bookstore fast.
Q: Can you guess what edible goes with the letter h ?
Saturday, March 14, 2015
A is for Artichoke
By
Michael Leddy
at
4:43 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)

haricot-verts? horseradish? honey? no, not a fruit or vegetable. Oh...a honeydew melon? Hawthorn apples? Huckleberries?
ReplyDeleteThat's all I can come up with.
You got it on the first try! I know about haricots verts, but I never would’ve guessed it.
ReplyDeleteI knew it wouldn't be horehound, but I really just want to say . . . horehound.
ReplyDeleteA sure way to make a group of young adults feel awkward: offer horehound candy. I’ve done it in classes during cold-and-flu season, and I don’t do it anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe correct answer for this blog is -- Hardines.
ReplyDeleteHa! A favorite of Al Jardine.
ReplyDeleteI wanted it to be Hashish.
ReplyDeleteMy dad loved Horehound, and it really is good during cold and flu season. Def tastes better than ZiCam, which is what I am taking right now....
Hashish!
ReplyDeleteEven better than horehound, I’d say: Bragg’s cider vinegar.