This book, written for the young reader is very entertaining. It taps into the young middle school aged girl’s life. The Wedding Planner’s Daughter was written by Coleen Murtagh Paratore with a real understanding of the constantly revolving emotional balance of a young girl who is on the move.
The story is of a young lady who has moved around all of her life because of her mother’s fear of attachment to any man in a love relationship. She lives by a very strict standard of rules of conduct at home, at school and in public. Willa is her name. She longs to have a father and a life that stays in one spot.
Finally, Willa seems on the verge of having her wishes come true…till one act of secret benevolence undoes all of the progress her mother has made in allowing someone special to capture her attention. Willa shows us how important it is to connect to others in our lives and how the power of love is what makes everything else in life bearable. Growing up is hard to do when you are on the outside looking in.
This book would make a wonderful birthday gift or a gift acknowledging the thought, “I know you are growing up” kind of gift to someone special in your life.
This book was published by Scholastic Inc; copyrighted in 2005 by arrangement with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Check out Scholastic here: http://www.scholastic.com
She said Yes….The Unlikely Martyrdom Of Cassie Bernall is quite a book. It is not a huge long-winded book…but, the searching and yearning of a mother’s heart as she seeks to “know” more about her daughter, after her death in the Columbine shooting is quite inspiring.
Cassie Bernall is probably most remembered for her last spoken word. That word was a simple, Yes. It was in answer to the question, “Do you believe in God?” There is so much more to who Cassie was; and, how she came to be the person she was…and this mother’s quest to understand the journey Cassie was on, is very enlightening. It has alot to teach both parents and children.
From a typical teenager’s angst…to a world of occult, peer pressure, self- image struggles, drugs, cutting, and anger….the struggles that Cassie endured attest to the power of a parent’s love and intervention when it comes to fighting for a positive relationship with your child in the face of all that the world throws between parents/children. This is a must read!
One Last Wish-Three Novels was written by Lurlene McDaniel. It is one of those books that combines a few short stories within it paper back covers. Lurlene McDaniel is a good writer. She has the ability to introduce you to her characters in a way that makes you feel like you have just met a friend that you want to know better.
The subject of all three books is death and dying which is not what i would call a pick me up sort of subject…but…it is a part of life. Because it is a part of life, it is nice to see the subject illuminated in a way that shows that a person has choices; some control over the way they die, when they have a disease/illness that is diagnosed when time allows them a period of time to prepare. The idea of quality of life over quantity of life is strengthened when you have read the stories; it puts things into perspective.
Even though dying is not a happy topic…i like the fact that Lurlene chooses to show each individual in the stories with personality and strength. She doesn’t gloss over the fact that if given the “ultimate” choice…they would choose to live; but, it does show degrees of individual dignity.
The books are moving…so make sure that you aren’t going through an emotional trauma when you read it 
…it just might push you to curl up in your bed all weekend.
Simple Sleight-Of-Hand, Card and Coin Tricks For The Beginning Magician is a nice book that teaches the simple moves that all budding magicians need to learn.
This book was written by Paul Zenon and it was published in 2008 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Simple Sleight-Of-Hand is one of the books in a series of books on magic. There are three other titles in the series, Gimmicks and Card Tricks (Illusions for Intermediate Magicians), Cool Card Tricks (Techniques for those Advanced Magicians), Magic of The Mind ( Tricks For The Master Magician).
The book has word descriptions, hints and techniques as well as photo illustrations to help a student of magic learn both verbally and visually. This book will teach simple “tricks” that will impress the young magician’s friends and family, with it’s “Wow, how did you do that; factor!”
The author has alot of television experience with his magic and has even had his own show. There are loads of websites that are referred to in this book including: http://www.magiccastle.com, http://www.magic.org, http://www.magictimes.com, http://www.magictricks.com, as well as the publishers referral link: http://www.rosenlinks.com/am/ssha.