Discusses the history of spoon carving and provides tips for the craft, outlining the tools that are needed and providing instructions for making such items as a basic spoon and a turned spoon.

Meet Spoon. He's always been a happy little utensil. But lately, he feels like life as a spoon just isn't cutting it. He thinks Fork, Knife, and The Chopsticks all have it so much better than him. But do they? And what do they think about Spoon? A book for all ages, Spoon serves as a gentle reminder to celebrate what makes us each special.

In this tour de force, master storyteller Gregory Maguire offers a dazzling novel for fantasy lovers of all ages. Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg — a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and — in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured — Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.

The acclaimed sculptor and furniture designer teaches readers how to make their own hand-carved wooden spoons in this beautifully illustrated volume. Marvels of craftsmanship, beauty, and function, Joshua Vogel’s sculptural kitchen tools are coveted far and wide. In The Artful Wooden Spoon, Vogel shares more than one hundred gorgeous pieces from his workshop gallery, providing rich visual inspiration as he explains the principles behind handcrafting spoons. Vogel offers simple instructions and step-by-step photographs that allow readers to make their own kitchen keepsakes. No expertise is necessary, and very few tools are required. With more than 225 photographs of Vogel’s stunning specimens, The Artful Wooden Spoon is a compelling invitation to explore an age-old art.