Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

  • HONG KONG CENTRAL, Lee Carruthers #3 by Marilynn Larew – Suspense, Crime Thriller

    HONG KONG CENTRAL, Lee Carruthers #3 by Marilynn Larew – Suspense, Crime Thriller

    Former CIA agent and all around badass, Lee Carruthers, returns for the thrilling third book in the series, Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew.

    Lee is looking forward to some well-earned downtime, so when her ex-boss and mentor, Sidney Worthington calls with another job, Lee is not amused. During her previous mission, people tried to kill her—multiple times. All she really wants right now is some serious R&R. However, she is the gal who will never say “no” to a job. And besides, Worthington swears it’s an easy gig.

    Easy sounds nice. So, our heroine jets off to Hong Kong to track down Henry Wong, an antique dealer who missed a routine weekly check-in for the first time in twenty years. What could possibly be easier?

    Once Lee arrives, she sets out to locate Wong Antiques and its proprietor, Henry. Ever the professional finder, she arrives at the antique shop just in time and witnesses Henry’s kidnapping. Lee “borrows” a random motorcycle (she’s not shy about bending a law or two when necessary) and the chase is on, ending when the bad guys dump Henry inside a bar run by a notorious Triad. This initiates a string of unfortunate events for Lee.

    In no time at all, Lee is caught up in a battle between the police and pro-democracy demonstrators. The police pursue the demonstrators with tear gas and arrest as many of them as they can get their hands on, including our heroine – Lee. The pièce de résistance: while in jail, Lee is doused with vomit, thanks to one of her cellmates. The end of a perfect day—said no one.

    Once Lee is released, her mission becomes even more tangled by labyrinthine layers of deception and obfuscation. She must kick her badassery into gear to complete the mission and stay alive. So much for a simple job.

    The character of Lee Carruthers is well-crafted, compelling, and believable. She knows what she wants and when she wants it – and especially when she doesn’t. She can dazzle her prey by wearing a sexy black dress, tote a pistol in her clutch, or sport blue jeans and running shoes to investigate a suspicious event. Readers who loved Lee Carruthers in The Spider Catchers and Dead in Dubai will love her even more now. Readers who are new to Larew’s series are in for a fabulously thrilling, nail-biting, page-turning, edge-of-their seats ride.

    Marilynn Larew’s writing style is smooth, engaging, and well-paced. Her ability to craft vibrant settings against the backdrop of exotic and gritty Hong Kong is exceptionally well-delivered. To sum it all up, Hong Kong Central is an absolute win.

    Reviewer’s Notes:

    • How was the writing? Excellent. The author crafts a solid story layered with interesting characters moving in and around the exotic, politically sensitive, and criminal underworld of Hong Kong. Her ability to create intriguing, believable scenes with succinct, eloquent prose is outstanding.
    • Is there any sex? Yes, but it’s not graphic and works to reveal Lee’s attitude towards short and long-term relationships.
    • Is there any violence? Yes, but it is not disproportionally graphic and is necessary to reveal the possible dangers facing the lead character.
    • How is the book narrated? First-Person.
    • Which tense is the book? Past.
    • What’s the mood? Tense, colorful, and mysterious.

    *Fans may purchase Hong Kong Central from the following retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Kobo, and Apple iTunes

     

  • DARKNESS FALLS, Book Two of WINDHOLLOWS by Trayner Bane – Children’s Books, Fantasy & Magic, Sword & Sorcery

    DARKNESS FALLS, Book Two of WINDHOLLOWS by Trayner Bane – Children’s Books, Fantasy & Magic, Sword & Sorcery

    What would life be like if the air we breathe was slowly, consciously, being robbed of oxygen itself?

    What if the dark side in all of us could be manipulated by a soulless fiend, converting us into unwilling weapons against our own people?

