Mary Quattlebaum

THE WASHINGTON POST – Cookies are sweet, uncomplicated treats, right? Not for Ben, the main character in Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Perfection, a new illustrated novel by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr.

A cookie – or more exactly, the fortune inside – starts the third-grader on a tangled, funny adventure.

Ben is a kid who takes things literally. For example, if he hears the expression “It’s raining cats and dogs,” he expects tabbies and terriers to fall from the skies.

Or a metaphor such as “a bunny as big as a barn” might send him searching for a gigantic rabbit.

When his fortune cookie yields a scrap of paper printed with “Practice makes perfect”, Ben decides to apply this advice to his father, his mother and his best friend, Janet.

All of them, he knows, are far from perfect and could benefit from much practice.

The problem? No one wants Ben to relentlessly perfect them. And then Ben makes a new friend, Darby, who wants to perfect him.

There are hilarious plot twists, lousy pancakes, a superhero, a terrifying obstacle course called the Chute – and lots of questions about the accuracy of the cookie’s advice.

The co-creators of the novel, Swanson and Behr, are the husband-and-wife team behind many books for young people, including two previous tales about Ben in the Cookie Chronicles series (though you need not have read them to enjoy this story).

During a three-person phone call, the couple recently talked with a KidsPost reporter from the home – a converted barn – that they share with their four children and Boston terrier, Dumbles, in Chestertown, Maryland.

Ben is frequently confused by words, a situation many young people can relate to, whether they are puzzled by odd phrases or trying to learn a new language as recent immigrants.

“I was a lot like Ben as a kid,” Swanson said. “I often wrestled with metaphors and what they meant. And I also felt I had to do everything perfectly. But is perfection really the secret of a good life?”

It’s certainly not their secret to making a book, said Behr.

The couple’s shared creative process is messy, inventive and full of surprises, with Swanson’s writing and Behr’s art working together to tell a complete story.

Swanson wrote the new book in a few months, “in a fury”, Behr said. He then gave the manuscript to her for feedback and revised accordingly.

Behr then designed and ingeniously illustrated each one of the 325 pages.

Look for Ben’s dog, Dumbles (whose name the couple’s kids gave to their real dog), a neighborhood map and even a tiny talking brain and stomach.

“It helps that we live together,” Behr said with a laugh. “We can talk about the books (we’re creating) as we take the dog out or make a meal together.”

Their life together is fuelling another big project: the Busload of Books Tour. Starting in September, Swanson, Behr, their children and Dumbles will take to the road in an old school bus.

They plan to talk about and give away books at underserved elementary schools in all 50 states – schools chosen because they have never had an author visit.

The couple hopes to spark excitement about reading, writing and creating art as the students learn and ask questions about making books.

There’s a lot to do before they leave, Swanson said cheerfully. They are raising funds, fixing up the school bus to include a tiny kitchen and sleeping quarters, and oh, yes, finishing the final two books about Ben Yokoyama, Cookie Thief and Cookies of Chaos.

Hopefully, this busy duo can take a break this holiday season to enjoy their favorite cookies – for Swanson it’s what he describes as a “buttery almond crescent” and for Behr, the “really special” oatmeal raisin cookies from a nearby bakery, Evergrain Bread Company.

Jura Koncius

THE WASHINGTON POST – I have never paid attention to the specifics of the standard 13-gallon kitchen trash bags I pick up at Safeway or Costco. I just choose a box of plain white bags with drawstring closures. But over the past few years, I’ve noticed an explosion of options: stretchier panels to make overstuffed bags more flexible and tear resistant; bags in black or pastel colours, plus grey to match stainless appliances; bags made with recycled plastic; and, of course, the ubiquitous scented bags.

A search on Target’s website offers dozens of results for 13-gallon trash bags, whether from major manufacturers Glad and Hefty, the store’s own label or others. Numerous kitchen bag offerings these days have some sort of scent or odour controller, and I have to say, the thought of masking the aroma of crab shells with fake vanilla does not spark joy for me.

“The market has changed for sure,” said Director CC Ciafone of Marketing for Glad, a division of Clorox. Everyone’s been home and cooking more these past 19 months, she said, and the amount of residential trash produced has increased, bumping up sales of garbage bags. In 2020, the total market for trash bags in the United States rose 11.9 per cent over the previous year, according to Vice President Joan Driggs at IRI, a market research firm.

Ciafone said the contents of consumers’ trash have also changed. A positive note is that people have been recycling more and placing fewer cardboard boxes and plastic bottles in kitchen trash bags, she said. “But with so much more food waste, our trash tends to be stinkier, smellier wet trash.” That has increased the appeal of scented or odour-neutralising products. The latest release? Deep pink Glad ForceFlexPlus bags with a cherry blossom scent. They smell sort of like the Tidal Basin in April, mixed with a whiff of Febreze.

