Girls Books

This would be a great book to use in a literature group of young women of high school age. It's not difficult to read, which would make it a good book to use in a classroom of readers that were not strong in their skills. It addresses themes common today in a setting that would lead into studies of Greek Mythology, or Bronze Age cultures.
Discussion points:
1)survival from sexual assault: several aspects such as rape, prostitution,
2)female empowerment,
3)belief in one's self,
4)trying to be something you are not: from both a human (Rain) point of view and animalistic (Usha the Bear)anthropomorphism.
5)war and change in society
6)same sex relationships

It would be interesting, but I don't know if it would be successful, to try this book in a mixed (male/female) setting. Although not all of the male characters are portrayed as enemies, this is definitely not a male-oriented novel. The only sympathetic male characters would be Melek and baby Anto, and possibly the smith.
It does show a Lesbian relationship as a healthy relationship. In fact, it makes it the only healthy sexual relationship in the book. It does obliquely address if sexual assault leads to lesbian relationships in the comparison of the Queen and Penthe as compared to Rain and Melek.
I would recommend this book to a leader or teacher who was able to try literature that addresses controversial societal issues.

A myth-like story about an ancient race of female warriors and one girl in particular who would be Queen, beautifully written. A fantastic YA novel for teens and adults. The best by Hoffman I have read so far.

One of Alice Hoffman's few YA books, this story of an Amazonian princess will capture you like no other read. The ways of the women warriors are brutally intense, and for the first time are questioned, by Rain, who vies for her mother's attention but still attempts to defy the ways of tradition. The characters are strong, each of them contributing to the choices made by Rain, for good or bad.

The Foretelling is a gripping book from beginning to end. Your care for the young princess grows as you learn more and more about her destiny, and her will to change the fate of her people to peace. Her strong connections with horses and bears seem spiritual, and make this story of pain and violence almost gentle and compassionate. I guarantee everyone will enjoy it.

In this intense yet complicated fantasy story, Rain attempts to gain her mother's notice and acceptance by being the best of warriors in their Amazonian tribe. The product of a rape when her mother, Alina, wasn't much more than a child herself, it is hard to gain the Queen's approval. Although Rain knows that she's been raised by Deborah, the wise priestess, to one day be Queen herself, she also pays attention to Deborah's promises of a much grander destiny.

Rain doesn't totally understand the Queen's desire to so thoroughly destroy her enemies, even though her own cousins, Astella and Asteria, are two of the fiercest warriors in the tribe. When Alina takes Penthe as her companion, and Penthe's daughter Io seeks to be Rain's sister, matters become even more complicated. Rain wants nothing more than to ride her horse, Sky, to garner her mother's approval, to earn the place as rightful Queen that will someday come upon her.

On her first journey alone, Rain comes upon a bear cub, which she takes back to camp. She names him Usha, and together with Io the two girls raise the cub as if he were a horse. Although Rain and Io soon discover the mistake of doing so, it's too late--Usha is killed in battle, and Rain still doesn't have the love and acceptance of her mother.

THE FORETELLING is a coming-of-age story set in a fantastical land of the Amazons. Rain is a compelling character who, although she tries so hard to be vicious and fierce like her fellow tribe-members, always leans more towards peace for all men and compassion towards her enemies.

Not to be missed by lovers of fantasy stories!

My name is Doug Hiser, author of the 2006 novel,The Honey Bee Girl. I have been reading and collecting Alice Hoffman books since I discovered Turtle Moon. I have read them all and The Fortelling is my favorite. I loved her narrative and moving story. In some ways it reminded me of Clan of the Cave Bear and also of mystical ancient cultures that we see only in dreams. Alice Hoffman's prose is the main reason I fell in love with her books. She is the magic realism of writing the way Michael Parks is of the dreamlike reality of art and Frank Frazetta is the master of fantasy painting. The Fortelling is a short work of literary genius accessible to everyone. She has deep intense knowledge of the emotions and feelings that most people can only guess about. Discover her writing through this compelling work and then find your way into her other books. You won't be disappointed. Doug Hiser

This is a great buy for anyone out on their own for the first time, or for those of us who couldn't quite get it right the first time! Since reading it, I can now boast some stellar Hip Girl tire changing skills. And, just about the only thing clean in my apartment are the pipes which I now routinely tend to because of this book. My plumber boyfriend couldn't be more proud!