    While Air of Vengeance, the first book in the Windhollows series dealt more with issues of overcoming differences, friendships and family, Darkness Falls is more of an adventure/quest: characters from the first book bent on vanquishing evil and saving friends and family…

    Windhollows is an idyllic land populated with fantastical creatures, where its peoples live symbiotically, producing complementary air-like Essenses necessary for life. Its way of life is threatened by a brilliant, twisted genius who vows revenge on the people who rejected him because he was different, whose arsenal of weapons both rob the air people breathe and turns others into creatures whose purpose in life is to destroy the ones they once loved.

    As the second book opens, Doctor Molskin, father of Billy, the hero of Volume 1, discovers that the breathable air in parts of Windhollows, is being robbed of some of its essential chemical makeup called Essense. He understands almost immediately that the problem has been created by his former assistant who now calls himself Rip Stinker, a brilliant but twisted soul whose dismissal from the doctor’s Essense labs has caused him to seek revenge against the doctor, his children and all “normal” Windhollows denizens.

    Stinker was born a “bare pants,” children lacking Essense and therefore societal outcasts. His revenge has been to rob a group of healthy children from birth of their Essense, including Billy, turning them “bare pants.” More menacing, he has now created another weapon that can transform these same children into misshapen monsters seeking their own revenge for their flawed destiny.

    Two stories alternate throughout most of the book. First is the quest to find and destroy Rip Stinker and his evil technology undertaken initially by Dr. Molskin, and eventually by his son Billy along with two friends. The other story is built around Skylar, the sweet, innocent young barepants girl who was the object of Billy’s infatuation in the first book. She and other “bare pants” have been wooed by Rip Stinker’s seductive message of regaining their full Essense but she has her doubts about what this Faustian bargain will yield.

    Along the way to Rip Stinker’s castle, Skylar discovers she has a mysterious ability to talk to the wild animals that no one else has. Just as she is reveling in her new powers, she runs afoul of Rip Stinker’s technology that turns her into a monster similar to Stinker himself who now is ruled by a darkness within her that she never knew existed, and she now finds her waging a war within, of light versus the darkness, even as she joins Stinker and his nefarious plans.

    How these two quests intersect becomes the race-to-the-finish theme of this admirable middle-grade fantasy novel.

     

     

     

    Follow the links to read the Axe Breaker and Air of Vengeance Chanticleer Reviews!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • The LOOSE ENDS BECAME KNOTS: An ILLNESS NARRATIVE by Austin Hopkins – Memoir, Sexual Awakening, Health and Wellness

    The LOOSE ENDS BECAME KNOTS: An ILLNESS NARRATIVE by Austin Hopkins – Memoir, Sexual Awakening, Health and Wellness

    A young man survives the extremes of sexual abuse, physical harm and emotional chaos in the harrowing and profoundly powerful memoir, The Loose Ends Became Knots: An Illness Narrative by Austin M. Hopkins.

     The experience of sexual violence starts for Hopkins as a teenager, during the time he struggles defining his own sexual identity. The men he meets take advantage of his youth and naiveté, at first, and later, though he gradually becomes wiser to the stark intricacies of a sexual awakening in the world of gay men, he still succumbs to men who use him – with and without his consent. He never seeks such treatment consciously, yet, it continues to happen. What is it about him that attracts predatory partners, he wonders? Hopkins grapples with the many issues that often assail young people dealing with gender identity: How can he reach out to his parents for help when the root of his pain contradicts whom he believes they want him to be? Is he disappointing them? Will they cut him out of their lives? How complicated his life has become since his childhood!

     As encounter after encounter with unkind and uncaring individuals sends him into a downward spiral, three things work together to give him hope: he’s a bright student and doing well in college; he finds an excellent therapist who offers concrete advice and skills that will serve to help him personally and professionally in the years to come; and finally, after courageous self-examination and altered personal perspective, he meets a loving, compassionate partner, who, though not fully understanding the different emotions and energies from Hopkins past, authentically recognizes and acknowledges the unique qualities that his partner brings into their marriage.

