Showing posts with label peer pressure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peer pressure. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Bertha and Tillie Sisters Forever - Fran Lewis, Author



Chicken Kabobs with Grilled Onions
(fRAN'S SISTER'S FAVORITE)

3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Pinch pepper
Pinch salt
1 pound chicken tenders, cut in half
1 bunch green onions
10 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes
 
Spray a grill rack with nonstick, nonflammable cooking spray. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.

In a large re-sealable plastic bag, combine the garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, teriyaki sauce, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and salt. Add the chicken. Seal the bag and chill for 1 hour.

Drain the chicken, discarding the marinade. Thread the chicken onto the skewers. Arrange the skewers on the grill, and grill until the chicken is done, about 3 minutes on each side. Grill the green onions until browned, about 1 minute on each side. Arrange the green onions on a serving platter. Top with the chicken. Serve immediately.
 

Bertha and Tillie Sisters Forever – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish
 
My mean and horrible cousin said, “Bertha is the one that started the spitball fight in the bathroom. She was throwing them at everyone, and even hit the guards in the face when they tried to stop them. She bumped into one of the guards and knocked him out with her wide butt when she tried to run away. The coach was knocked out when she threw the ball and broke the window, causing it to fall on the volleyball coach. She deserves whatever she gets. Bertha thinks she is so smart. All she is and will always be is fat, ugly, and oversized.”
 
Can you imagine being a young person and have someone talk about you in this manner? And with you standing there too? It has to hurt. Bertha is overweight but what she lacks on the outside she more than makes up for on the inside. She isn’t athletic, she can’t even throw a bowling ball without it landing in the wrong lane. But she is still a good person to know, to be around and one of the best friends you’ll ever have, if you just let her.
 
In Bertha and Tillie Sisters Forever, Bertha tries to find herself. She tries to find just where she fits in her world of peers. While doing this, she doesn’t always make the right choices. One of her tries came when she decided to join a gang that harassed little kids on the playground. She tried it but it just wasn’t in her to be mean. Lesson learned and her next step is taken. Instead of joining a ‘gang’ she decided to create her own. But instead of being mean, Bertha’s gang became a team of investigators who are instrumental in catching the guilty people who broke into the music room and destroyed the instruments, gaining her respect from the teachers and police as well as a few of her classmates.
 
With ‘Adolescent Bullying’ being brought to light lately, Sisters Forever is the perfect book for young people to read. It helps them in understanding that just because you’re fat, you don’t wear designer clothes, your house isn’t a castle or your parents don’t drive the best car, you don’t have to accept bullying from anyone. You do need to stand up for yourself and if you can’t talk to an adult you trust and allow them to help you find the solutions to stop the bullying.
 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Olivia's Gift - Nancy Carabio Belanger, Author

 
Grandma's Lime Gelatin Surprise
(Feeds a crowd!)
 
1 large or 2 small packages lime gelatine
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple pieces not drained (You need
  1 cup of liquid here.  You may have to add water to make
  1 cup of liquid)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 cup ginger ale
2 cups boiling water
 
Mix 2 cups boiling water with gelatin and dissolve completely.  Add softened cream cheese to ginger ale and mix well.  Add mixture to gelatine.  Add undrained pineapple and juice (1 cup), mix well.  Refrigerate until firm.
 
 
Olivia’s Gift – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish
 
“He set before me a book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away from the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers. And so it is in this world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.” - St. Therese
 
Olivia Thomas has loved and cherished her books of her favorite saint St. Therese of Lisieux for a long time now. She follows St. Therese’s ‘little ways’ in everything she does, or at least she tries. But things are about to change for Olivia when her family are invited to spend a whole month at her Aunt and Uncle’s house on the beach. The house is beyond beauty, in Olivia and her friend Hayley’s eyes as they see it, the ocean and the kids that reside around it. The surrounding houses as well as the people inside those houses all have one thing in common – money, and lots of it. That is except for Olivia and her family. In fact, her family may have to really start ‘pinching pennies’ due to her dad being laid off and not really sure when he’ll be called back to work. But for now, they will enjoy a full month of living in a beautiful home by the ocean.
 