This book is fantastic! I am sending it for Christmas or birthday gifts to all of my married and single friends. It is so practical - especially the car tips - but also just a great book to read. There is definitely no book like this. Most helpful books are boring "how to" books - but not The Hip Girl's Handbook. These authors were able to include helpful information in a clever way so that this book is witty and fun to read. It also has an easy layout so I can reference what it is I am looking for pretty quickly.

I just wish I had this book years ago when I was first on my own away at college. I would highly recommend this book for any woman (or even young woman) who is, or wants to be, independent!

To a girl on her own for the first time, every small catastrophe is a threat to her burgeoning independence, even to her sense of identity and self. Corny as the title (and cover, fonts, and optimistic writing) may be, "The Hip Girl's Handbook for Home, Car, & Money Stuff" is a godsend and lifesaver. As a perpetually frazzled young woman who has been on her own for a couple years now, I can sincerely tell you that every new, horrifying experience in maintenance has been its own trauma worth calling the police department or landlord over (like the time I smelled gas, frantically called the fire department, and they laughed as they relit the pilot on my stove, for instance). But Jen Musselman and Patty DeGregori take the horror out of the inevitable, giving young women the power and knowledge to take on each catastrophe with a clear head.

The book is arranged just as the title implies: the 'home' section talks about picking out a home, navigating the breaker box, and unclogging pipes--things no girl should have to turn to a repairman or neighbor for. The 'car' section lends comprehensive advice as to the maintenance and repair of every gal's automobile, as well as how to recover control of the car in times of enormous distress (and the section delegated to Road Tripping alone nearly one-ups Cameron Tuttle?s "Bad Girl's Guide to the Open Road"). And lastly, the 'money' section pares down managing a checking account, as well as combating identity theft, into equally understandable, dare I say manageable, scenarios.

Not two days after I'd purchased my own copy of the book, I bought one for my best friend; do the same for the gals in your life. This is the one book every girl should keep front-and-center. The information jam-packed into this smiley little reference book is outright empowering: knowing how to take on every circumstance, no matter how wee or how devastatingly harrowing, gives a young woman both the confidence to take matters into her own hands, and consequently the blessing of new independence.

This is an essential for the independent Hip Girl who needs answers quick. A very fast and entertaining read. I highly recommend it!

I bought this book thinking that it would be a nice guide to have after reading all the other great reviews. However, this book is not all that. Most of the stuff in it I already knew. It is a good book if you are completely clueless about this stuff, however, for those that know SOME stuff about the subjects I recommend that you pass on it and find another book.

December 14, 2005

Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees
Diane Rivers, Chair
Dorian Parker, Vice-Chair
Lisa Sparks, Secretary
John Pellizzari
Ernest "Buddy" DiSpirito
303 Clinton Street
Woonsocket, RI 02895-3214
Fax: 401-767-4140

Dear Members of the Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees,

On behalf of the 2,900 members of PEN American Center, an international organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression wherever it is threatened, we are writing to express our deep concern over the fact that the Woonsocket Public Library Trustees are considering a request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl written by native Woonsocket author-artist Charleen Touchette.

We understand that a citizen request to ban the book was made at the Library Trustees' September meeting. The Library Trustees removed the book from the Woonsocket Harris Public Library shelves after the September meeting pending a decision.

It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl, the latest work by author-artist Charleen Touchette, invites you into the provincial world of a French Canadian girl in Rhode Island who cannot tell anybody her family secrets. Years later when she has her first daughter she must relive her childhood to heal the future generations of her family. It is a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse and was written for an adult audience. The novel tells a realistic story with complex figures. Such books help readers approach sensitive topics and figure out how to deal with them. Even if the novel's themes are too mature for some, they will be meaningful to others. No book is right for everyone, and the role of the library is to allow community members to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values.

Author Charleen Touchette, a member of our colleague organizations PEN USA and the Author's Guild, advocates for the freedom to write worldwide. It Stops with Me has been praised by authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Randall, Ana Pacheco, and Winona LaDuke, and received a Foreword Book of the Year 2004 Finalist Award.

