The Apron Book

The Apron Book showcases full-color photos of new and vintage aprons from Geisel's vast collection, patterns for four basic apron styles and myriad variations, recipes, tips on collecting and preserving vintage aprons, and heart-tugging stories from the traveling apron exhibit. The book also explores the history and heyday of aprons and looks at the various roles aprons still play when worn in the kitchen, around the house, by the backyard grill, on the job, or for a special occasion.

When an eight-year-old boy helps his uncle at his job as a plasterer, he takes a fancy to his workman's apron with a pocket. As a result of his fascination, his aunt makes him an apron of his own and he spends a few days as his Uncle Adam's assistant. The text is brief and simple but clearly conveys the warmth between the man and his nephew and the child's satisfaction in a job well done. The line/tissue paper illustrations are colorful and somewhat geometric, reminiscent of French Cubist Leger's work featuring laborers. - SLJ

Aprons can be seen everywhere, from upscale catalogues to trendy stores. What's more, today's versions are so incredibly cute, they're no longer relegated to kitchen wear.

Frilly, lacy, sweet, and sexy--aprons defined a generation of happy housewives and hostesses. Today these filmy, finely home-crafted garments are sentimental favorites, evoking memories of Mom, Grandmom, or some other Doris Day-like image of domesticity, and they are highly sought-after by designers and collectors of household linens. Over 200 aprons are featured in this beautiful book, accompanied by detail shots that highlight design elements, stitching, and embellishments. Separate sections are devoted to gingham, floral designs, rickrack, handkerchief aprons, plaids and stripes, and polka dots. Aprons with embroidery, crochet, tatting, lace, and cross-stitching are examined in detail, and a collection of vintage apron patterns is included.

“Hot sex, looking good, scoring journalistic triumphs . . . nothing made Alyssa love herself enough until she learned to cook. There's a racy plot and a surprising moral in this intimate and delicious book.” --Gael Greene, creator of Insatiable-Critic.com and author of Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess Apron Anxiety is the hilarious and heartfelt memoir of quintessential city girl Alyssa Shelasky and her crazy, complicated love affair with...the kitchen. Three months into a relationship with her TV-chef crush, celebrity journalist Alyssa Shelasky left her highly social life in New York City to live with him in D.C. But what followed was no fairy tale: Chef hours are tough on a relationship. Surrounded by foodies yet unable to make a cup of tea, she was displaced and discouraged. Motivated at first by self-preservation rather than culinary passion, Shelasky embarked on a journey to master the kitchen, and she created the blog Apron Anxiety (ApronAnxiety.com) to share her stories. This is a memoir (with recipes) about learning to cook, the ups and downs of love, and entering the world of food full throttle. Readers will delight in her infectious voice as she dishes on everything from the sexy chef scene to the unexpected inner calm of tying on an apron.

Little David Earl always knows what day of the week it is. He can tell by the clean, snappy-fresh apron Ma Dear is wearing -- a different color for every day. Monday means washing, with Ma Dear scrubbing at her tub in a blue apron. Tuesday is ironing, in a sunshine yellow apron that brightens Ma's spirits. And so it goes until Sunday, when Ma Dear doesn't have to wear an apron and they can set aside some special no-work time, just for themselves. In their first collaboration, Newbery Honor author Patricia McKissack and award-winninng illustrator Floyd Cooper lovingly recreate a slice of turn-of-the-century Southern life as it was for a single African-American mother and her son.

The children in Millie's family can't wait for Grandma to arrive with her special Christmas apron. According to tradition, each grandchild will write down the gift he or she wants most in the world and then slip that wish into the apron's pocket. Then, on Christmas morning,those wished-for gifts will be magically waiting under the tree. But eleven-year-old Millie overhears her parents: the family can't afford gifts for all the little ones. She pictures the disappointment on her siblings faces nothing to open on Christmas morning. Is Millie willing to sacrifice her own whole-soul wish so someone else's can come true? Full of tender emotion and delightful surprise, this story reminds us of the miracles that unfold when we think of others before ourselves.