This book was great! My ASB advisor told me to read it and to tell her how it was! I loved it so much I finished it in two days. I think this book should be a required reading book for girls from the ages of 12-16. It tells the honesty about eating disorders how it is. I love how Judi tells it how it is. Her concerns are exactly like a normal teenage girls concerns (But then again, who is normal?) Boys, Clothes, and self-image is what our socity has pounded into girls minds these days and this book helps girls balance it out through another girl's life.

I bought this book when it first came out, when I was in the sixth grade, and had just entered middle school. It was around this time that I was beginning to learn about the dangers of eating disorders, drugs, and alcohol in Health class. This book make a nice learning supplement.

Judi wants desperately to be thin, because she thinks that she's fat. However, reading her diary, you see that she is just an average girl: her height and weight are average, and she should have nothing to fear. Leslea Newman captures the effects of peer pressure and the want to be thin wonderfully. Judi soon drowns in a world where the perfect weight is 100 pounds, and she will stop at nothing to acheive that goal.

Now, six years later, I still read this book with fervor; the only difference is that it takes only one or two nights to get through it, as opposed to the week and the half I spent reading it before. I look in the mirror and don't always like what I see, but keeping this book in mind, I will never try to get thin by becoming bulimic or anorexic.

Judi Lebowitz always dreamed of being thin. Since she was on the heavy side, she would do almost anything to look like the models on the covers of magazines. Judi tried every diet int he book, but none of them worked. One day in the bathroom at school she heard someone throwing up. It was her classmate and idol Nancy Pratt. Nancy let Judi in on her "dieting" secret. Judi thought that if the most popular girl in the school could throw up and lose weight, why couldn't she. As of that day Judi started to binge and purge. No one knew about it except for Nancy. In a weird way, this started their friendship. Judi hid this from her mom and from her best friend Monica. In school, Judi kept a diary for and English class assignment. In her diary she wrote down all of her feelings and thoughts on subject such as, school, boys, friends, and her body image. One day when Nancy was throwing up after lunch and Judi was guarding the doorway, Judi thought that Nancy was taking longer than usual. When Judi finally got the door open, she found Nancy on the floor passed out. After that incident, Judi swore that she would never throw up again, but she wa unable to keep that promise. The next few days, Nancy was in the hospitals recovering. Read the book to see what happends to Judi and Nancy. I think that Judi was the most interesting character because she took the readers for a journey through her mind. While you read, you feel like you know Judi like a best friend. I would definitely recommends this book. I think that people in their teens could relate to this book. I think that everyone thinkgs that they need to fix their body image, or they find some sort of flaw. I would give this book two outstanding thumbs up!

As one of the poets featured in Will Work for Peace, one might expect me to be a bit biased, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Most poets work in a virtual vacuum, only tenuously connected to each other by the occasional workshop or shared membership in a 'poetry society'. When Brett Axel first approached me for a submission to an anthology he was considering, the names Marge Piercy, Lyn Lifshin, Moshe Bennaroch and so many others were abstractions to me as a fledgling poet. I knew these tremendous writers were 'out there' somewhere, beating down doors with their words and keeping a struggling artform alive. But to think that someday I would ever share a credit with these dynamic modern poets would be a pipe dream at best. It is through the sincere efforts of Brett Axel that many newer voices like mine have an extraordinary opportunity to appear with Pulitzer Prize winners and other poetic heavyweights. By way of an honest review, however, I will say this- not everything in this book will be to your particular liking. I myself came across some works that did not move me in the way the author may have intended. Some imagery can be raw and visceral, using shock value in place of craft at times. But to ignore those voices would be an even more shocking turn of events, so praise be to the editor for not sacrificing his vision to a senseless conformity. As Pete Seeger so aptly put it in his quote, trying to read all these poems at one time would be like trying 'to swallow Manhattan whole'. I say to you- buy this book, read this book, but understand that it's what you do after reading this book that will ultimately define who you could be. Poetry is alive and well, and lives in the blunt pages of Will Work for Peace.

Just amazing start to finish! I like the disregard for fame used in putting the book together. That great poems got in even if they were writtenby nobodys. Look at Roger Bonair-Agard's poem on page 74. Shortly after Will Work For Peace came out he won Slam Nationals, becoming Slam Champion of 1999, which will be getting him lots of offers. But Zeropanik Press didn't need to be told he was good by an award. They could tell by his writing! Good for them and good for all of us because Will Work For Peace is a literary milestone. It's a new standard for all future anthology editors to try to live up to. Thumbs up to Brett Axel and Thumbs up to Zeropanik Press for their guts and integrty.

