Bravo to Laura Leuck and Mark Buehner! The story and the illustrations are both hiliariously entertaining! Plus I think it helps kids relate to the fact that there are lots of different and yes even unusual types of people and families but hopefully they all love each other the way THE MONSTER MAMA loves her little monster! Also it reminds me as a parent that spending QUALITY TIME with my child is what lets her know I love her! It is truly all the countless "little things" you do for your child that add up. So go bake some cookies (but hold the bugs please!)

I highly recommend this book for adults as well as children! You'll both enjoy MY MONSTER MAMA LOVES ME SO, I guarantee it. Childrens' books have come a long way since I was a child! Adults can get a laugh and moral out of them too! After all, that is what books are for--to entertain and to teach.

Walker includes a lot of detail, from procedures like reconstruction, chemotherapy right down to the day-to-day patient care and how she felt emotionally. But this is not a gruesome story--instead it is intended to help anyone else along the road to recovery. The best chapter "Where do I go from here" gives eight important points (such as taking charge of your treatment, talking to your family, dropping the Wonder Woman cape for women who do it all) and also useful addresses and a list of books.

This book is interesting reading for any woman, but if you have a loved one facing this challenge or if you are a woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, you should get this book. Nothing I have read comes close to this book for frankness and assistance.

Laura Jensen Walker has something to say about breast cancer. She's a survivor. She has faced this beast, and now is able to articulately help readers smile in the midst of a tough time.

In "Thanks for the Mammogram!" Jensen tells her story. Most of the book details a narrative of her diagnosis, treatment and how she survived. However, in reflecting through the most difficult of moments, she draws us in ala Erma Bombeck into candid silliness. It is as practical as it is funny.

Boldly bringing humor into a discussion of cancer marks this book as a standout among its peers. Having lost my mother to lung cancer and flipping through too many solemn tomes of pop-psychology, I read through Jensen's book refreshed. I wished my mom could've read this book. At a certain point, cancer is cancer, and anyone with any cancer would enjoy "Thanks for the Mammogram!"

Each page is a different view of her situation. For example, she spends a delightful chapter on the end of her chemo, and how she and her husband (a 'Disnoid') celebrated this landmark at Disneyland. We read of her struggle to find a decent book to read (unless Mickey Mouse's various adventures appealed to an adult woman, that is).

The chapters are in very chewable chunks--none too long.

With chapters like, "To Baldly Go Where I've Never Gone Before" (a consideration of Capt. Jean Paul-Luc Picard, Michael Jordan and other sexy baldies, she looks for the upside of a hairless head), you, like me, might find a new way of seeing what so many people go through.

She admits her fears, but pushes also the benefits of having a realistic, yet positive view of dealing with breast cancer. Jensen explains her husband's point of view in the whole matter (even letting him write a chapter, "Her Body, His Pain"). She walks the reader through the process, citing how she related to people who had or didn't have cancer.

I fully recommend "Thanks for the Mammogram!" by Laura Jensen Walker. It is a very worthy gift for those whom you love who have cancer, or know someone who does.

Anthony Trendl

I just re-read ORDINARY RESURRECTIONS and wanted to update my review....the book is just wonderful....and full of such hope!

Like other reviewers, I heard Mr. Kozol's interview on National Public Radio during my commute home and was completely enchanted by his stories of Pineapple and her friends in Mott Haven.

I ordered the book from amamzon.com and devoured it in two sittings.

I cannot remember when a book moved me as much as this one. I'm not sure what gifts God gave Jonathan Kozol, but one of them is true compassion and insight without judgment or pretense.

I was continually amazed, as was Kozol, at these children's tenderness, kindness, their incredible gift of insight and their wide-eyed innocence.

At the back of the book, there is an address for St. Ann's Church. I will be sending them a check...for St. Ann's Scholars...for Pineapple and Elio and Mother Martha and all the children and caretakers who perform miracles day in and day out.

This should be required reading for not only present/future teachers, it should be required reading for the human race.

I hope Kozol and his kids win the Pulitzer/Nobel/and any other available award!

Read this book...you will be richer for it.

We witness Laura's growing up and realization that life is changing all around her. Mary is in college, and is independent enough to want to stay with a friend for the summer instead of coming home. It's obvious that Laura's relationship with her sisters and friends in school are changing - in 'Little Town on the Prairie' her school life for example, and her after school or weekend social activities with her friends are a large part of the book, but now we only hear of a few remote incidents, and we hardly hear anything about the going ons there, for instance we don't really get to know Florence, the new 'big girl'. This is partly due to the increasing role of Almanzo Wilder's part in Laura's life, but I think that is also partly due to the fact Laura isn't attending school full time anymore, but rather teaches school herself for a term or two a year.Except for Ida's small part in Laura's wedding, we don't hear of them any more for the rest of the series.

We also see Laura herself change: part of it is what I just mentioned about the change in what she describes in her social life. Another one would be her very detailed description of her clothes and fashions - even though we do hear about her dresses in previous books, she seems much more occupied with them this time, like any teenage girl... In betwen the lines, we do see that the Ingles family is doing better financially - they are improving their house, and can often afford luxuries such as a sewing machine and an organ for Mary.

I did find a few points I didn't like in this book, compared to the previous books in the series:

1) Instead of giving an account of a relatively short period (a year or 2, like in the previous books), we are now covering 3 years, and we usually get an 'in depth coverage' of a relatively short period, or a few remote incidents, then run through a long period which is skipped. Laura only described her first school with as much details as I was used to in her previous books, but the next 2 schools are hardly mentioned... It isn't as bad as her descriptions in 'The First Four Years', but it's still noticeable.

2) We get a lot more of Almanzo, while we get less of the pioneer life of that era... This is an autobiography of Laura's life, not a history book, I admit, but I think that the historical and cultural element of these books has been a major attraction for readers, especially the older ones.

The book starts off rough for Laura. In order to make money for Mary's schooling, Laura is going away from home for the first time to teach school. She is staying with a family that has a very bitter wife who is not exactly friendly!

When Laura finally returns home she is happy to go back to school, but she is eager to earn more money. So, she helps the town dressmaker on Saturdays.

Mary is coming home for summer and Laura is so excited! The only problem is that she is staying with the dressmaker and her daughter out on their claim. Will Laura be able to go home and see Mary!?

As the book progresses Almonzo Wilder becomes even more a part of Laura's life. It is so sweet to read these two getting closer and more interested. Laura even helps Almonzo break some horses!

This book is interesting and sweet and the ending is wonderful! Pick it up today!