PEN American Center respectfully asks you to deny the request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl and to return it to library shelves. By doing so, you will be upholding a fundamental principle of freedom: the right of all Americans to read, inquire, question, and think for themselves.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Hannah Pakula

Larry Siems
Chair, Freedom to Write Committee Director, Freedom to Write
and International Programs

An autobiography of a spunky Franco-American woman from Woonsocket, Rhode Island gives cultural storytelling multi-generational appeal. Too many Franco-Americans (with ancestral roots in French-Canada) are quickly amalgamating into the mainstream of American culture without writing their special family stories. Fortunately, Charleen Touchette, a Woonsocket, Rhode Island writer and artist now living in New Mexico, puts both of her pleasingly creative talents together in "It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl".
Touchette writes about her Franco-American roots by relating simple, often bittersweet and even brutal experiences growing up as a typical French Catholic girl in Woonsocket and later as an accomplished artist.
Moreover, Touchette energizes her autobiography's prose with a series of original black, and white and color print blocks. In other words, "It Stops With Me" expresses Touchette's Franco-American creativity using prose accentuated by her surprisingly cutting edge original art describing absorbing coming of age experiences. Her journey from a parochial Franco-American into her adult life is fraught with opportunities, along with unexpected harsh challenges. Her life is ordinary in some ways but hardly a nostalgic cake walk.
"It Stops With Me" is at its best when Touchette looks back and elevates normal Franco-American experiences to familiarities we can identify with. For example, she describes cooking with her "Ma Tantes" or getting ready to receive First Holy Communion at Woonsocket's Eglise Précieux-Sang (Church of Precious Blood).
Discord arises at a young age. Growing up as a French Roman Catholic girl is an underlying theme. Touchette's typical childhood is without the benefit of feeling safe at home, as she depicts in one of her portraits of a "Not a Picture Perfect Family".
Rather, Touchette's absorbing life story endures familial stress, social and personal conflicts, even leading to physical ailments, which haunt her into adult years.
Touchette's hard hitting narrative is set apart from others of the modern autobiographic genre by the intimate and complicated relationships she shares with her family. Delving even deeper into her private spiral are the intense personal investigations Touchette undertakes with regard to her sad relationship with her father.
Nevertheless, in spite of the particular circumstances, it's typical of Franco-Americans to harbor deep attachments for their relatives and parents regardless of obvious flaws, shortcomings or even family violence. Female family role models are especially strong in Touchette's life. "Although my Maman was a devout Catholic, she was a strong supporter of my right to freedom of expression," writes Touchette. In fact, her female relatives were outraged when Touchette even considered not going to college after high school. In her Woonsocket Franco-Americans world, Touchette writes about how curious it was to be singled out for college when no other woman in her family ever went beyond a high school education.
Throughout the autobiography, her French heritage is front and center, even when she embraces the peace of Judaism.
Many of the book's chapters are charmingly led by simple French titles.
Touchette's talent as a creative writer moves the reader beyond the dark side of her autobiography. Using the power of words, she inspires us to learn more about her as an individual woman with a spellbinding story to tell. Touchette does a good job explaining the pros and cons of the personal contrasts she inherited from her religious and ethnic roots. This is a well written autobiography, nominated for book awards, with a progressive social focus.

"This book is incredible." Louise Erdrich
"beautiful book." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
"Tough, evocative, border-crossing, honest, unflinching...large enough so it can embrace its readers. Margaret Randall, Author. PEN NM Lifetime Achievement Awardee 2005
"An emotion-charged story of initial struggle and ultimate success...a must in any library collection." Book Wire
"magnificent in its courage and decency." Sam Ballen Author Without Reservations.

Great Reads - New Mexico Magazine, April 2005 p. 45.
Personal Journeys: More Than Just Survival by Michelle Miller Allen
"Our girlhood years, formed in various cultures and family configurations-from the most abusive to the most loving-and tempered by the social prejudices and taboos of one's time-are where we begin our journeys into adulthood. These factors have much to do with whether we will just survive or become empowered by the most demanding, even devastating, events on our individual paths.
It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl by Charleen Touchette (TouchArt Books 2004) Touchette's memoir opens the doors into the lives of women who shaped her childhood into adulthood-the healers, storytellers, homemakers, and artists. This most compelling book includes fascinating color and black and white reproductions of the author's artwork over three decades. The book charts Touchette's journey from a French Canadian/RhodeIsland childhood at the hands of an abusive alcoholic father, to Wellesley College, to New York City's culture of arts, to Minnesota and Indian Country.
Touchette combines the voice of the reminiscing adult writer/artist with that of a child obsessed with "making things" as a survival mechanism. Abusive parents seem to bank on the false assumption that their children, as adults, will not remember abuse. Yet anyone who doubts the intelligence and level of awareness in a young, abused human being should read the end of Chapter "Forsythia Blossoms": "I do not know when I started fighting back. I do not have a memory of when Daddy started hitting me. I was too young. But I do remember clearly the moment when I looked up at my dad's face, and realized he was a fool. I was seven."