     Hopkins has collected this episodic memoir from his journals, poetry and other writings, and added the observations of others, attributing identity where permission was granted. He carefully phrases the depictions of sexual violence in a manner that compels the reader to feel his pain and humiliation. Hopkins does not shrink from the frank sense of shame and self-blame that characterizes his early encounters. Readers unfamiliar with sexual awakening stories may find some of the text hard to work through. And yet, the author presents his work as a gift to those who are on the brink of their own sexual awakening – or who are already there and wonder what next to do – how to live successfully in the malaise of public opinion and family complications. It is through the pain and traumatic recollections that Hopkins expresses himself most eloquently – and it is here where his work, though painful, is the most rewarding. Readers witness a young man triumph over obstacles and begin to actively balance his life with acceptance and love, endeavoring to help others along the way.

    Hopkins’ story is profoundly powerful. And his story is not over – he is, after all, a young man working towards a career in medicine. He offers this narrative to “raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual violence within the gay community” as he experienced it. His goal is to help others who are experiencing similar kinds of abuse and hopefully shed a much-needed light in this potentially lonely and frightening time for those whose sexual identity is something other than what certain groups claim as normal.

  • A DOCTOR a DAY: A Novel (EveryDoctor Series, Book 1) by Bernard Mansheim, M.D. – Literary Fiction, Medical, Social & Family Issues

    A DOCTOR a DAY: A Novel (EveryDoctor Series, Book 1) by Bernard Mansheim, M.D. – Literary Fiction, Medical, Social & Family Issues

    A behind-the-scenes look at the life of a medical doctor, from med school to internship to private practice to the courtroom and beyond.

    Dr. Luke James is in private practice. He has a loving wife and young daughter, and in some ways, his work brings joy and affirmation.  But when he started his long journey through the healing profession, he knew there would be times when all his efforts would end in the loss of a patient. As this intensely emotional story opens, Dr. James is in court, defending himself in a malpractice suit in which, as the prosecutor accuses, “You let your patient die.” Told in flashbacks, we see how the lawsuit is calling into question many of the ideals the physician once cherished. He recalls crucial incidents from his fraught, exhausting, sometimes depressing, sometimes uplifting days of doctoring, the many times when his judgment might have prevented — or resulted in — the death of a patient in critical condition.

    As he watches patients die, their last moments provide a profound reminder of the swiftness of death—” like flipping off a switch.” Yet Dr. James will continue to offer words of comfort and try daring remedies. Once he even donated his own blood in hope of a miracle cure for one of his patents. He thinks that the practice of medicine is an art and a craft that must be honed and believes that even the science of medicine inexorably dictates its own terms. As he remembers his work life in all its complex aspects, Dr. James ponders his decision for the patient whose demise is the focus of the malpractice trial. Was he “playing God?” Did he rob the patient of her right to a longer life, even though that would have been a life of an unconscious mind and a body riddled with tubes, unhealable wounds, and deterioration?

    Author, and former practicing physician, Bernard Mansheim has fictionalized the duties and dichotomies of his own experience as a doctor so starkly that there can be no doubt of his deep connection to the questions posed and the answers sought by Luke James. Mansheim started his education with a BA in English Literature, and there is also no doubt of his ability to compose a gripping saga that tears away any blinders we might have had about the glamour of a doctor’s life.

    At one point, Mansheim’s hero realizes he can’t allow himself to cry and begins to build an inner wall to hide some of his worst fears and sorrows, creating a backlog of unexamined depression. In an author’s note, Mansheim states that the suicide rate among doctors is 50% greater than that of the general population. It is known that a doctor a day commits suicide. This dismal trend has followed since 1858. His story boldly reveals some possible reasons for that grim statistic, while leaving room for hope for his embattled protagonist and others like him. This novel lays the foundation for discourse about this public health crisis and may be one of the most important books that you could read this year.

