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Our two year old loves this book. Lucky for us it is also an adult pleaser because she wants to read it several times a day. It's a wonderful way to make any monster warm and cuddly.

My oldest son, age 2 is simply amazed by this book. We try to find hidden things throughout the book, which is attributed to this marvelous job of illustration. It has vivid colors and allows me to teach my son about different insects, reptiles, etc.. He especially loves the clever use of words such as "beastball" that create a fun reading session for the two of us. The author has a good use of rhyme and creates an atmosphere of warmth and love in the family as the theme is about the love a mother has for her child. I would recommend this book to anyone as my son is addicted, wanting me to read it to him constantly.

My 4 yr. old daughter loved this book from the first time we read it. She loves to hear how the Monster Mama takes care of her little monster. The story is a loving and gentle poitrait of a mothers love. Embedded in the story are the routines of everyday life (i.e. brush your fangs, eat health food, exercise, tuck me into bed). The illustrations provide lots of opportunity for talking about the story and the characters. My daughter loves the swamp scene and has made a story all her own about that scene. She loves to say, "Icky" when we talk about lizard juice with ice and cookies made with bugs. The last pages lets us end with a big monster moma hug. The I get to tweek her nose and her tickle her pointy toes.

I received this as a gift and cried my eyes out the first time I read it. I am a working mom who hates to say goodbye to my little one each morning. My son is a year old and will bring it to me to read to him. I still get teary eyed when I read it. I am going to buy one for all of my working-mom friends. Highly recommend this book.

The first time I read this book I cried and still have to hold back the tears whenever I read the last page. My 1-year-old loves this book and has me read it to her everyday. It is a must for any working mother who wants her baby to know how much her love is with them during the day when they are apart. The illustrations are beautiful, the rhymes are not too sing-songy, and the sentiment is genuine. A heartfelt recommendation from this mom.

This is a very snuggly hugs and kisses book for the very young. In the book, a parent bird talks to her offspring in rhyming declarations of love, telling and reassuring the baby bird that she will love it at all times and through everything it does. It is a very cute and touching read for parents. And rather short, with only about 350 words.

This is incredible and well worth the money!!! Kristie touches upon almost everything a home based mom would need to get her business rolling. You can hear her enthusiasm through her words, which really motivated and inspired me to keep reading. If you are toying with the thought of being home with your children and ending the 9-5 chaotic life, but still want to generate an income, you must read this book!! Our children should be our #1 priority and Kristie brings it home with this how to book on HAVING IT ALL!! You can find out how to have it all too by reading "I Love My Life", by Kristie Tamsevicius.

Kristie's book is a great resource for anyone thinking about creating their own home-based business. Her book is easy to follow and full of advice that is universal to anyone pursuing a stay-at-home career, not just moms. I highly recommend this book as your one stop shop resource for a successful home-based business.

I have set up 3 home-based businesses and have operated as a Business & Life Coach for the past three years. Not only has Kristie's book taught me so much about the practical issues around effectively establishing a SUCCESSFUL home business, it will be a real asset to my current and future clients who are headed that way, as I will gift them this Treasure Trove of a book. It is full of practical, sound advice and will guide anyone through the processes of getting up and running in a well organized manner. I only wish I had Kristie's wonderful book 20 years ago! THANKS KRISTIE, FOR YOUR PEARLS OF WISDOM.

In My Garden Visits, author Justin Matott masterfully intertwines the magic of being a child with the experience of adulthood.

In his parent's garden, Justin learned to love and to laugh. In his own, many years later, he learned to listen. And listen he did as his mother's soft vioce transcended reality to whisper in his ear.

"My mother would often observe me from her kitchen window as she went about preparing one of her magnificent gourmet dinners. I remember that I would pretend not to notice that she was watching me and I would show off to entertain her."

This heartfelt journey takes the reader to a place deep in the soul where the garden is always blooming, and a mother's love is never far. To plant a garden is to believe in miracles...to read My Garden Visits is to experience them first hand. A beautiful book with exquisite drawings...I would not hesitate to recommend it.

This book was not meant to be devoured in a single, can't-put-it-down reading marathon. Rather, each chapter should be meticulously tended to and savored, just as its author meticulously tended his garden and savored each visit from the spiritual presence of his deceased mother. To make this book complete, the stunning watercolor illustrations by artist Victoria Kwasinski add the perfect visuals to Matott's descriptive prose.

My Garden Visits honors mothers everywhere and offers a reminder that those who are dear to us are often close in spirit, even when they are physically far away. This is truly a beautiful book.

This book is out of print, what a crime.