Brett Axel visited my Church and I bought a copy of Will Work For Peace from him, not for poetry, but because I care about working for peace. I started reading through it thinking It'd just go on my shelf and that'd be the end of it, but the book grabbed me and kept me rivited. If I had known that poetry was this alive I'd have been into poetry. I've been reading some of the poems to my friends who also didn't think poetry was important and they are saying the same thing. Fantastic! There's no way to get through this book without having your old mindsets challenged. It's funny, powerful, sad, and uplifting. A book that deserves to be read by everyone. A book that really can make the world a better place!

What caught my eye about this book was it's title. The relationships in this book are what alot of people wish they had in their lives. Shayna has many best friends, her Bubbe, her friend, Pearl, and her lover, Luz. The relationship she has with her mother is something I think alot of people can relate to, and understand. the conflicts that arise, and the love that is shown when they do, shows alot humaness. We should all be this lucky in our own lives as to have such meaningful and wonderful friendships, whether it is with our mother, grandmother, friend, or lover. This book is a must read.

With dialogue that was, at times, less than smooth, and carrying perhaps a bit too much detail, still, Leslea Newman's In Every Laugh A Tear is a wonderful book. It is a believable and touching story of one woman's experience with having a loved one placed in a nursing home. Shayna Steinblatt and her beloved Bubbe, Tzeidl are so real I found I was immediately connected to their lives. The loving granddaughter, Shayna Steinblatt isn't part of the decision to place her grandmother in a home, and as this story unfolds, the reader will share her concern and anger over the situation. I also sympathized with Bubbe and her loss of freedom. Told from the daughter's perspective, the woman who'd made the "nursing home decision" (Shayna's mother) is painted in villainous colors. The reader will admit however that such a decision never sets well, even when it is "for the best." Leslea Newman did an excellent job of addressing an issue not many books address, and she did it with heart, humor, and realism. I would have liked more details on the grandmother's life as a girl growing up in the old country, but loved the snippets that WERE included. I also appreciated the veracity of "community" as it was depicted in the nursing home setting. It's amazing how quickly friendships and a sort of family develop in this setting. It is clear in this book, that this community is vital for the resident's survival. The only character that wasn't fully drawn was Shayna's own mother. This may very well reflect the fact that Shayna herself does not have a full picture of her mother. It's unfortunately true that we don't always see clearly those we are closest to... Through conversations with her grandmother, Shayna catches a glimpse of what the relationship between a mother and daughter could be. The lesbian angle of this book was a joy and added additional truth to the story for me. True romance, a true sense of family, humor, sorrow, this one has it all.

This is a beautiful book about a relationship between a grandmother, Tzedyll, and granddaughter, Shayna. It is also a romance, a story of friendship, and a story of conflicts between generations. Shayna is a Jewish lesbian, and this book is on opportunity to learn from her perspective. The book starts out a little slowly, but soon becomes very engaging. Newman is very skilled at characterization. You will very likely become emotionally involved with these characters.

If you enjoy lesbian erotica, this is a book you should add to your reading list. Most of the stories are real enough I could imagine myself in them--thats the best part!

I had been with other women on several occasions in college just for experimentation. Then I got married and that was the end of it. I don't have the space to describe the feelings this book awakened in me.

This is about a small boy dealing with the divorce of his two Moms and having a special Saturday with his other Mom Patty.

SATURDAY IS PATTYDAY is Leslea Newman's fourth book about a child with two moms. Here, Newman focuses on the divorce of Frankie's two moms. The author and illustrator depict the events that follow the divorce, i.e. one parent moving and Frankie visiting her, the particular emotions that are felt when a child is separated from a loved one and how this young child is comforted and loved by both parents. Although the sadness is felt, there is also a strong sense that Frankie, and his moms, will be OK. Similar to HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES and GLORIA GOES TO GAY PRIDE, the story is about a white family and the illustrations of other people help to support diversity, i.e. girls playing basketball and children/adults of color in the park. This book would be appropriate for even a three year old who has had a similar experience as Frankie and would be most helpful in a classroom curriculum on family.