Clearly, my basic white bags make me as boring as anyone who still wears white underwear. But with so many options and features, how do you choose? Here are some things to consider when shopping for – and using – kitchen garbage bags.

The spectrum of greener choices is growing. If you have thought more about the effects of household waste on the environment and have considered switching to a greener kitchen trash bag, know that there are a growing number of choices. But sorting through the terminology on the packaging can be daunting. Major manufacturers and smaller companies are creating bags labelled with a wide range of terms, such as “eco-friendly”, a catchall moniker that has endless interpretations and no official standards. There are also trash bags that are made with recycled materials or reclaimed plastic, or that are packaged in recycled paperboard. Some bags are made from plants, others from post-consumer plastic.

“There are multiple attributes that can make a bag more sustainable,” said Executive Director of the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) Rhodes Yepsen. “You have to choose the one that makes sense for your situation.” Yepsen said that, although there are many bags marked as being “biodegradable”, the term can be misleading on its own without additional information saying where they are disposed of and how long they take to break down.

Several states, including Maryland, even prohibit the term from being used on plastic products, Yepsen said.

Bags marked “compostable” are made to be used if you separate food scraps for composting, which keeps them out of landfills and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. If you compost through your municipality, you could use these as a liner.

A BPI seal on the packaging verifies that the bag was tested and that it meets the criteria for compostability. If you compost in your backyard, look for bags that say “suitable for home composting.” Keep in mind, though, that compostable bags are not appropriate for household trash that is headed to a landfill,” Yepsen said. Also, they also tend to be thinner than regular garbage bags, and may tear more easily.

“At the end of the day, we all have trash, and we need a way to collect it that is tidy and clean for us and the trash haulers,” Yepsen said. Beyond the type of bag you choose however, he said it’s important to make behaviour changes that are more environmentally friendly, including taking the time to recycle and compost whenever possible, and buying only what you need to avoid waste.

That row of numbers on the box has nuggets of useful information. At a quick glance, the numbers on the bottom of most trash bag box labels can be confusing. Most measure the size and capacity of the bag. Focus on the mil measurement (1/1000th of an inch), which tells you the thickness of the bag and the amount of plastic in it. This can be an indication of strength and how heavy a load the bag can hold.

However, other factors in the bag’s construction, such as it having flexible side panels, reinforced seams or multiple layers, can also play into its sturdiness. A 13-gallon kitchen bag is usually between 0.7 and 0.9 mil. If you have a big clean-out project with heavy, sharp objects, look for a contractor-grade bag of around three mil.

There’s more than one way to eliminate bad smells from trash. Odours are the number one consumer complaint when it comes to trash bags, Ciafone said. Bags with some sort of scent or odour-neutralising feature have taken off in the past 10 years. They now make up more than half of the assortment of the 13-gallon bags at Home Depot, according to Ryan Moy, Home Depot’s merchant of cleaning. Bags described as smelling like “fresh laundry” are the best sellers in this category, he said. Scented bags are particularly popular in households with diapers or litter boxes, or where trash sits for days before being taken out.

Glad has odour-neutralising technology in many of its bags. The additional scent, Ciafone said, is there for “consumer delight”. At Hefty, a division of Reynolds Consumer Products, Ultra Strong kitchen trash bags come with an Arm & Hammer odour neutraliser; eight have scents, and one is unscented.

Scented bags are not for everyone. They might give you a headache if you’re sensitive to fragrances. Another option is to go with bags with just an odour controller or neutraliser, which have no scent in and of themselves. “They just try to eliminate whatever smells you get in the trash,” Moy said.

The best odour controller of all, of course, is to take out your trash before it smells icky.

Does installation matter? Most of us don’t think about having a “method” of installing bags, and lifestyle hacks sometimes seem ridiculous. (However, I do subscribe to lifestyle hints columnist Heloise’s tip to keep a handful of bags at the bottom of the can, within easy reach.)

But TikTok has turned garbage bag replacement into an art, including various versions of the inside-out “hat method”. This approach involves popping the bag around the rim of the trash can like a hat and shoving it down into the can. Ciafone does not recommend this method with Glad bags. “Our odour neutralisation technology is on the inside of the bag,” she wrote.

“So it isn’t recommended to flip it inside out.”

How does a trash bag pro do it? Moy unrolls the bag, and then, he said, “I typically take it by the drawstring and give it a little snap and let the air pop it open. Then I put my arm into it and push through inside to the bottom of the can. I use the drawstring to hug the top of the trash can, wrapping it over the edge to make sure it fits snugly.”