Full of compellingly realistic details and infused with the ambivalence all middle-aged people must feel when faced with their parents' disintegration, this book kept me up all night as I read it non-stop from beginning to end. After breakfast and a quick nap, I sat down and read the book all over again. This book isn't just for the children of people suffering from Alzheimer's; it's for all of us who have faced, are facing, or will face the aging and death of parents. I join the author in laughing and weeping over this universal human predicament. Thank you, Ms. Cooney, for writing this book.

This book is a must read! You will laugh. You will cry. But if you have ever been a caregiver for a loved one with dementia of the Alzheimer's type, you will finally know--really know--you are not alone. Someone out there(E.Cooney), knows exactly what you are going through--all your feelings of sorrow and stress, all your frustration and guilt.
Personally, I found I really needed to read this book. I thought there were no words to describe the intensity of the experience I went through with my beloved mother, who also had A.D. But E. Cooney's words do just that.
Her honest story will amaze you as you hear your own voice echoing her thoughts and emotions. You'll ride the roller-coaster of high expectations and low disappointments, high hopes and low regrets, in the land of Alzheimer's.
I wish I had had this book when I was caring for my mother. I knew of no one who could truly understand our plight, not just when my mom lived with me, but also when I had to move her elsewhere. Though back then I might have been too exhausted to read more than a few pages each day, even that would've been such comfort and encouragement to my aching heart, because I wouldn't have felt so alone.
Over three years have passed since my mother died, and I am still processing grief over my loss and her sad decline. But in the pages of this book, I found a healing balm. Whether or not it was the author's intention, she has given me a gift for which I am truly grateful. Buy this book, and pray for a cure for this devastating disease!

Lovely & fascinating piece of work. Her voice is so lucid, so deliberate, reminds me of what an old mentor advised me in my youth: "Full speed ahead, and strive for tone!"

I loved the story, sad as it is. I loved the author's willingness to totally expose herself in order to honour her subject and craft. There wasn't a page in there that seemed like Ms. Cooney was hiding back behind it, it was all so up front...... And especially I loved the wonderful hilarious touching tough loose accurate lingo......

This is a beautiful piece of writing.

I first came across Noelle Howey's experience in a briefly condensed first-person magazine article, and was delighted to pick up this book which is a more detailed account of her family's transition and restructuring.

Her dad started out as the quintesential "good old boy" but gradually realized that he had to be open with his need to be a female lesbian. The disclosure alternatley reassured and startled the author who realized that American society does not generally supply children of GLBTs with a "what to expect" guidebook.

Although I personally was not undergoing a story simmilar to hers, I was captivated by the frank prose and unyielding love for her father--irrespective of dad's gender. The journey was not easy for any of the family members (indeed, Howey takes care not to gloss over the contradictory feelings and internal frustrations that she experienced during her dad's transformation), but absolutley critical for the family's mental stability.

Our society loves to wax poetic on "family values" but does not neccesarily place compatible actions behind those words. Against all expectations and pronouncements from the larger society, the Howey family dealt with the revelation in a positive and empowering manner that ultimatley made the new family structure a zillon times stronger than their so-called "All American" model.

Even if you do not have a transgendered family member, it is impossible to read this book without crying, laughing or otherwise being reminded that good families come in all formats.

This evening I had the great pleasure of hearing Noelle Howey read from her memoir DRESS CODES. This is not a book it would ordinarily occur to me to pick up, but Noelle's voice and extraordinary storytelling ability makes DRESS CODES a must-read. From page one I was hooked. What is so compelling about Noelle Howey's story is how she makes what at first glance seems so strange - a father becoming a woman - into an every-family story (she grew up in Ohio, what is more middle-America than that?). Do yourself a favor and read DRESS CODES.

This is a well-written memoir by a remarkable young woman who, at the age of fifteen, was made aware of the fact that her father was suffering from gender dysphoria. It seemed that her father enjoyed cross dressing and had decided that he would prefer to do so all the time. He had come to a realization that he was actually a transsexual and not just a transvestite.

This wryly funny memoir, which is not just the author's memoir but that of her mother, as well, and, to some extent, that of her father, though, as in life, his essence remains the most elusive. The author is clearly an intelligent, perceptive young woman, and she lays bare her parents' relationship, to the extent that she can, with their blessing, as well as her recollection of growing up in a household where the father was evidently deeply troubled by his gender issues. She outlines the impact that this had on him and, consequently, on her and her mother, as well as on the family dynamics. She fully discusses the changes that his coming out about his gender issues would confer upon them all, both good and bad.