The book was good and I don't regret buying it but I tried to sit down and read it all the way through and soon was bored and frustrated. There are some great essays in there about the butch/femme dynamic and what it means to be a femme in the lesbian community but theres a great deal of repetition and I started feeling like I was reading the same essay over and over.. and over again. It's a nice book, but I won't be re-reading it anytime soon. If I could recommend a book it would be 'Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear' instead.

I liked this book. OTOH, I've *loved* all the Leslea Newman books I've read. This work was not written by LN, but edited by her. It has some excellent moments, but if you want a great treatise about what it means to be femme, choose 'Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear'.

This book is a poignant analysis of the often dichotomized butch-femme roles within the lesbian community. Via a collection of independent writings, the work highlights an often stigmatized and misunderstood group--the femme lesbian. Through touching, and often sensual stories of love and the search for an identity as "a femme," this book allows a rarely viewed glimpse into the hearts, minds, and bodies of these women. Despite the quality of this book, I would have liked to see more explicit discussion of the lives of femme women of color. Sadly, their absence risks recapitulating the same "othering" that many women in this book discuss. The familiar arguments of feminist/womanist women of color--that we are largely absent from important discourse on women-- can be asserted with this text as well. Nevertheless, it is a powerful book and hopefully future editions will more directly address such issues.

This book is a funny and introspective look into the life of a butch/femme couple. Leslea (high femme extraordinaire) writes about the adventures she and Flash, her beloved butch companion, have wandering around Lesbianville, USA. The book is told through Leslea's funny, Jewish femme point of view. The essays deal with subjects such as a day at the mall (fun for femmes, trauma for butches), having a former nun as your girlfriend, dealing with traumatic parental visits and having a bat attempt to attack you when your butch isn't around. I recommend this book highly for queer and queer friendly people everywhere.

Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down again. It made me laugh out loud. The stories are cut out of real life, or at least I can identify myself with the different anecdotes.

Lelea Newman's book is the first of it's kind in the it's ability to deal with a sexuality that is known for taking itself far too seriously. Ms. Newman's comments on her own life are touching and open, guaranteed to put a smile on your face and keep it there no matter what your sexual orientation.

I was disappointed with this book as I did not realize it was about lesbian sexuality as well as bulimia. However what really rubbed me wrong was the author's preface stating that all bulimics are not "fat" -- the main character, Liza, struggles to keep her weight below 140. Strike One. Then just as you start to get into Liza's eating disorder the book flips and the focus switches to Liza deciding that she is a lesbian. Suddenly she deals with that just as we are getting into the turmoils and mood swings of a bulimic. Strike 2. Basically the end message I took away from this book is that if you admit your a lesbian within a week and a half your eating disorder will be "cured", you will discover a caring lover and you will love yourself. Strike 3.

This book may be good for discussion groups but as a read for personal information regarding the struggles that a bulimic actually goes through I would not reccommend "Good Enough To Eat".

As a teacher in highschool I think it is a very important book, as it is dealing with 2 subjects: bulimia ans sexuality. I am sorry it is not translated to Hebrew so I could recomend it to people here in Israel.

This book offers an upbeat story of one family's tradition of having Gramma prepare the matzo ball soup for Passover seder. Gramma shows up at the door with her special soup pot, and her favorite grand-daughter pitches in to help. Unfortunately, the story is cluttered with a lot of family members, dropping by to snatch a matzo ball out of the pot. And, the book fails to offer any religious meaning to the holiday -- the "Rugrats Passover" does a much better job at this. Comparing a lumpy matzo ball to the full moon at Passover seder is a bit of a stretch, and added little to the story. In short, my 3 yr old son found this book un-interesting. It lacks the warmth and enthusiasm of a similar book about a little girl spending the night at her grandfather's house: "Everything from A to Z....," which my son memorized from cover-to-cover within a week after the book arrived.

This is one of my three-year-old son's favorite books. He loves the interaction between the daughter and grandmother. The story isn't heavy on the relgious aspects of Pesach, but it does touch on them. Most of all, it is an endearing story of family tradition.

First off all, this book deserves some credit for being one of-if not the very first- books for kids dealing with gay parents. This book has a sweet story and is appropriate for small children- not too gritty or 'adult' or anything.

However the attempt at showing 'alternative' families in a positive light backfires- the lesbian couple is a caricature of steryotypical butch/femme couple one might see on a... sitcom. The 'two mommies' reinforced a lable rather then break it and show them in a positive light. I'm sure the author was trying to be 'authentic' but all that was accomplished was the women looking even MORE different and 'weird' and heather looking even more alien then similar to a male/feamle household. I thought that was really unfortunate.