Reviewer Jennifer Lefkowitz chose "It Stops with Me" as the Book Special for "Girlfriends Magazine" November 2005 issue, p. 58 with two color photos of Touchette's art.

"It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl"

"Charleen Touchette's memoir is healing and cathartic, a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse. The author is an artist, and throughout the book she showcases her paintings, which resemble the work of painter Frida Kahlo. Like Kahlo, Touchette survived vehicle collisions; after a spine injury she is able to connect her past to her present. This compelling memoir dives into the dark trenches of that past, confronting memories with ancient practices. "I learned it is the task of all human beings to cut through the fog and illusion of maya, and reconnect with the light." A - Jennifer Lefkowitz

"Water Illumination" (top) and "Boom Boom Boom" are two of the many paintings which illustrate the author's journey."

Charleen Touchette's story "The Pie Religion" is online in the May issue of Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

"What a loving, touching article! I could see, smell, hear everything, thanks to your beautiful descriptions. And what memories of my own childhood you brought back; we, too, had a pie religion among the women in our large family. My mother even had a modest business of making pies for the restaurants and the hotel in our little Northern Vermont town.
Indeed, the secret to pie-making is passed on from mother to daughter to daughter as a sacred tradition.
Thanks for a great read!
I've recommended your article to several people, with my comment that if I could write as well as you, I'd give up quilting and stitching...and making pies!"
Louise Dubrule

This is an excellent novel which I greatly enjoyed. It describes, from the viewpoint of a young girl, the experiences of a family in the fight against racism in Florida in the 1950s. The most striking aspect of this is the description of living in a society whose basic assumptions are different to one's own. Most of us have experienced people making off-color/racist/sexist comments in our presence (although nowhere near as overt nor as excessive as those expressed by some of the characters in the book). It is interesting to see how this family copes and compare their reaction with one's own and imagine how one would cope in the same situation.

The book is well written and is easy to read. The characters are well defined and the story beautifully paced.

I would recommend this book to teenage as well as adult readers.

I loved this book. Ms. McCarthy writes simply and beautifully. I was raised in Central Florida and could recall some of the events mentioned in the book. What I loved the most about the book was the relationships, the use of poetry and bible scriptures. I think this book is a 'must read'.

Whether you loved, hated, or somewhat like To Kill a Mockingbird, its guaranteed you'll love this book. I had to read this book for an advanced Engish class and I dreaded reading this book, but after reading a couple of pages, my whole mind changed. If totally recommend this book to everyone, from the mature reader to the less developed reader. Great piece of literature.

Susan Carol McCarthy tells an amazing story of family, friendship and personal strength through the eyes of a young girl, Reesa, living in central Florida in the 1950's.
Two families become entwined when the KKK intimidates, stalks and randomly murders a young man, Marvin Cully, because he is black. The young man's death is a turning point for Reesa McMahon because the ugly world of racism is unveiled before her young eyes. Marvin Cully's family and Reesa's families are friends, and Marvin's death draws them even closer. Reesa's parents must make decisions to do what is right, even at the risk of endangering their own family.
The early Civil Rights movement is explored, with the founder Harry T. Moore joining the McMahon's and the Cully's in trying to expose and bring to justice those responsible for Marvin's murder. This opens the window on the KKK and more violence and terror is unleashed.
This is a story that is both beautiful and heart-wrenching. It is a story about friends, faith and families that make definitive choices to do the right thing. It is also about innocence lost when wrong and right collide, leaving moral courage stamped in fire upon a young girl's soul.
I met the author at a book event in Tampa. She spoke about the historical accuracy of her book and told of her decision to write this book based on her father's actions in that time. Also at this event was Evangeline Moore, the daughter of Harry Moore, and she told of her view of events of the time and of her parents violent murder.
This is an amazing book that is an honest and insightful view into the thoughts and lives of those in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement and a foresight of changes that were to come.

"Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands" has been compared to "To Kill a Mockingbird", and I think the comparison is warranted. With a young, spunky girl as the narrator, troubled racial events taking place, and the relationships between people at its heart, using this book to bridge to the denser classic novel will help kids make the transition. I'm planning to use it with my 8th grade students; I might question using it with younger students.

It isn't only a great book for teaching purposes, though! Pick it up and prepare to connect with the characters and become immersed in the story.

This book is one of my favs.
I read in it in an hour!!!!
It is about a girl who has just turned 16 and is searching for who she is. She thinks she has found it, but is it who she really wants to be. To find out I encourage you to read
The Year I turned 16- Lily

Once I started this book I couldn't stop.It was a great book about how a 16 year old finds her true self.Se is the baby of the family and wants to be different then her sisters so she pretends to be someone she isn't.

Lily Lily Lily- A great character. A great ending book to the series. Boys, Jobs, complications, everything a sixteen yr old has. If youve read the other three books, dont stop there!! Continues and find what happeneds with Rose and Stephen, Laurel and Carlos. I recommend Highly!!!

This is the last book of a 4-book series. There are 4 sisters, and there is a book for each sister for the year they turned 16. Each book is written in first-person by that particular sister. The sisters, in order from oldest to youngest, are: Rose, Daisy, Laurel, and Lily.

This book is about the youngest sister, Lily Rebecca Walker. Lily's three older sisters had definite talents and interests when they were 16. Rose had singing; Daisy had sports; Laurel had animals. But Lily feels that she has no talents and no identity. Instead of being 'Lily', she feels as though she is 'Rose's sister' or 'Daisy's sister' or 'Laurel's sister'.

Determined to find herself, Lily ends up in the It crowd (via a boyfriend), and almost abandons her two best girlfriends who are not invited to the It crowd. Will Lily be happy in the It crowd, and is this really her true identity? Will she continue to be happy with her It boyfriend? Will she ever fully come back to her girlfriends? Will she find her true identity and a true love?

The 4 sisters have a wonderful relationship with each other. Their mother Maggie is the best and most wonderful mother in the world. She deeply and truly loves her daughters unconditionally. The whole family loves and appreciates each other.

This book is not just about a girl turning 16. It is about family. The important bonds of family love, linking the past, present, and future. If you don't get anything else out of this book, the book will have been worth reading just for that.

You don't have to necessarily read each book, but I would highly recommend that you do. You will enjoy the books a lot more if you read them all, and read them in order. More of the events and characters will be familiar and will be more meaningful if you've read the previous books.

I had read all of the previous three books and enjoyed them too but not as much as this one!A lot of people probably could relate to this story because Lily's situation happens to a lot of girls her age everyday.I recommend tis book to anyone who likes to sit down to a good book(but you'll love it so much you won't want to put it down)!

Once Upon A Curse is a book that every book lover should read (after you've read The Frog Princess and Dragon's Breath of course)... It has time travel, fairys, dragons, harpies, and other magical creatures too. Captivating with kind and snotty ancestors that Princess Emma meets when she's trying to solve the family curse's mysteries... along with Eadric, Lil, and some magic she's bound for a journey no one's gone on before!

We bought the Frog Princess from a school bookfair. I've been reading it to my 8 year old daughter. We both enjoyed the book so much, I bought the next two in the series on Amazon. These are wonderfully funny, engaging stories. This is a children's auther I would highly recommend.

Ilove the romance in this book.Emma and Eadric
are very funny characters.I love the magic in this book.
I hope to keep reading the series!

This book is just one of the wonderful books in this series. An absolute family treasure and fun for the whole family.

This was a fun book that has been passed around in family. I read it first and then passed it to my 13 yr. old daughter who then passed it to my 10 yr. old daughter. We've all laughed with delight at some of the exploits our "heroes" manage to involve themselves in. A must read! Grab the whole series while you're at it!

This book is probably very true however it may be more applicable for families living in larger more metropolitan cities. Still, it is worthwhile reading for any parent of a teenager.