Informative as well as entertaining, the author manages to infuse a great deal of perceptiveness in analyzing the familial relationships. She supported her father's decision, though some of the issues that she had with him were not as a direct result of his gender dysphoria, but rather with the way he treated both her and her mother as she was growing up. Still, as someone who grew up in a seemingly traditional nuclear family, only to find herself in a non-traditional one, the author has remained remarkable sanguine about the entire experience.

This is a wonderful book that gives a birds-eye view of the experience of living with someone who has gender dysphoria. It is also gives the reader a peek into a family that was simply trying to cope the best way that they knew how, given the little that they knew about what was really at the core of many of the troubling dynamics within the household. It is a book that grounds what some may perceive as an unreal situation in the context of a vital family that was simply struggling to survive a complicated situation into which they were thrust by forces beyond their control. It is a portrait of a family in pain that survives and comes to terms with its permutation.

What a welcome relief to read such an inspiring book that relates so well to the personal side of sales. This is one sales book I'll keep. SPROUT! illustrates a simple, but brilliant, sales approach that can make a profound difference with your customers. An added benefit, besides increased sales, is in rediscovering the enthusiasm and passion you used to enjoy in your job.

The authors make it easy to recharge your career by using their simple "Sales Garden Model: Planning, Seeding, Nurturing, and Harvesting." The gardening metaphor makes perfect sense and it makes the sales process fun and enjoyable. Suggestion: A great way to start your day is to review and think about just one of the many cleverly packaged Sales Tips displayed throughout SPROUT!

I read Sprout! in a couple of hours. Once I started I couldn't put it down. I loved the gardening methaphor, the simple elegance of the model and the meaningful insights from the discussions between the key characters. Already, I have reaped the benefits of implementing some of the actions recommended in my own job -- and I'm not even a sales person!

I enjoyed this book! SPROUT! will become part of my personal sales book library. I like sales books that don't give me 101 things to remember, in fact I found that I could use the concepts the next day at a sales call with a potential new client.

My wife also read the book because she was attracted to the title, and she said she found it helpful for her own job. She is always trying to sell new ideas to her boss and colleagues at her corporate office. She found the ideas from the book very usable in promoting her more innovative ideas. I give the book a thumbs up!

After reading Carolyn Mackler's "Love and Other Four Letter Words", I borrowed this book--the author's second--from a friend. From the description and the first few pages, I thought "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things" would be a fresh, funny, and entertaining read, but I was less than satisfied.

The novel revolves around Virginia Shreves, a teeanger in NYC who feels like an outcast because her older siblings appear to be near-perfect, she is overweight and insecure about her body, and her best friend just moved cross-country. Throughout the book, Virginia deals with all sorts of teenager-ish problems, from fitting in to coping with her parents to her first experiences with the opposite sex.

Though I liked the premise of the book, it wasn't really an interesting read. Virgina spent so much time complaining about her weight that it made *me* feel fat. I don't know if the author was the most insecure person in the world, but the story's heroine didn't seem like the average teen to me, and most of her rants were very extreme; it was hard to laugh at certain parts, even if it was clear they were written to be funny.

The book did have a few honest laughs and a believable plotline, but Virginia was so angsty it was more annoying than entertaining to read her "diary entries".

Maybe I just had high expectations after I enjoyed Carolyn Mackler's "Love and Other Four-Letter Words" so much, but I didn't enjoy this book and I wouldn't reccommend it.

This book was just too good, it tells the story of Verginia Shreves, and her dealing with her best friends move to Walla Walla Washington, and her weird, and sometimes embarrassing first love. And while that seems like a total "Yeah-sounds-like-any-other-first-love-teenage-book-of-growing-up-and-finding-yourself" it really is much more then that. Virginia's story gets much deeper when her brother, (who also happens to be the one person in the entire world that she admires and looks up to the most) makes a huge life changing mastake that will follow him for the rest of his life. And while all this is happening Verginia decides that she is not going to take any of her mothers [stuff] anymore and stop looking the way her mother wants her to look, and starts being the person that she has always been deep down inside, and not just the fat, shy, loser girl that people once knew her as. I truly loved this book and recomend it to anyone who loves to read like I do.

This book is a delight. The humor is wonderful, and the main character so well drawn. There aren't many novels like this-- fast-paced and very funny, yet also deep and memorable.

I started this book last night after dinner and finished it around 2:30 a.m. this morning. I couldn't put it down.

The story is of an overweight girl with very low self-esteem and a selfish family. Gradually, she learns to love herself and to see her family's flaws and thrive in spite of them. It's an empowering book-- for overweight people, for teens, for females, for most readers I believe.