Like St. Therese, Olivia strives to do what’s right. She treats people the way she would like to be treated, shares with everyone and never lies. She’s even started a project of saving her money to sponsor a young girl’s family in Guatemala. But that is all about to change as Olivia and Hayley meet their next door neighbors Brooke and Brandon. Two kids whose family has given them everything they could ever dream of – but love, attention, discipline, rules. They basically do as they please, not caring who nor what is hurt in the process. And meeting these two has put Olivia into a position of shame. Shame that her own family has no money but does have rules that in order to fit in Olivia must lie about owning her Aunt and Uncles home, traveling around the world and being a ‘little rich girl’ that goes to a private school. She must also use the money she has saved for her project to buy things she doesn’t really need just to fit in. But we all know that sooner or later our lies and actions catch up with us. So what does Olivia do to mend her ways? That’s a question you’ll have to find out by reading Olivia’s Gift.
 
Olivia’s Gift is a book that EVERY young girl needs to read. The positions Olivia and Hayley find themselves in are positions I feel sure they can all relate to. I know I could and I’ve been grown for a long time. These situations never change from generation to generation. They are always there and hopefully Olivia’s Gift is a book that will help young girls understand the ‘whys’ as well as the’ what to dos’ when faced with the decisions Olivia had to face. I highly recommend that every parent with a daughter of reading age present her with a copy of Olivia’s Gift. I also recommend that the parents read it too so they can be there to help their daughter through this hurdle in their life.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Misguided Sensitivity - Philip Nork, Author


"Nana's Caramel Cookies"
(A Phil Favorite)

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (1/2 pound)
1 egg
1/2 tsp.vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tarter
1/2 to 1 cup of broken pecans

Mix all ingredients and form into several long rolls. Put in refrigerator until cold.

Slice and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Phil Nork
author of Misguided Sensitivity, Legends of the Lake, and You're Never Alone
And coming soon Life Is a Balance ... It's Not Only About You.
Real life fiction for real life people
(Some readers love stories about werewolves, shape-shifters or science fiction ... things that may never happen to them. I write about situations that CAN happen to you and maybe already have...or at least they're ones you can relate to.)

Misguided Sensitivity – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish

In the 1960’s the typical family consisted of a stay-at-home mother, a working father, and some kids.  As you grew up you were exposed to an equal amount of boy things and girl things.  In my world that never happened.  We three kids were raised by a divorced mother and her side of the family.  For reasons I did not know, my father deserted the family when I turned eight.  He was also on his own journey of self-discovery; it just took him longer than the average man to realize it.  He left us kids with a mother who had no skills and no money.  Mom could have just given up and slipped into a world of denial.  Instead, she decided to learn a trade, get a job, and she tried to give the three of us a decent childhood.  In my eight-year-old eyes, she was a hero.  Especially between the ages of eight and fifteen my mom was my voice of reason.  I idolized her, I respected her, and I hoped to one day marry someone just like her.  Between her and her side of the family we were taken care of, loved, and given the nurturing we needed to hopefully become normal, productive adults.  And yet my life took a bad turn after my dad left us.

After his father left, Phil stepped into a state of depression spending most his time alone and in his room.  The only person he allowed to bring him out of his shell was his great grandmother whom he called Nana.  When she died, Phil stepped even deeper into himself.  He became angry with God but also thought that perhaps God was punishing him for some unknown reason.  His Nana had taught him many lessons during their time together but the one that started his journey into life was when she told him ‘you will meet many people throughout your life and if you want them to remember you, you must always be a little different, you must be sincere, and you must make them feel special, especially the girls.’  This lesson became the beginning of many more that Phil would start adding to his list. 

Through these lessons and the people who taught him, Phil took on three distinct lives.  He became Disco Phil who gave the girls whatever they wanted.  At the Burger Shack he became a leader who listened to and offered advice to the girls who needed it.  And at school he was just another face in the crowd.  But what will happen if either of these lives come together?  Phil is not only a good listener that makes the girls feel special but he is also a good learner with some of the girls being the teachers. 

Back in the 1960/70s one in every ten teenagers were affected by divorce.  Most keep their feelings and pain to themselves and release it through drugs, alcohol and sometimes even sex.  As I read Misguided Sensitivity I was able to see how many of the girls took the route of sex as their way of forgetting and feeling as if someone did care and love them.  I believe most boys turned more to alcohol and drugs.  Phil was one of the sensitive kids who released his anger through compassion, attention and understanding for others.  It takes him from the back rows of the drive-ins to the motel rooms of older women.   Is he really hurting anyone?  Is he really helping them?  Is he being used by those he tries to help?  Or is he just hurting himself?  These are the questions that jump around in your mind as you read Misguided Sensitivity

In my opinion, Misguided Sensitivity is a book that should be read by all young men and even a few women. 

 
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