  • The MOUSE, the MOLE, and the MAGNIFICENT MOSS-COVERED HOUSE by Stirling C., Illustrated by Donna Washington – Children’s Picture Book, Beginner Readers

    The MOUSE, the MOLE, and the MAGNIFICENT MOSS-COVERED HOUSE by Stirling C., Illustrated by Donna Washington – Children’s Picture Book, Beginner Readers

    In The Mouse, the Mole, and the Magnificent Moss-Covered House written by Stirling C. and illustrated by Donna Washington, Milly Mouse moves into a brand-new home. She works tirelessly making the perfect space for herself. Every day, she awakens with a purpose; her tight schedule of baking and cleaning keeps her busy, but she always allows herself time for painting.  Milly soon realizes she’s missing one thing, a friend.

    As she begins to explore a tunnel she finds, she eventually discovers exactly what she needs. Morton Mole has lived in the moss-covered hill for years. His home is overflowing with books and maps. Morton begins each day slowly, taking his time to figure out the one thing he wishes to accomplish that day. Morton’s favorite part of the day is when he writes, but just like Milly, Morton is lonely. While exploring his tunnels, he too will discover the one thing that will make his life perfect.

    With many picture books, the drawings are secondary to the story, not so with this one. Washington’s illustrations are exceptional. Through the drawings, the reader sees details that aren’t part of the text. From the subtle to-do lists on Milly’s wall to Morton’s map, these drawings do more than just tell the story; they enhance it, taking it beyond the text, which is important since young children learn so much about life visually. The illustrations make Milly and Morton both modern and timeless. A coloring book exploring the further adventures of Milly and Morton and encouraging children to write their own tales and draw their own illustrations is also available.

    This backward and forward book emphasizes the differences in Milly’s and Morton’s personalities. An ingenious page with a hole shows the exact moment when the two characters meet and instructs the reader how to continue. Morton’s story mirrors Milly’s but highlights the differences between them.  Neither character is shown as more important than the other. Both of their traits are essential and valuable to society. The world needs busy bees, like Milly, and deep thinkers, like Morton. This charming book shows children how two completely opposite characters can become the best of friends. It celebrates our differences and shows how valuable those differences can be.

    A beautifully illustrated story about unlikely friendship and good neighbors for the very young and old alike. A joy to experience!

  • PIZZA WITH JESUS (NO BLACK OLIVES) by PJ Frick – Memoir, Grief & Dying, Devotion, Inspirational

    PIZZA WITH JESUS (NO BLACK OLIVES) by PJ Frick – Memoir, Grief & Dying, Devotion, Inspirational

    Memories of love and despair combine with hope and faith in this honest depiction of one woman’s struggle dealing with grief surrounding the loss of her husband to cancer.

    Author P.J. Frick writes movingly of her successful and courageous battle with breast cancer, to be followed, tragically, by her husband David’s diagnosis—inoperable pancreatic cancer. The couple shares a Christian faith that bolsters them with compassionate community, much-needed emotional support, and the belief that things will be better if not now, certainly in the future. But their faith isn’t their only anchor. The couple often finds joy in their shared love for their pets and pizza for dinners.

    P.J. and David are moving contentedly through life when they must face a series of events the author calls a “hit list.” After they move to a more expensive home, a costly merger at work negatively affects P.J.’s employment. The author, experiencing physical signs of stress, quits her job to pursue a Master’s Degree in Library Science.

    Just when things seem to calm down, P.J. discovers a lump and breast cancer is diagnosed. A plan is made to fight the disease. And the plan is successful! However, David secretly spirals out of control, dealing with the overwhelming stress and grief of almost losing his wife by secretly drinking. When he gradually comes to his senses, he receives his own diagnosis: inoperable pancreatic cancer.

    David passes and P. J. is overcome with grief. One day as she is on a hunt for a neighbor’s lost dog, she has a revelation: God is always waiting for us, even as we stray from His loving care. This knowledge comforts her and aids in her grieving, bringing an ameliorating sense of peace.

