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Party Princess
Second in the Teach Your Children Well Series

by Vanita Braver, MD
Illustrated by Cary Pillo


      Madison and her best friend Emily are back. This time it is to celebrate Madison's birthday. She wants to look like a princess on her special day and gets into her mother's makeup. When she spills nail polish on her favorite party dress and all over the bathroom counter, she is found out by her mother who has come looking for her. Instead of getting angry and yelling, Madison's mother cleans her up and changes her dress.

      Unlike most children's picture books, Party Princess has more than one issue within its pages. Though the pivotal incident is Madison's using her mother's makeup without her permission, it also deals with how her mother handles this situation and Madison's sadness about not being a beautiful princess for her party. She drags unhappily through her party. It isn't until she shares the beautiful doll that Emily gives her that she really feels happy. This is when her mother tells her about real beauty comes from the inside.

     Though the mother's response may seem idealistic, the author uses it a as a role model for parents as well as Madison's lessons are for children. In this case, the mother is quite human and doesn't want to deal with the mess.

      Party Princess is the second in a nine-book series about moral development called Teach Your Children Well. Author Vanita Braver is a child psychologist and the mother of three daughters, including a set of twins. She certainly knows how children behave and this series provides moral lessons not only for the children who read the book or are read to, but she offers parents ways in which to handle ordinary problems of growing up.

     I really related to Madison in this book because I did the same thing she did, only I spilled the nail polish on my mother's best dress and then tried to get it off with polish remover! My mother, too, was understanding. I did, however, appreciate Madison's mother's response to the mess. "I don't want to think about it," she says. And, that was the best answer she could give. It was Madison's birthday and she wasn't even allowing Madison's misbehaving to spoil her daughter's special day.

      I look forward to seeing what other scrapes Madison gets into.

The Book

Child & Family Press
April 2005
hardcover
1-58760-038-2
Children, picture book - Age Group: 4-8
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Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

Janie Franz
Reviewed 2005
NOTE: Reviewer Janie Franz is the author of Freelance Writing: It's a Business, Stupid!, Relaxation Techniques for Children, Relaxation Techniques for Adults, co-author of The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book Coming soon: The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book, The Ultimate Wedding Workbook, Get Rich on Love, and Sacred Breath (a sound recording of relaxation meditations).
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