This is the ground-breaking book about a little girl who has two mommies, a lesbian couple. Ten years ago the authors had a terrible time trying to get their book published and finally put up the money themselves. I suspect perhaps this is why the illustrations are in black and white, because color is more expensive. Although very sweet and adorable, it would be nice if the illustrations were in color. But there are plenty of books that are beloved classics and have one color illustrations such as "Millions of Cats or "Make Way for Ducklings." That is the only "fault" I find with this book. The book gives children of both gay and straight parents the security of knowing that their families are all just fine the way they are. Today only 25 % of families are traditional, with a dad and mom. As more diverse families have come on the scene more books have been written about this issue so that all children can feel they have a place at the table. After all, a family is a group of people who love and support one another--two moms, two dads, a mom and dad, grandparents, an aunt or an uncle, guardians, foster families, single parents, etc. Kids need to know this, so that they can grow up feeling proud of their families and accepted by their friends. This is in no way a "subversive" book, but one that is eminently useful for children of both straight and gay parents. If children know the truth, they have less chance of being bullies toward those children of families that "appear different." Our children live in a diverse world. They need the facts so they have to tools to flourish in it. Knowing that there are such things as gay parents will not make children gay, because sexual orientation is fixed at birth. Gay parents have exactly the same percentage of gay/straight children as straight parents do, about 10 %. So rid yourself of homophobic fear and do not inject your kids with it. Read this book to your child, and help them understand the simple truths of life: that gay dads and lesbian moms have kids, that they are trustworthy, respectable, devout and loving parents,and that their kids are loved just as much as other children. I look forward to the day when all families and kids are accepted NOT on the basis of their sexual identity but for the content of their character, their courage and unconditional love. I am a straight mom.

HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES, by Leslea Newman, is a story of a lesbian couple who decides to have a child through alternative insemination. At three years old, Heather joins a play group where it is suggested for the first time that she has no daddy. While the children are drawing pictures and discussing their diverse families (children with two daddies, one mommy and no daddy, a mommy and step-father, adopted family and nuclear family) the teacher acknowledges that "each family is special." HEATHER HASTWO MOMMIES has been the focus of a great deal of controversy in school districts and with parents and other adults. This is a lengthy story which can be seen as an "explanatory book" because of the focus on spelling out how Heather's family began. Part of the story is dedicated to: how Heather's mommies were friends for a long time, fell in love and decided to live together, how they created a family, visited a fertility doctor and extended their family with a child. There is even a page or two on the types of careers the women have. Mama Jane, the biological mother, is a carpenter and Mama Kate is a doctor. The discussion of alternative insemination includesvisiting the "special" doctor, putting some sperm in Mama Jane's vagina, and the sperm and egg meeting in the womb. This detail is needed to explain how Heather was created without a father. This section makes for interesting conversation among eight year olds, for example, who are beginning to question and understand the world of sexuality and family configurations, or even six- or seven-year-olds who are wondering how a child cannot have a father because "you need a mother and father to make a baby." These issues and the book's length may cause the book to be considered inappropriate for casual reading with children in a school setting under the age of six. However, it may be an interesting selection to help support discussions with individual children on different types of families or, more specifically, for lesbian parents needing to carefully explain to their children how they were created. This was the first of a wave of literature which explicitly depicted and discussed a lesbian-headed family in the U.S. (published in 1989). For many families, this book was extremely helpful because it addressed some of the concerns of young children of lesbian parents which were not addressed in other children's literature. One somewhat confusing aspect of the book is that while the black and white illustrations were appropriate for young children, the text seemed more appropriate for older children. Because of its illustrations, and by altering the text, this book can be used with young children because there are interesting depictions of the women hugging each other, of Kate's hands on Jane's womb when she is nine months pregnant, and of the women caring for Heather in a number of instances. The details in each illustration, and the way the black and white sketches do not prohibit the audience from detecting various ethnic and racial differences among the children makes them find contributions to works for children. At the same time, some of the details of the illustrations are incongruous with the story. The children's drawings of their families, for instance, are extremely detailed for 3-year-old children, many of whom are not yet doing representational drawing. This small criticism, however, should not keep parents or teachers from reading the book to young children.