    This narrative will touch any reader who has been through even a portion of what she and David experienced. Her retrospective spiritual understanding adds a layer of hope and comfort, underpinned by comments about David’s positive qualities shared by family and friends after his passing. Interwoven with the chronicle of woes are vignettes of pets that provided cheer, even inspiration in this dark time of her life. Significant dreams, especially those about David after his death, seem a necessary part of Frick’s healing process.

     

  • RAVEN’S RESURRECTION by John Trudel – Cybertech, Paranormal, Thriller

    RAVEN’S RESURRECTION by John Trudel – Cybertech, Paranormal, Thriller

    “Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” – George Orwell

    The much-anticipated sequel to Raven’s Redemption is finally here! The story is set just a few weeks after we left Josie and Raven saving the President of the United States from certain death and thwarting the attempts on their own lives using some rather creative methods. The President is a true believer in Josie’s “remote viewing” talents and has her designated a national treasure, worth saving at all costs. Josie’s information can be trusted but never proven. Raven’s job is to do whatever it takes to keep her alive.

    Josie’s paranormal talent makes her a target, and the safe house she and Raven occupy is compromised. Their would-be attackers leave behind clues that open links to a possible Quds base in California, and to a character from Soft Target and Privacy Wars whose mysterious kidnapping over a decade ago will challenge the team to redefine the events that took place at that time.

    The story is set a couple of presidencies in the future and progresses by a series of conversations that require close attention to get the most from this novel. Characters discuss past events and perspectives as examples of ideologies, methods, and motivations dating back to the earlier administrations.

    Raven’s Resurrection plunges the reader into strategic meetings for covert operations. While involving high levels of government, the team operates in the shadows: no cell phones, no recordings, not even written notes for the most part. They do, however, utilize technology created by Cybertech, because of its advanced security features. Targeted individuals need to be taken out without the threads of blame leading back to anyone on the team—especially not to the President.

    Our hero is working less “rogue” now and more as a team member. Raven also realizes that he is stronger when he and Josie work together. Their relationship is maturing, and while the more intimate moments between them are off screen, readers will witness the couple’s deep tenderness toward one another, and thrill as the more strategic aspects of their lives together develop as they work on the logistics of just how best to protect one another.

    Meanwhile, attempts on the President’s life are continuing. Raven’s supporters are pushing the Joint Chiefs to abide a secret committee with the curious name of “Covfefe.” This group operates off the books, deep black, to remove – not arrest – targeted individuals on the premise their elimination would weaken the enemy faster than an all-out war, with the added benefit of fewer casualties.

    Meanwhile, Josie has valuable INTEL regarding an individual with whom the Russians have an interest in, in exchange for something the Americans want; a meeting ensues, but can the Russians be trusted?

    Staging scenes that would be fitting for James Bond, Trudel shines in skill and talent as he gives us wildly entertaining action sequences. Smoke bombs, zappers, lethal weaponry abound! The team has irrefutably graduated from an under-funded, often fumbling, renegade cluster to a sophisticated outfit with souped-up cars, choice weapons, and a decent backup at their disposal.

    This book departs from the familiar third-person narrative. The “I” voice changes from scene to scene, bringing the reader into a “point-of-view” that is as fun to imagine as it is hard, shifting readers from hero to villain. Of course, the first-person point-of-view also invites the opportunity for the unreliable narrator, which adds another layer of intrigue to this story.

    Trudel provides a list of acronyms and their meanings at the beginning of the book. At the end of the book, readers will find his familiar “Factoids and Fantasies” that provide his framework of events and references (from his perspective) on which much of his work centers around. If you’ve enjoyed any of the Cybertech series, you won’t want to miss this latest installment.