I reccommend it highly.

I recommend reading Kristine Smith's DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories concerning the actor and his presence in the author's life.

I enjoyed reading Harvest. The easy flow of the chapters transitioned smoothly into one another.
I also enjoyed re-reading the book; this afforded me the chance to catch all of the things I missed
the first time around. This is a real-life book, filled with the good, bad, and funny times that are present in all of our lives at one point or another.

In addition, it was a real treat to read about the dynamic duo- DeForest Kelley and his wife Carolyn (two sweet people who cared very deeply for one another).

And finally, I appreciated the way the ending chapters of this book were handled: I was informed of DeForest Kelley's final days without being upset.

If you are a fan of DeForest Kelley, then definitely take a look at A Harvest of Memories. This book is also a very good read for those interested in subject matter that deals with everyday life and does not gloss itself over. As a fan of his, I was, of course, very interested in this book, but even more delighted with the brisk pace and real life aspects of the book.

Happy reading!

This book truly is a harvest of memories. It shows what a wonderful human being Mr. Kelley was. After reading the book, you will get to know his most beautiful and genuine feelings and how much he enjoyed his life, his career and his friends. This book is a real treasure for all of Mr. Kelley's fans.
Kris Smith is a remarkable, courageous person. No doubt she was a blessing for the Kelleys, and a role model for all of the people who get to read this book. The admiration I feel for her now is limitless.
This book will make you laugh, and it will certainly make you cry. It shows how life should be lived, how friends should be loved, treasured and taken care of, and how important family is.
You will not be disappointed. It will change your perspective of life in a positive way.

Having been a DeForest Kelley fan now for over 35 years and spending 14 of those years as the President of the Australian DeForest Kelley Fan Club - DeCoy - I feel some of the same camaraderie that Kristine M. Smith feels for the character of McCoy in Star Trek. Yet this book tells of her almost wonderous story in the arms of (sometimes literally)DeForest and Carolyn Kelley. Kristine's writing of A Harvest Of Mememories is such a marvellous account of a friend/fan's life that it needs to be recognised as an almost 'must read' for those of us who say we loved the man DeForest Kelley and/or the character Dr. 'Bones' McCoy.
However it also gives us a great insight into how to care for oneself when one is caring for a dying person. In order to help other people one needs to be able to look after 'the self' first. In this instance it is not only good for Kelley fans but for anyone trying to come to terms with the loss of a loved one.
Kristine's reminiscences of her time with De and Carolyn are sometimes funny and touching, just what a fan like me who only knew the couple by mail would want to know about them.
Kristine handles the whole experience with De and Carolyn with love and dignity. Thank you.

This is one of the best books I have read. I have so much respect for the author's ability to explore and map out so eloquently the haunting journey of his schizophrenic father. As another reviewer here pointed out - there needs to be more books like this and there needs to be more attention brought to this book so that more people learn the truth about severe mental illness.

Reading "The Outsider" allows you to enter a world few people understand. This book hits the reader on many different levels of thought and emotion. You are provided an in-depth look at the world of a clearly sophisticated and intelligent man whose illness takes him to the outer realms of society. The book also brings to light how the severely mentally ill are overlooked in our society.

Mostly though, this book represented to me one man's strength and courage to take a close look at his father's illness and openly express his feelings along the way.

A son's attempt to come to understand the schizophrenic illness that struck his father when the son was a small boy. He had had little contact with him after that, but he came to know in later times his father's story, the downward spiral caused by his illness. What comes through, too, is the dignity with which his father attempted to cling to his humanity, even though he was tortured by a convoluted paranoid delusional system. Eventually the people in a Vermont town were able help him, ironically, by getting him convicted for panhandling, a move that got him off the streets, where his weight, at a height of 6'4", was 140 pounds, and where he was suffering frostbite during a bitter winter, and into a mental hospital where he was given medication that improved his condition and undoubtedly saved his life. The author writes about the pros and cons, then, of our society having criminalized mental illness; in this case the father's life was saved after he'd been arrested for a petty crime, determined to be not guilty by reason of insanity, and sent to a mental hospital where he got the care he needed. A riveting book.

I found this book to be very well written and admired the courage and strength of its subject as well as the courage of the author. It must have been very painful for Nathaniel Lachenmeyer to learn of, then write about, some of the trials his father faced and conquered while receiving no support from family or friends. He is to be commended for sharing this memoir. It will help the reader to better understand the illness of schizophrenia and particularly to empathize with the homeless who suffer from the illness.