{"id":46140,"date":"2026-05-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46140"},"modified":"2026-05-22T10:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:08:11","slug":"alien-invasion-in-my-backyard-deceptive-desserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/alien-invasion-in-my-backyard-deceptive-desserts\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien Invasion in My Backyard \/ Deceptive Desserts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FROM SLOBBERY ROBOTS AND ALIENS WITH BRIEFCASES TO DIDGERIDOO LESSONS<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Alien Invasion in My Backyard: An EMU Club Adventure
by Ruben Bolling
Andrews McMeel Publishing
2015, 112 pages, 5.3 x 8 x 0.4 inches<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TV will tell you the truth is out there. Decades ago folks would warn you to \u201cKeep watching the skies!\u201d But kids know the truth: The mysteries aren\u2019t out there, they\u2019re right here. They are in every bump from the attic, that weird locked door in the basement, and, especially, the often mystifying backyard. Kids know that\u2019s where the real mysteries lie, and we\u2019re all lucky that Ruben Bolling knows it, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alien Invasion in my Backyard, the first in the EMU Club series, is a fun and ridiculous (in just the right way) story of the creation of the Exploration Mystery Unbelievable Club. The book itself is intended to be the Official Report of their first mystery and written by eleven year-old President Stuart Tennemeier who, other than planning on a growth spurt in college, is planning to document all their amazing adventures. His best friend, CEO Brian, and his little sister Violet (no title because Mom makes them let her join) join him to solve all of life\u2019s important mysteries. And we can\u2019t forget Sergeant at Arms Ferdinand, Stuart\u2019s loyal dog who proves critical to cracking the case. As an Official Report the reader gets direct access to the EMU Club files, including photos of their whole adventure lovingly taped to the lined graph paper it\u2019s printed on. This is fresh from the brave pioneers themselves and you\u2019ll read and see every detail, from slobbery robots and aliens with briefcases to didgeridoo lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruben Bolling is the pen name of the creator of the awesomely acidic Tom the Dancing Bug and a finalist for the 2016 Herblock Award for Editorial Cartooning. This, his first work for kids, is a light, charming read that one can only hope gets into the hands of many a little one thirsting for adventure. As a recovering child who looked for mystery behind every door but mostly found it in books, I can tell you I enjoyed reading every moment of this book and cannot wait until I can share it with my own little adventurer. Once he learns how to talk, find important clues, and play the didgeridoo, of course. \u2013 Rob Trevino<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BAKE THE MOST GHOULISH SWEET TREATS YOU\u2019LL EVER EAT<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Deceptive Desserts: A Lady\u2019s Guide to Baking Bad!
by Christine McConnell
Regan Arts
2016, 288 pages, 8 x 10 x 1 inches<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a ripened crafter, mix in a pinch of YouTube lessons on cake decorating, blend that with a humorous fascination with the macabre, and you\u2019ve got Christine McConnell\u2019s new cookbook, Deceptive Desserts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just four years ago McConnell had never even baked a cake. But she was already a professional makeup and hair stylist, an impeccable photographer (much of which she learned through YouTube), and even created her own vintage-inspired clothes. Then after seeing some online photos of beautiful cakes, she decided to take a few online lessons on cake decorating. In 2013, while perfecting her baking skills, she made a batch of life-sized chocolate tarantula treats out of Girl Scout cookies for Halloween and realized that baking the dark side was her new passion. Her list of ghoulish culinary masterpieces quickly grew, along with her Instagram account, which now has over 248,000 followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong> first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em> Sign up here<\/a> to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 119<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46160,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46140\/revisions\/46160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}