     

  • The FREEZER: The Tanner Sequence, Book 2 by Timothy S. Johnston – Mystery/Thriller, Sci-Fi, Space Colonization

    The FREEZER: The Tanner Sequence, Book 2 by Timothy S. Johnston – Mystery/Thriller, Sci-Fi, Space Colonization

    5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book ReviewsThere are mysteries to solve and ticking time bombs to defuse in Timothy Johnston’s second book in The Tanner Sequence. Readers, grab onto your seats for richly crafted, multi-genre novel in a world set 400 years into the future.

    Homicide Detective Lieutenant Kyle Tanner has been diverted from a trip to Pluto with his soul mate (Shaheen) to investigate a murder at Ceres, a base on the largest asteroid in The Belt. A doctor is dead, one of three that had recently transferred from a research station called The Freezer on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. An autopsy reveals the doctor died of an aneurysm of his aorta – natural causes. The case is solved almost before it starts, and Tanner can catch the next shuttle to Pluto to join his love. Then word comes that Shaheen is dead, having just suffered a catastrophic aneurysm of her aorta.

    One death by a rare medical condition is unlucky. Two within days is more than suspicious.

    Tanner orders a new autopsy on the doctor. Remnants of an exploded nano-bot are discovered. The death was not natural; it was murder. And the murderer has also taken his love, Shaheen. (Or was she collateral damage from an attempt on his life?) He orders a medical scan on himself. Inside his aorta, next to his heart, a nano-bot slowly saws at the walls of his largest artery. Doctors tell him he has four days left. Four days to find a killer. Four days to find a way to disable the bot systematically killing him (ticking time bomb.)

    He suspects the two colleagues of the slain doctor from The Freezer. And he suspects the answers he seeks are linked to their time at the research facility on Europa. Once at Europa, with his two suspects in tow, Tanner finds resistance, hostility, and secrets no one wants to be revealed.

    All the while his time is running out.

    The Freezer is well written, and the characters are fleshed out in a world where claustrophobia and a constant chill from living on a frozen, hostile world dependent on airlocks and environmental suits for survival, are routine. For science fiction lovers, the new world of the future is masterfully crafted, and the reader is there, in Tanner’s shoes half a solar system away. For mystery lovers, there are plot twists, lies, misdirection to wade through, and secrets to be revealed in pursuit of the truth. So many secrets. For thriller lovers, the clock is ticking. Tanner has four days to unravel the truth hidden in The Freezer to solve the crime and save his own life.

    Just when you think you have everything figured out, Johnston piles on more, and more, and more.

  • MURDER OFF the BEATEN PATH (A Search and Rescue Mystery) by M.L. Rowland – Female Sleuth, Cozy Mystery, Women’s Adventure, Search and Rescue

    MURDER OFF the BEATEN PATH (A Search and Rescue Mystery) by M.L. Rowland – Female Sleuth, Cozy Mystery, Women’s Adventure, Search and Rescue

    It’s an uncommon mystery novel that delivers a really good whodunit and yet makes the central character’s passion for her avocation, in this instance the world of mountain search and rescue teams, an equally good reason for reading a book from cover to cover.

    M.L. Rowland knows her stuff in the field of S&R and authorship. You’ll never again see a TV news report of someone caught in a mountain disaster—trapped after a rock slide or pinned in their car after plunging off a high-altitude road—without remembering the riveting account of Gracie Kincaid as she and her experienced, professional rescue team make their way down a dangerous cliff at night to recover the body of a crash victim, only to discover that the victim is a dear friend of hers.

    It’s a dark portrait.

    You’ll know everything Gracie sees, feels, hears. Virtually no detail escapes her, whether it’s the seedy Christian camp where she works in the mountains of Southern California as a rope climbing instructor, on the trail of the suspicious, nasty, even venal brothers who run the camp, or her heartbreaking chores as an experienced senior member of a mountain search and rescue team. But it’s her experiences as a senior member of her team at work, that sets this book apart from other cozy mysteries. It’s possible to get these details from book-learning, but the writer’s personal experience in this field clearly shines through.

    While Gracie excels in her public service passion, not the same can be said about the rest of her life. A former advertising exec, she’s wandered from place to place until she has settled into a small cabin in the mountains of Southern California. A rich Brit that she rescued on a previous mission wants to wrap her up with a bow. They have great passionate sex—only hinted at here—but his world is not her world. And then the fellow Searcher, who captures her mind, but, alas, not her heart.

    The third man in her life, certainly not by choice, is an utter creep. Her scary encounter with him, richly detailed, is a convincing portrayal of a monster.

    The mystery itself is rich and satisfying: the story of a woman, told in the third person as a narrative, who obsesses over the suspicious death of a friend and co-worker at the camp and her search to uncover the terrible secret her friend discovered before she died when her car plunged over a cliff on a tortuous narrow mountain road. What she discovers is a web of drug-dealing, parental abuse, and the dark secret of what is really going on with the children attending the camp. A strange and sorrowful juxtaposition the camp makes against the pristine surrounding landscape.

    The portrait that emerges is of a smart, well-trained but hardly invulnerable woman whose occasional forays into her personal life seem less successful than her dedication to her work. Her life may be messy, but, isn’t everyone’s? Murder Off the Beaten Path manages the literary trick of being both a good mystery and a well-drawn portrait of a woman any reader might want nearby if found in dire need of being rescued in the mountains.

    Recommended.

     

  • ZILLY: A MODERN DAY FABLE by Kelly Parks Snider – Children’s/Middle Grade, Anti-Bullying, Self-Esteem

    ZILLY: A MODERN DAY FABLE by Kelly Parks Snider – Children’s/Middle Grade, Anti-Bullying, Self-Esteem

    Children’s books fall into many categories: picture books, early readers, books that teach the alphabet, colors etc. Zilly is a message book, presented with a poignant story, engaging artwork, and timely message.

    Zilly is an “out of the ordinary flyer” whose bumpy, flip-flop flying style garners criticism from the other flyers. It doesn’t help that her best friend who is always on the scene to offer support and encouragement, happens to be a goat named Mingle.

    When Zilly sees a large billboard that announces, “flying lessons for flyers who want to fit in” Zilly wants to try out. But this will require her to change from her free-spirited flips, zips, and bumpiness. The billboard also says: “no goats allowed.”

    Zilly falls for the message that she needs to conform to be beautiful like the other flyers and even snubs Mingle in order to fit in. But, on the day of her try-outs, she doesn’t measure up and Zilly is ready to hide away until she hears the voice of her best friend cheering for her.

    In Zilly, Parks Snider presents a positive message of being yourself when our society, through constant media messaging and peer pressure, attempts to get young people to be anything but themselves. Zilly has a timely theme and comes with discussion questions that children will benefit from considering – some questions may have to be modified for younger children.

    Kelly Parks Snider has created a colorful, thoughtful book that has the power to teach children of all ages that most important lesson we all need to learn: being yourself is good enough. The artwork in it is mixed media, with visual textures and eye-catching colors that will catch – and keep – readers’ attention. Parks Snider adds that her decision to create the book “… on old paper bags – allow[s] for additional discussions about creativity, repurposing stuff and that being creative and innovative doesn’t have to be expensive.”

    Kelly Parks Snider is passionate about this message and channeled her passion and artistic vision into a wonderful project called the Project Girl workshops in Madison, Wisconsin, aimed at tween and early teen girls. The workshops combined art, media awareness, and activism. It culminated in The Project Girl Exhibition which was accompanied by the publication of The Project Girl Workbook-A Guide to Un-Mediafying Your Life. which includes art and stories from Snider and artwork from some of the workshop participants whose works were in the exhibition.

    Find out more about this 2012 initiative and follow the author at projectgirl.org, www.zillybooks.com, and www.kellyparkssnider.com