"Promise you won't freak" out is book with great characters considering all of them are real. That is right, a teenager is putting her, and her close friends and family's lives on a plate for you to eat up. There is a lot of flavor on the plate that she is handing us including the first two most racy topics you could think about talking to a teen on. Sex and drugs. Well those are just two of the many juicy chapters. The setting changes from time to time but is set in common day, as in 2004. It teaches, parents, and teens alike new vocabulary, most of which is rated R. But if you can put up with the views of an over-protective mother, and her rebellious teenagers, Greg (in collage now) and Natalie, then this is a pretty good book.
It moves along quickly but it's content makes it so that you keep looking over your shoulder to make sure that the person behind you does not see that word that you just read. It kind of makes you feel guilty when you are sitting in the back of your car with your mother driving, and she asks you about the book you are reading as glance up learning the definition of an even more interesting word from the chapter titled Sex Period, and your reply is "oh, just a teen novel!" I must admit that it is educational. Not just the sex and drugs part about it either. It tells you how to start conversation with your mother on hard topics, and how to handle the stress of teen-hood.
I have gotten to know and love Natalie, not always agreeing with her decisions, but still seeing her point of view. Every mother and daughter should read this book together. Aside from dreading the fact that my mother now knows the Web sites for security programs that e-mails her every time any obscene language or Web site is used on my account (not that I ever would) thanks to Nat's mother, it helped me reach a level of understanding with her. Now every time I go to school, I will be more aware: More aware of the new language that my supposed best friends are pushing on me, more aware that any second I might have to refuse drugs, more aware that I am now a teenager, and that I have no choice in the matter of whether I should grow up or not, because it's happening right now.

Extremely well written and interesting. Every teenager and every parent of one should read it, regardless of their own situation (and even if they can't relate to the examples). A good study book for schools and churches. Although the subject matter covers many of the lapses of integrity in today's teens, the book itself reeks of honesty. The authors are courageous in putting their lives out for public view. The excellent conversation starters should help any parent.

From a grandparent in Flagstaff, AZ.

Finally, a book that reflects the way I want to raise my soon-to-be teens, but I didn't know it! I'd read several books, all of which didn't touch a nerve until this one. It also helped me to realize it's time to connect up with other non-judgmental guerilla moms.

I don't want to put my teens in a bubble, and then be in denial whenever the bubble bursts behind my back. Instead, I want to weather their teens with them, keep an open dialogue to a reasonable degree, and maintain my composure in their presence. How else can they develop their judgment than by some experimenting coupled with accountability and a parent to talk to? This parenting approach is not for the faint of heart, as it requires objectivity and self-honesty, but I'm ready. It also requires confidence that you've instilled good judgment in your kids.

It's a relief to finally have a way of thinking about raising teens that works for me.

Wish I'd had this book earlier in my parenting. I learned a tremendous amount, but the biggest value was in ideas for conversation starters with my teens. I tried a few suggestions and was amazed at the discussions that followed. I left the book on the kitchen table during a teen party and the kids zeroed in on it immediately, particularly the chapter on sex (no surprise there!) I have made gifts of the book to my younger sisters, telling them it is an easy read, well written, and packed with useful information and suggestions. Read this book if there are teenagers in your life.

An entertaining and cute astrology book for teens. Easy to understand and has fun facts about each of the signs. It also has some info about each rising sign, which if you don't know it, you can't figure it out from the book (it comes out wrong), but it is easy to find out on the internet. It even has a little about Chinese astrology and numerology. A great starter for teens and pre-teens who are interested in astrology.

If you're into the stars, you've gotta read this book! I don't know if the author's a witch or something, but she really knows what I'm like, inside and out! I lent this book to my g-friend who knew absolutely zero about astrology and now she doesn't want to give it back to me! Help!!! Lots of books are kind of a drag...like a school assignment. But this one's fun to read. And the writer said that Libra and Leo are a match made in heaven. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

If you're into the stars, you've gotta read this book! I don't know if the author's a witch or something, but she really knows what I'm like, inside and out! I lent this book to my g-friend who knew absolutely zero about astrology and now she doesn't want to give it back to me! Help!!! Lots of books are kind of a drag...like a school assignment. But this one's fun to read. And the writer said that Libra and Leo are a match made in heaven. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

My friend bought this book and I love it! She and I spend HOURS looking at it and stand amazed that our signs, in some ways, match us perfectly! We have a great time!

