An exuberantly written guide to becoming a strong young woman.
In this debut self-help book, a mother issues an enthusiastic plea for young women to value themselves holistically and also expounds on the concept of “beauty.”
Organized around an acrostic of the word “beautiful,” Peddie’s text offers bite-sized meditations on how one can focus on one’s mental fortitude and happiness in a technology-obsessed culture. The chapters address general concepts, including kindness (“B Is for Being Kind”) and gratitude (“T Is for Thankfulness and gratefulness”), but they also offer concrete advice about taking time to “unplug,” to focus on one’s education, and to take care of one’s body. The seventh chapter draws on Peddie’s own experiences as a Christian to show how approaching the concept of faith with “an open heart” may benefit anyone, whether they participate in organized religion or not. Lists of practical suggestions include simple kindnesses (“offer people a piece of your gum”) and advice to “seek an older sibling or trusted friend who loves you and wants to protect you” when deciding how to proceed in a romantic relationship. The conclusion contains journal-oriented “thought starters” on topics covered in each chapter. Throughout, the prose has the cheerleading tone of someone who hopes that her young female readers will succeed in finding self-respect and self-love. A major strength of the text is that it dwells on the positive potential of girls and women rather than on shaming them. For example, rather than pointing out the evils of screen time, Peddie simply notes the importance of fostering a relationship with oneself, away from technology. The author’s compassionate point of view softens harder lessons, such as how making mistakes in life can make one resilient. By the end of the book, however, the messages’ power fades a bit due to repetition. As a result, the book is perfect for occasional dips and personal meditations.
An exuberantly written guide to becoming a strong young woman.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5320-5736-6
Page Count: 133
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
PERSPECTIVES
A celebratory song of the sea.
A shrimpy 13-year-old with a super-sized passion for marine life comes of age during a summer of discovery on the tidal flats of Puget Sound.
Miles O’Malley—Squid Boy to his friends—doesn’t mind being short. It’s other things that keep him awake at night, like his parents’ talk of divorce and his increasingly lustful thoughts about the girl next door. Mostly, though, it’s the ocean’s siren call that steals his sleep. During one of his moonlit kayak excursions, Miles comes across the rarest sighting ever documented in the northern Pacific: the last gasp of a Giant Squid. Scientists are stunned. The media descend. As Miles continues to stumble across other oddball findings, including two invasive species that threaten the eco-balance of Puget Sound, a nearby new-age cult’s interest in Miles prompts a headline in USA Today: Kid Messiah? Soon tourists are flocking to the tidal flats, crushing crustaceans underfoot and painting their bodies with black mud. Dodging disingenuous journalists, deluded disciples and the death-throes of his parents’ marriage, Miles tries to recapture some semblance of normality. He reads up on the G-spot and the Kama Sutra to keep pace with his pals’ bull sessions about sex (hilariously contributing “advanced” details that gross the other boys out). But Miles’s aquatic observations cannot be undone, and as summer draws to a close, inhabitants of Puget Sound prepare for a national blitzkrieg of media and scientific attention and the highest tide in 40 years, all of which threatens everything Miles holds dear. On land, the rickety plot could have used some shoring up. Miles is just too resourceful for the reader to believe his happiness—or that of those he loves—is ever at stake. But when Miles is on the water, Lynch’s first novel becomes a stunning light show, both literal, during phosphorescent plankton blooms, and metaphorical, in the poetic fireworks Lynch’s prose sets off as he describes his clearly beloved Puget Sound.
A celebratory song of the sea.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2005
ISBN: 1-58234-605-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
