The Best Single Mom in the World: How I Was Adopted – A parent and child share in the telling of the mother’s work with an agency to find “a child to adopt, to love, and take care of forever”; her trip across the sea to meet the birth mother, who “wanted the best for you, but she couldn’t take care of you”; and bringing her daughter home.

Although there is no father, there is a grandfather to bond with and an African-American best friend. Life is good and everyone is happy, especially the little girl, who clearly adores her mother.

The story is somewhat didactic and the smiling characters of different ethnicities and ages are too obvious and ever present. Still, it is well told and has charm. The illustrations are especially engaging with brightly colored, patchwork scenes framed in various muted tones. Every inch of space is alive with cheerful colors depicting birds, flowers, cozy rooms, and smiling faces. The book is best for sharing one-on-one or for use with small groups in a themed lesson.

Marlene Gawron, Orange County Library, Orlando, FL

Review

“…it is well told and has charm. The illustrations are especially engaging with brightly colored, patchwork scenes….” –

My Single Mom Life: Stories and Practical Lessons for Your Journey – The day Angela Thomas sold the only thing she had, the diamond from her engagement ring, to take care of her kids was the day she began to believe they were going to make it.

In that decision, the faith she had always talked about became the faith she was going to learn how to live. In the years since, God has given Angela a passionate desire . . . to live an amazing life, even while raising four kids as a single mom.

In this book she shares her hard-earned wisdom on:

• loneliness,
• dating,
• finances, and
• parenting, encouraging every solo mom.

“As a gift to our children,” she says, “we can become healthy moms who are strong and amazing women in spite of our circumstances.”

All About Child Care and Early Education is a comprehensive resource for child care practitioners—or those looking to become child care practitioners—including teachers, care givers, family child care providers, administrators, and directors.

It provides practical suggestions for setting up classrooms, for developing curricula for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, for meeting children’s social-emotional needs, and for working effectively with parents and staff.

This book is called Life Lessons for Busy Moms: Essential Ingredients to Organize and Balance Your World (Chicken Soup for the Soul).

Organize Your World, Your Kids, Your Time, and . . . Make Room for Mommy

If you don’t have enough hands, enough time in the day, or enough energy to balance everything—much less fit in a bit of “you time,” then Chicken Soup for the Soul: Life Lessons for Busy Moms has the realistic, doable, and time-efficient tips that can transform your life.

Moms who have been there will share how their quests were not focused on perfection, but on organization and ways to create the balance we all yearn for. Find out their secrets and learn how to:

• Nurture yourself—which in turn nurtures the family
• Keep an organized home and get the kids involved in chores, while bonding
• Feed your soul and find quality time to spend with yourself, friends, and partners

In this timely and much-needed book, the authors and busy moms band together and offer thirty-two life lessons that have worked for them. This book also provides a source of encouragement to promote balance and a greater quality of life for you and your family.

About the Author

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling coauthors, are professional speakers who have dedicated their lives to enhancing the personal and professional development of others.

Time efficiency coach and America’s most trusted professional organizer, Dorothy Breininger, CEO of the Center for Organization, devotes her life to teaching people how to create the possibility of living a life you love–through organizing your pace (time), face (energy and enthusiasm for life), space (your environment) and grace (gratitude and spirit). She is the coauthor of Time Efficiency Management and The Senior Organizer. Dorothy has appeared as an expert on the Today Show, the Dr. Phil Show, and has been featured in the LA Times, Forbes, Woman’s Day and Entrepreneur Magazines.

Debby Bitticks, CEO of Delphi Health Products, Inc. is the coauthor of The Senior Organizer and Time Efficiency Makeover. Debby was the founder and CEO of a national multi-unit intergenerational company that cared for children and elders. She also provided the busy parents with a ‘Family Resource Center’ to assist them with parenting issues, family issues, and balancing life’s competing priorities. During this time, Debby was raising her own four daughters, implementing her organizing concepts and strategies. Debby has appeared on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, Dr. Phil, CNN Financial News, and other cable shows. She is a member of NAPO – the National Association of Professional Organizers.

Lynn Benson is the coauthor of The Senior Organizer. Lynn was a regional director of a national intergenerational company and oversaw the operations that cared for children and elders. Lynn worked intimately with busy parents, providing them with support to get through their daily hectic and stressful lives. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work with a diverse and significant background working with children, families, and seniors. She lives and breathes the life style of a busy mom–she is the mother of two young children.