I got this book for my birthday and think it is totally great! I'm learning about astrology & it's cool! My friends and me read it at lunch & use it to figure out which boys we're good with. I really recommend this book and think it's great.

I picked up this book on a total whim. The saying is that you can't judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes that's more true in the metaphorical sense than reality. I admit, I judge books by their covers nearly every time. Some good cover art, or even something clean and simple, and I want to read the back or inside jacket. This cover caught my eye. It's very Playbill meets that Blind Melon video with the little girl in the Bee costume. (No Rain? Maybe? I think? It's been too many years since I've watched MTV and I doubt they'd ever play it anymore anyway.)

It's more than a cool cover, though. It's hopeful, and funny, witty, down-to-earth, and SO inspirational. It's more than a coming-of-age story, because it's also a story of success. It's a true testament to the grit that comes with knowing what you want and being too stubborn to settle for anything less no matter what obstacles are in your way.

This could've been featured in our Biography section, but is reviewed here for its insights on how a Broadway star made it big - despite her lifetime weight problem. Sharon Wheatley weighed over two hundred pounds by high school, but never stopped dreaming of a career on Broadway. Her journey and reach for leading roles would take her to the top and 'TIL THE FAT GIRL SINGS: FROM AN OVERWEIGHT NOBODY TO A BROADWAY SOMEBODY - A MEMOIR tells how.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I am a tall thin straight Male who thought that I might not really understand where Sharon Wheatley is coming from. Her story is so great that you don't have to be over weight to understand where she is coming from. This book is funny, thoughtful and true. It is a worthy read and it is great for anyone who has ever had the need to feel wanted. A GREAT READ AND A GREAT BUY!

It is Amazing what has happened in the first part of her Songbird Sharon's life.
Her memoir is a testimony about whatever life throws at you , you can overcome it. I think we can all identify with mean kids, horrific embarrassing moments, and blaming yourself for things you don't understand.

It is one of the sweetest, saddest, and most inspiring books I would recommend. Hooray for the Songbird aas we look forward to Volume 2 and all its successes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would have picked a different title though- I have known you 35 years, and you were never a "nobody". And how could you sing the Sound of Music to Chopin, Mozart, et., al.???

You did not mention Patrick- the meanest dog in Cincinnati???!!!

I loved this story! It opened my eyes to a problem that I really wasn't tuned in to. An important story to tell. Not only that but I think sometimes we as individuals feel so alone, like we are the only people with problems, Sharon's story of overcoming adversity is a REAL inspiriation.

I think this was one of the best American Girl Collections. It describes the life of people and slaves had during the Civil War, and for me, a person who is writing a novel about the Civil War, that this is helpful. It also describes the hopless relity of salvery fopr any human being that I find portrayed well.
The only thing I wish is that there had been a little more interaction with white people. Make it clear not that all of them were racists and establish the fact there could a be real friendship between them. I mean white soliders went to fight and die for them, can't they appreciate that more? Other then that, I liked the season very well.

My nine year old daughter came home from school with one of these books, and she couldn't put it down! Before this, she never showed interest in reading. After I saw how in love she was with the book, I had to order the series for her. She was so excited when I gave the collection to her and has completed the entire collection in record time! I am so happy she finally found something she is interested in reading. She is always walking around with one of these books in her hand.
Thank you so much for a wonderful collection.
T.G
Garland Texas

Addy is so great. It is a 6 serie book set and it is really great. Addy is a amegenary girl who lives right after the civil war. It is filled with amotions. It uses no bad words at all. It is the best for kids ages 10-12
Lydia
Age 10

This story is set in 1864 during the Civil War. The book prompted discussions about race, slavery, the Civil War and life during that time, prejudice behavior, the privledges we take for granted and inner strength. We first read about slavery in Kaya, which my daughter also loved. My daughter talks about the characters (Addy, Kaya, Samantha and others) as though they are part of our extended family. She has set a goal to read all of the American Girl books and is well on her way there.
I can't imagine a girl not enjoying this book.

I really liked this book out of all of the American Girls books. Addy is my favorite. I haven't read this book since I was about in the second grade, I'm in seventh grade now. I really need to get the whole Addy set. I recommend Addy for everyone!