More about this The Working Mother’s Guide to Life

This all-encompassing manual is separated into three sections: “You’re on Your Way,” “The Three Pillars of Successful Working Motherhood,” and “Making it Work for You.” The majority of the book focuses on the third section, in which all working mothers find help in achieving balance in their lives by following Mason’s solutions. Although Mason tries to fit moms into pre-defined labels (for instance, a mother’s management style can be as a “Strategic Planner” or a “Camp Counselor,” or her approach to work and family can make her a “Blender” or a “Separator”), these categorizations help mothers identify their own patterns, so they might find ways to resolve potential conflicts. The back matter, substantial but not daunting, is strengthened by short bibliographies at the end of sections, where Mason lists book titles and relevant Web sites. Mason herself is a working mother, running an acclaimed child-care services company (which gets a few too many plugs throughout), so she knows of what she speaks. Mary Frances Wilkens

A “how to” guide providing moms with everything they need to know to start and improve an effective moms ministry.

From the Back Cover of this Creating Moms Group book

How’s Your Motherhood Network?

People in all professions know the importance of networking. How about you? Are you enjoying the support and connection you need in the most demanding career of all—motherhood? You can. Whether you’re improving the group you’re already in or starting one from scratch, developing a mothers’ group is practical, doable, and indescribably rewarding.

Here are the guidance and resources you need you need for a “can-do” attitude. Drawing from years of experience, Jill Savage offers a resource manual packed with vision and a wealth of ideas. You’’ll find sage, road-tested upbeat advice on :

• •Different kinds of groups •
• Mentoring and accountability relationships
• •Attracting members •
• Training leaders and volunteers •
• Handling conflicts •
• Policy and procedure •
• Arranging for childcare •
• Gaining church support •
• Bible study and prayer . . . and much more!

Motherhood is an incredibly important and rewarding profession. You don’t have to do it alone. The supportive and trusting relationships you long for are within your reach and some will last a lifetime. Lots of resources, Creating the Moms Group You’’ve Been Looking For will help you and other moms like you find friends, grow in your faith, and keep your sanity in the process of raising your children.

It just sort of happened as the result of a confluence of events — her husband taking an out-of-state job, her own long commute to a high-pressure New York magazine editing job, and the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

‘I woke up one day and said, `You know what? That’s it. I need to live a different life,’?’ she said.

Ms. Stanton, who now lives in Davidsonville, admits she didn’t know quite what she was getting into when she left the workforce. But she’s gained a lot of experience and is determined to pass it on to other women.

Her book, ‘The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide: Field-Tested Strategies for Staying Smart, Sane, and Connected While Caring for Your Kids,’ came out June 1. It packs plenty of advice for moms who may be feeling a bit isolated and under-appreciated in their new roles.

‘It’s so chock-full of tips (and) practical things,’ said Krista Lyons-Gould, publisher of Berkeley-based Seal Press, which put out the guide.

Ms. Stanton, 43, consulted with about 100 stay-at-home mothers and surveyed more than 60 in detail to gain a broad perspective for the book.

The guide includes chapters on everything from finances and friends to sex and strategies for keeping sane.

‘There’s a little humor and a lot of substance,’ said Ginny Meerman of Edgewater, who has four children and has been a stay-at-home mother for 18 years.

‘I’m still amazed that I did it,’ she said. ‘The book was a lot of work, but it was really good to have done it. I hope it gets attention. I think it’s a useful book.’ — Hometown Annapolis, June 19, 2008

No one ever said that staying home with kids was easy. But now, thanks to this new book by Melissa Stanton, you’ll have somewhere to turn whenever you’re feeling a little lonely, under-appreciated, or overwhelmed. Stanton, a magazine editor turned stay-at-home herself, understands all too well both the joys and the challenges that come with staying home with your children full time. For this book, she draws not only on her own experience, but also on the experiences of other moms, who she spoke to and surveyed at length. With information about dealing with everything from money and scheduling to friendships and marriage, Stanton has the advice you need for every situation and the sympathy and understanding you’ve been hoping for. No one understands a stay-at-home mom like another stay-at-home mom, which gives Stanton the insights to make this Survival Guide a valuable resource for moms everywhere. — Mom Central, June 26, 2008

The Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide description